Download pdf - Introduction (Recovered)

7/26/2019 Introduction (Recovered)

1/61

Wasif 1

Chapter 1

Introduction to Pamuks Subaltern

Orhan Pamuks fiction, besides attempting to answer the questions regarding the

unstable Turkish identity, is also remarkable for its emphasis on the subaltern of Turkish

history, i.e, those things that are often ignored in the meta-narratie of Turkish history.

The aim of this study is to e!plore how Pamuk, in his fiction, gies oice to that

subalternthrough a rigorous reisionism of Ottoman history and Turkish secular

nationalism.

Pamuks fiction, while concerned mainly with the Turkish landscape can be read

and identified with on a uniersal leel. Pamuks "stanbul, much like #ames #oyces

$ublin, is not a city rooted in a particular geographical locality, but a city that, influencedas it is by both %astern and &estern ciili'ations, has timeless wisdom and beauty and is

uniersal in its appeal. This antage point allows Pamuk to comment upon issues sacred

not only to a Turkish audience but to humanity worldwide. The study also intends to

e!plore Pamuks work in a postcolonial perspectie, because een though he is not

considered a postcolonial writer per se, his fiction resonates strongly with readers of

postcolonial fiction as it e!plores themes such as clash between two ciili'ations and the

plight of the mutedsubaltern. Pamuk is remarkable for the fact that he is a

postmodernist writer in a generation of Turkish writers, most of whom couldnt get

beyond a smalltime flirtation with modernism. (is postmodernist te!ts not only make use

of standard postmodernist tropes such as but also help bring to the surface the subaltern


2/61

Wasif 2

past of Turkey and the subaltern oices that hae been foreer relegated to the periphery

eer since the Turkish )epublic came into being.

*ost of the earlier research conducted on Pamuk before e!plores the Ottoman

theme in his ma+or works, such as The White CastleandMy Name is Red. s Pamuk

became increasingly more releant in present day post // scenario and as he continued

to write noels such as Snowthat focus on contemporary issues, many critics also

commented upon the political oertones of his work, especially in relation to "slam and

the cleaages that emerge as a result of clash between secularism and "slamism. 0ome

work has also been conducted on the more metaphysical aspects of his fiction, such as the

concept of hznor spiritual loss and western ideas relating to the metaphysics of death

and how Pamuk incorporates them in his fiction, such as The Black Bookpaing way for

countless %ast - &est clash debates.

&hat this study would primarily focus on, is how Pamuk lets the subaltern

narraties speak for themseles in three of his ma+or noels, *y 1ame is )ed, The

2lack 2ook and 0now. lthough the noels are not listed in order of their publication,

this study would analy'e the deelopment of a particular idea oer a certain timeline. *y

1ame is )ed, set in the seenteenth century captures the Ottoman %mpire in all of its

glory, while hinting towards something hidden in the competing narraties of the te!t.

The 2lack 2ook portrays the era between the /34 and /54 military coups, an era

remarkable for its persecution of intellectuals, censorship and a general air of gloom.

0now, set in the early /4s in the city of 6ars depicts contemporary Turkeys struggle

with the tussle between din and delvet i.e, religion and the state. ll three of these works,

set in a different era highlight the tensions in the metanarratie of Turkish )epublic.


3/61

Wasif 3

One ma+or reason this study aims to analy'e Pamuks writings through the lens of

subaltern studies is that his fiction demonstrates flawlessly the anishing point where

e!planation fails and only description is possible, i.e, an uncertainty that is linked to

religion, spirituality and the subaltern oices71oet'ke /839.

Background

Orhan Pamuk, as an author is, as clich:d as it sounds, incredibly ersatile and

dierse. (is work is not limited to one specific genre but a catalog of genres. ;or e!ample

*y 1ame is )ed is at once a murder mystery and a philosophical discourse on Ottoman

history. The 2lack 2ook on the other hand can best be termed a as postmodernist

allegory as well as a metaphysical detectie story, while 0now combines interte!tualities

from different sources to put across its point. (oweer, no matter how many different

genres Pamuk utili'es, he always returns to the Ottoman history as the source of all

inspiration. (is ma+or characters, who often undertake soul searching +ourneys regarding

their self-imposed identities, often return to the past for solace as well as some much

needed confrontation. &hile most of such soul searching +ourneys are personal in nature,

they are almost always inariably tied to the collectie Turkish, specifically Ottoman

history. Pamuk here, makes use of competing narraties to present different facets of the

same story, so that een in places where there seems to be an omniscient narrator, as is the

case in The 2lack 2ook, Pamuks superb, masterful storytelling compels the readers to

identify for themseles, the different and often diergent iews in the plot. Pamuks

noels then, een when they appear to rely on the comfort of linear, are infact +ust as

multifaceted and hae as many parallel narratie discourses as when there are multiple

narrators inoled in storytelling.


