Orhan Pamuk: Istanbul's Huzun

The 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature Winner's Vision of Turkey

Oct 24, 2007

Orhan Pamuk, author of "My Name is Red", "Snow", "The White Castle", and "The Black Book", is Turkey's most prominent writer and a politically controversial figure.

In a recent lecture at Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, Nobel Prize-winner Orhan Pamuk remarked that Istanbul, the city that is central to many of his books, does not always resemble the city he has portrayed in his novels and autobiography. The Istanbul of today, he said, is “colorful,” “happier,” and packed with tourists. Pamuk prefers to write about the Istanbul of his youth in the 1970’s or of Ottoman times: a city that he imagines in black and white, merging Eastern traditions with Western hopes, filled with mystery and melancholy (huzun).

Intellectual Identity: Between East and West

Intellectually, Pamuk is a product of his national origin. Much of his writing and thought emerges from the traditional role of Istanbul as a bridge between East and West, a city of dual identity.

In his Nobel Lecture, Pamuk described his own intellectual foundation in terms of his father’s library: “at one end, there were Istanbul's books – our literature, our local world, in all its beloved detail – and at the other end were the books from this other, Western, world, to which our own bore no resemblance, to which our lack of resemblance gave us both pain and hope. To write, to read, was like leaving one world to find consolation in the other world's otherness” (My Father’s Suitcase, 2006).

Istanbul Books

Turkey’s cultural duality is expressed when Pamuk uses his Western-style literary background to address Turkey’s Ottoman legacy. The White Castle and My Name is Red examine the culture and intellectual atmosphere of Istanbul in the 16th and 17th century Ottoman Empire. Pamuk expresses Istanbul’s East-West contradiction in The White Castle by creating two protagonists, one Italian and one Turkish, who represent their cultures’ often opposing intellectual traditions. Yet, these two men are in some ways so similar that they can swap identities.

Even in books set in 20th century Istanbul, such as Istanbul and The Black Book, Pamuk draws heavily on the city’s Ottoman heritage. For example, the quotes that precede each chapter of The Black Book are drawn equally from Western European and Turkish sources. Pamuk portrays Celal, a renowned journalist and the central character whom the reader never meets, as a mysterious figure obsessed with uncovering the truths of his city. This 20th century journalist often writes about Ottoman legends in order to uncover modern Istanbul’s identity, or deliberately confuses chronology to merge modern and ancient stories. Thus, Pamuk tells his readers that the modern Istanbul is inextricably linked to its Eastern heritage.

Huzun

Istanbul’s yearning to be Western is often portrayed in Pamuk’s books, and this yearning is part of the city’s huzun (roughly translated as melancholy). As we can see from the quote about Pamuk’s father’s library, the Turks often view the Western world as the cultural center. Meanwhile, Istanbul’s citizens live with the ruins of their once great Ottoman civilization all around them. Pamuk says, “If I am to convey the intensity of the huzun that Istanbul caused me to feel as a child, I must describe the history of the city following the destruction of the Ottoman Empire and… the way this history is reflected in the city’s ‘beautiful’ landscapes and its people” (Istanbul, Ch. 10). This melancholy is not necessarily a bad thing; according to Pamuk, Istanbullus take pride in their huzun and romanticize it as a noble emotion; it binds them together.

The Istanbul described in his books, Pamuk says, is not the Istanbul that a traveler to the city will see today. It is not even the city that many younger Turks and Istanbul writers grew up in. Perhaps it is the Istanbul of another era. Perhaps it is the Istanbul that lurks beneath the surface of the modern city. But most definitely, it is the Istanbul of Orhan Pamuk, the Istanbul of Ottoman mysteries and melancholy, and the Istanbul that people will continue to read about worldwide.

Pamuk, Orhan. Istanbul. New York: Alfred A .Knopf, 2004. ISBN 1-4000-4095-7. US $26.95, Canada $35.95.

Pamuk, Orhan. The Black Book. New York: Vintage Books, 2006. ISBN 1-4000-7865-2. US $14.95, Canada $21.00.

Pamuk, Orhan. My Name is Red. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2002. ISBN 0-375-70685-2. US $14.95, Canada $22.95.

Pamuk, Orhan. The White Castle. New York: Vintage Books, 1998. ISBN 0-375-70161-3. US $12.95, Canada $16.95.

The copyright of the article Orhan Pamuk: Istanbul's Huzun in Middle Eastern Literature is owned by Elizabeth Nelson. Permission to republish Orhan Pamuk: Istanbul's Huzun in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.