4/61

Wasif 4

ll of this brings us to how Pamuks style and the content of his fiction can be

studied in a 0ubaltern 0tudies


5/61

Wasif 5

themes in Pamuks works is the untranslatability of discourse. 0ometimes two cultures,

while sharing many things in common are unable to compromise on certain alues that

are untranslatable such as the issues of identity as shown in The &hite =astle and the

headscarf issue as portrayed in 0now. These issues are the subaltern of Pamuks

fiction.

The truth alue of certain things is often questioned in Pamuk. That is wheneer

there is a slight deiation from the sacred there is always a hue and cry. That is why this

+ourney from the center to the periphery is also part of this discourse.

ntonio


6/61

Wasif 6

and the way Pamuk attempts to rewrite the official narratie of Turkish history and points

out the way Ottoman history has been relegated to the periphery in modern Turkish

society. (oweer, ery few studies hae actually attempted to work out the way Pamuk

e!poses the bias of elitist historiography and attempts to establish the subaltern in his

works as the maker of his own destiny. Pamuk also studies the relationship between te!ts

and power and this hermeneutic strategy on his part can be seen as a quest to determine

the role of the subaltern in the e!isting metanarraties.

0ubaltern 0tudies, primarily a pro+ect associated with "ndian history, has now

come to be associated with many different disciplines, including literature. &hen we set

out to trace the eolution of 0ubaltern studies, one thing that immediately becomes

obious is that as an approach 0ubaltern 0tudies has been found to be e!tremely useful in

analy'ing things not only from a historical perspectie, but a literary perspectie as well.

=hakrabarty attempts to e!plain how Subaltern Studies, that started off as a

?specific and focused interention@ in the discipline of "ndian history, spilled oer into the

genre ofPostcolonialism7=hakrabarty /49. Postcolonial theorists particularly made use of

the subaltern studies approach to critici'e nationalism, orientalism and %urocentricism.

0ubaltern studies, as )ana+it


7/61

Wasif 7

e!amined the relationship between ?te!ts and power@ 7889. This inoled, as =hakrabarty

e!plains, the need for a historian of subaltern social groups to look out for the biases of

the elite as well as aoid representing the subaltern groups through elite modes of

representation as these would not so much proide a oice to the subaltern classes, as

sub+ugate them 78B9.

"n Postcoloniality and the rtifice of (istoryC &ho 0peaks for D"ndianD PastsE

=hakrabarty stresses the importance of 0ubaltern 0tudies while referring to arious

histories of "ndia. =hakrabarty establishes a comple! argument, the cru! of which is that

+ust as the phenomenon of Orientalism refuses to die inspite of the critical awareness

critics hae towards it, %urocentrism remains a fundamental part of the discipline of

history, as it is taught as uniersities 789. This has led according to =hakrabarty, to a

?mimetic@ mode of self-representation for the "ndians and "ndian history. "ndian history,

een when it comes across as strictly *ar!ist or 1ationalist, remains a mimicry of a

hyper-real %urope and %uropean history 7/59. The only way out would be a pro+ect to

?proinciali'e@ %urope, something which again is fraught with difficulties. =hakrabarty

suggests that pro+ect of proinciali'ing %urope would entail embracing a new approach

towards discussion of history. ccording to him, the new historiography ?will attempt the

impossibleC to look toward its own death by tracing that which resists and escapes the best

human effort at translation across cultural and other semiotic systems, so that the world

may once again be imagined as radically heterogeneous 78B9.

"n ?(istory as =ritique and =ritique7s9 of (istory@, =hakrabarty begins by quoting

%dward 0aids iews on 0ubaltern 0tudies. %dward 0aid describes the ?historiographical

effort@ of 0ubaltern studies as ?history as critique@ and elaborates that history here is

treated as a critique of imperialism, but more importantly, it is critique of imperialist


8/61

Wasif 8

knowledge. 0aid particularly lauds those anti-colonial writers who work with techniques

and discourses once resered e!clusiely for %uropean scholars 78/389. Taking 0aids

argument a step further, =hakrabarty asserts that 0ubaltern 0tudies can be instrumental in

transforming the discipline of history at its ery ?center@. ccording to =hakrabarty, een

1ationalist histories in "ndia, share a metanarratie with imperialist histories. "t is only

through the means of 0ubaltern 0tudies that the situation can be rectified.

0ubaltern 0tudies area of influence is not limited to 0outh-east sia only. "n her

article, ?The Promise and $ilemma of 0ubaltern 0tudies@, ;lorencia %. *allon e!plores

the role of the 0ubaltern 0tudies pro+ect in Fatin merican Fiterature. 0he e!plains how

some Fatin merican intellectuals, decided to appropriate techniques used by the

0ubaltern studies scholars for mapping historiographies, in a bid to moe beyond

%urocentric traditions of analy'ing conflicts and debates within political and literary

circles. The compromise that 0ubaltern 0tudies offers is that it was founded by a group of

theorists based in the so-called third world who were at the same time conersant in the

latest postmodernist trends. Their theories were incorporated by the Fatin merican

intellectuals in a bid to analy'e the subersie potential of the Fatin merican classical

te!ts and writings of arious sorts. *allon argues that to fully take adantage of the

potential of 0ubaltern 0tudies pro+ect, one ought to employ postmodern critical theories

by $errida and ;oucault and read them in con+unction with the


9/61

Wasif 9

immolation of widows after the death of their husbands -sati- and its condemnation by the

2ritish as an e!ample of the way ?masculine imperialist ideology@ works, 0piak points

out to the irony of ?white men saing brown women from brown men@. 0piak argues

that in the imperialist accounts of widows burning themseles in the wake of their

husbands deaths, one neer comes across the testimony of the women themseles. Their

oices are neer recorded and so they are neer allowed to speak. "t is a case of the

priileged talking to the priileged about ?the other@. 0piak also notes that ultimately all

such discourses that claim to represent the subaltern almost neer represent them. *ost

such discourses are eurocentric anyway, in both their tone and mode of representation and

therefore it becomes impossible for the subaltern to ?speak@.

0piaks essay focuses especially on the third world women and the way they are

rendered incapable of articulating their own thoughts and feelings. "n instances such as

the suicide ofBhuvaneswariBhaduriwho committed suicide after failing to carry out a

political assassination she was entrusted with, people often assumed that it must hae

been a case of illicit loe and an ensuing pregnancy, een though the girl was

menstruating when she committed suicide. 0piak uses this incident to state that the

subaltern as female cannot be heard and cannot speak.

%rdag


10/61

Wasif 10

turkish 1oel B->9 This stance of Pamuk regarding the 6urdish and rmenian genocide in

which more than B4,444 6urds and / million rmenians were killed landed him in

considerable trouble, not only with the


11/61

Wasif 11


12/61

Wasif 12

=hapter Two of the study will analy'e the themes of identity, mysticism and

Ottoman heritage as depicted in *y 1ame is )ed.

=hapter Three will e!plore the postmodernist allegory and the metaphysical

detectie story that is presented in The 2lack 2ook. "t takes into consideration Pamuks

assertion that "stanbul is his primary antage point, much like $ublin was #oyces and

that he uses this antage point to demonstrate how something that has been relegated to

the periphery ultimately affects what is in the center.

=hapter ;our is a study of oert secularism and its clash with oert religiosity asdepicted in 0now. The chapter illustrates how many of the tensions in modern day

Turkey can ultimately be traced to an inability to reconcile ones loyalties to the state to

an interest in religion. Pamuks position can best be understood through the metaphor of

the camera that, from a antage point, slowly pans out and 'ooms across to take in

whateer is happening on the periphery.

=hapter ;ie, which sums up the entire study, proides a conclusion that because

OrhanPamuk chooses to write from the"eri"hery#it allows him to obsere the center and

comment upon tensions in the fabric of a society that hae been brimming underneath for

quite some time but which hae neer been acknowledged mostly because no one eer

took the trouble to iew them from the periphery or the margins. Thesubalternoices in

his fiction are seemingly unimportant issues that are buried deep beneath the so called

more important issues. Pamuk, whether he is employing the metaphor of the Ottoman

%mpire or *ar!ism, is always writing about the ignored, the unheard. &hen he is

apparently talking about the %ast-&est clash, what he is actually demonstrating is not the

clash of alues but the problem of iewing a different culture through the lens of a

dominant ciili'ation.


13/61

Wasif 13

Chapter $

My %ame is !ed.

*y 1ame is )ed marked a new chapter in Pamuks literary career and cemented

his place in the international arena as a noelist of solid literary merit. Published in 844/,

the noel set against the back drop of the Ottoman %mpire is at once a murder mystery, a

reimagining of Ottoman legacy and of course a postmodernist te!t comprising a multitude

of identities or "s, that each chapter begins with. The chorus of different "s in the noel

create a beautiful symphony of oices that not only reeal the comple!ities of narratiebut also highlight the subalterns within.

The eponymous character of the noel, the color red in a chapter ?" am )ed@

states that since it is a color that is depicted in blood, clothes, paintings and all things

irresistible, it basically is a multitude of identities rolled in one. The noel is certainly rich

in colors. The noel which relates the story of a group of miniaturists makes use of a

da''ling ariety of colors to portray different things but it is the color red which

ultimately stands out among different colors.

The subaltern in the noel is the lost Ottoman identity which is gien oice and

allowed to come into limelight through the works of different miniaturists. )ed

ultimately then becomes the liberator of the subaltern in *y 1ame is )ed.

*1) that takes place oer a period of days in /A/ begins with the gruesome murder

of a miniaturist. The miniaturist who was working on a secret book commissioned by the

0ultan dies as a result of his work for the book. The corpse of the murdered man is

depicted as speaking from the bottom of a well and sets off a chain of narraties that

clearly indicate that *1) is a noel that reeals its secrets slowly, almost teasingly.

The subaltern in the te!t is the Ottoman legacy of Turkey, symboli'ed through the

agency ofMiniature "aintin!$ The "stanbul of /A/ is a witness to the absolute pinnacle


14/61

Wasif 14

of Ottoman glory, yet there is a strong sense that the Ottoman %mpire is slowly but

steadily on its way to decline.

Towards the ery beginning of the noel the readers are greeted with a shocking

spectacle that allows the readers to see from the perspectie of a dead man. There is a

feeling at the ery beginning of the narratie that perspectie is gien a a lot of

importance in the unierse of *1), with people, ob+ects and drawings all contributing

their perspecties and helping to build a multilayered narratie that does not rely on the

security of a linear one-dimensional narratie. "n a sense, the narratie of the dead man

recounting his own death as ?J my arrial to this side was soothing, like the dream of

seeing oneself asleepJ@7A9 seres as an allegory for the Ottoman %mpire recording its

own decline and foreshadowing its demise that took place in //5. The entire noel can

be read as the last will and testament of an empire in its last days.

The death of the miniaturist %legant %ffendi in the beginning can be read as an

initation to sole the ensuing mystery and discoer the hidden meaning of such a

gruesome act as murder.

Fet me say also that if the situation into which wee fallen were described

in a book, een the most e!pert of miniaturists could neer hope to

illustrate it. s with the 6oran-


15/61

Wasif 15

The dead miniaturists assertion that the situation he and his fellow miniaturists

find themseles in is too intense and too shocking to be illustrated. (e proides an

interesting comparison by comparing the impossibility of his own situation to that of the

impossibility of illustrating the 6oran. (e then ends with a sharp obseration that much

of the power of the 6oran as a narratie stems from its impossibility to be illustrated.

&hen something resists attempts to hae itself depicted in pictures, it ends up being

enormously powerful. This opens up another possibility for the readers H maybe the

subaltern in the noel cannot be precisely illustratedK maybe it ought to remain somewhat

abstract and in the background so that ultimately it would end up being much more

powerful than the master narratie itself.

One of the key themes and binaries in *1) is the reelation of self and

concealment of self. The &estern tradition of painting encouraged the indiidual to

emerge in his painting. This was in stark contrast to the %astern tradition that

encouraged a more esoteric approach to painting. The %astern tradition held that it was

not the painter but the painting that held supreme importance and a true artist, knowing

that he would be immortali'ed in his art would neer consider the option of signing his

paintings.

"f the anecdote of 2ih'ad is tied to the hidden and the subaltern in a narratie, it

becomes clear that sometimes the master and subaltern narraties end up swapping

identities. &hat is isible becomes secondary in importance to what is hidden.

2ih'ad was so well aware of this fact that he didnt hide his signature

anywhere in the painting. nd according to the elderly master, there was a

sense of embarrassment and a feeling of shame in this decision of his.

&here there is true art and genuine irtuosity the artist can paint an


16/61

Wasif 16

incomparable masterpiece without leaing een a trace of his identityJ

&hat was enerated as style was nothing more than an imperfection or

flaw that reealed the guilty hand. 7889

This leads to the argument that Olie, the murderer of %legant %ffendi and

%nishte %ffendi makes that style that denotes the indiiduality or eccentricity of a

painter is actually nothing more than an admission of imperfection or flaw on part of the

artist.

The ery practice of making pictures in a predominantly *uslim world, let alonedeclaring oneself as the maker of those pictures was fraught with impossible difficulties.

This is acknowledged by %nishte %ffendi who is about to be murdered by Olie and in a

clarity of ision that is often e!perienced by a man about to bid life on earth a farewell,

%nishte correctly deduces that part of Olies e!cuse to murder him is not ambition but

fear. "t is the fear of a sinner who is foreer in dread of an impending doom or

punishment regarding what he does and practice.

s with 0heikh *uhammad of "sfahan, we miniaturists are inclined to feel

guilty and regretful, were the first to blame ourseles before others do, to

be ashamed and beg pardon of


17/61

Wasif 17

)epublican historiography and forced to adopt a subaltern stance. "t also in a sense can be

applied to the dying %nishte %ffendis obseration that the reason eerything succeeds in

dying results from a desire to pass on when ones time was up.

#ust before " died, " actually longed for my death, and at the same time, "

understood the answer to the question that "d spent my entire life

pondering, the answer " couldnt find in booksC (ow was it that eerybody,

without e!ception, succeeded in dyingE "t was precisely through this

simple desire to pass on. " also understood that death would make me a

wiser man. 78/89

The description of the color )ed is important and ery interesting in this regard.

The anecdote of the two blind master miniaturists talking about describing a color to

someone who is blind and has neer encountered the color )ed with his own eyes is full

of symbolism.

?2ecause wee spent our entire lies ardently and faithfully working as

painters, naturally, we, who hae now gone blind, know red and remember

what kind of color and what kind of feeling it is, @ said the one whod

made the horse drawing from memory. ?2ut, what if wed been born

blindE (ow would we hae been truly able to comprehend this red that our

handsome apprentice is usingE @

?n e!cellent issue, @ the other said. ?2ut do not forget that colors are not

known, but felt.@

?*y dear master, e!plain red to somebody who has neer known red.@


18/61

Wasif 18

?"f we touched it with the tip of a finger, it would feel like something

between iron and copper. "f we took it into our palm, it would burn. "t we

tasted it, it would be full-bodied, like salted meat. "f we took it between

our lips, it would fill our mouths. "f we smelled it, itd hae the scent of a

horse. "f it were a flower, it would smell like a daisy, not a red rose. @ 788L9

This incident itself is an e!tension of the argument that the unknown while

always has a certain charm and a mystique, is also quite comple! to be understood

completely. The Ottoman era, much romantici'ed by the 1eo-Orientalists and reiled by

the staunch )epublicans in an e!ample of such a phenomenon. "t can only be described

in terms of certain images and keywords like religion, mysticism, mythical, rich,

kings etc, but is more than a little beguiling for a generation that has been forbidden to

try and access it.

2lindness is another trope used by Pamuk in the narratie and signifies insight in

a classic postmodernist twist that leads to a reersal of meaning. *eaning as $errida

and ;oucault point out is something arbitrary as indeed it is the case in *1). 2lindness

here is an attempt to presere ones honor and ones genius after haing been at the

absolute pinnacle of glory.

?The old masters, @ *aster Osman said, ?would suffer pangs of conscience

about changing their talent, colors and methods. Theyd consider it

dishonorable to see the world one day as an %astern shah commanded, the

ne!t, as a &estern ruler did- which is what the artists of our day do. @

?&hen the great masters of old were forced to adopt the styles of ictors

and imitate their miniaturists, they presered their honor by using a needle

to heroically bring on the blindness that the labors of painting woulde


19/61

Wasif 19

caused in time. Mes, before the pureness of


20/61

Wasif 20

This argument is what Olie describes as his e!cuse for murdering both elegant

%ffendi and %nishte %ffendi. (e claims that an adoption of the enetians style would

hae led to the %uropeans deriding the Ottomans for haing gien up on being Ottomans

and the e!tent of shame and ridicule would hae known no boundaries. "t also, according

to Olie, is an assertion of the secular identity of a work of art, something that smacks

of the Turkish )epublics Ottoman cleansing efforts. "nfact Olies entire speech seems

to hae been directed at contemporary Turkish metanarratie and how the master

narratie refuses to acknowledge the subaltern Ottoman narratie.

Olies diatribe ironically leads him to e!perience whateer he has been

passionately preaching. (e is blinded and beheaded and +ust before it, in a final mockery

of his stance he is told

?ccording to legend, blood clots in the eyes of some and not in others. "f

llah is pleased with your artistry, hell bestow (is own magnificent

blackness upon you and take you under (is care. "n that case, you shall

behold not this wretched world, but the e!quisite istas that (e sees. "f (e

is displeased, you shall continue to see the world the way you now do.@

7>59

The final pages of *y 1ame is )ed are from the account of 0hekure who wishes

she had a youthful portrait of herself and that too in the manner of the enetian artists.

(er lament that the cost of depicting a face like any other as the old masters of (erat did,

was to forget the magnificent beauty of a face. This lament eokes the lament of a

subaltern that its muted oice can neer actually make itself heard.

*y own portraitK but " knew howeer hard the 0ultans miniaturists tried,

theyd fail, because een if they could see my beauty, woefully, none of


21/61

Wasif 21

them would beliee a womans face was beautiful without depicting her

eyes and lips like a =hinese womans. (ad they represented me as a

=hinese beauty, the way the old masters of (erat woulde, perhaps those

who saw it and recogni'ed me could discern my face behind the face of

that =hinese beauty. 2ut later generations, een if they reali'ed my eyes

werent really slanted, could neer determine what my face truly looked

like. (ow happy "d be today, in my old age-which " lie out through the

comfort of my children-if " had a youthful portrait of myselfN 7A489

(oweer, 0hekure is made to see things realistically by her son Orhan who tells

her that if the old masters of (erat could not immortali'e her, the enetian masters could

capture her youthful beauty but could neer actually stop time.

Perhaps hes right. "n actuality, we dont look for smiles in pictures of

bliss, but rather, for the happiness in life itself. Painters know this, but this

is precisely what they cannot depict. Thats why they substitute the +oy of

seeing for the +oy of life.

This signifies a compromise that the subaltern narratie has to make. 2etween

being depicted faithfully and being in a limbo with time being fro'en, there is a grey area,

the true abode of the subaltern.

Towards the end, 0hekure ends the narratie and in another postmodernist twist

warns the readers not to be taken in by her son Orhans e!aggerated storytelling who

would do anything to make a story more interesting.

"n the hopes that he might pen this story, which is beyond depiction, "e

told it to my son Orhan. &ithout hesitation " gae him the letters (asan


22/61

Wasif 22

and 2lack sent me, along with the rough horse illustrations with the

smeared ink, which were found on poor %legant %ffendi. boe all, dont

be taken in by Orhan if hes drawn 2lack more absentminded than he is,

made our lies harder than they are, 0heket worse and me prettier and

harsher than " am. ;or the sake of a delightful and conincing story, there

isnt a lie Orhan wouldnt deign to tell. 7A4B9

This is perhaps the real Orhans 7Pamuk9 manner of reealing to the readers that

what is considered subaltern and master actually depends upon the readers. The identities

in the course of this narratie are ery fluid. "t is the reader that must impart them

consistency to them.


23/61

Wasif 23

Chapter &.

'he Black Book

%ara %ita"or The 2lack 2ook is often credited with proiding Pamuk with his

first break on the international scene, after it was translated in /8. The 2lack 2ook is

considered a postmodernist te!t with different genres intermingling to produce an incisie

commentary on the Turkish cultural and social landscape.

"n The 2lack 2ook, identity and what it means to be isibleinisible takes on a

wholly different perspectie. The main protagonist of the noel is


24/61

Wasif 24

The ery beginning of The 2lack 2ook sets the tone for this endless chase and

quest for finding meaning. The epigraph of the noel hints towards an ensuing chase for

an answer to the mystery, but at the same time, there is a sense that the mystery would be

one with no closureC

"bn rabi writes of a friend and derish saint who, after his soul

was eleated to the heaens, arried on *ount 6af, the magic mountain

that encircles the worldK ga'ing around him, he saw that the mountain

itself was encircled by a serpent. 1ow, it is a well-known fact that no such

mountain encircles the world, nor is there a serpent.

The epigraph then points to the fact that this mystery would transcend the physical

realm and actually become a metaphysical mystery. t the same time, )Iya, the

protagonist


25/61

Wasif 25

questions about mysteries of being and knowing which transcend the mere

machinations of the mystery plot. *etaphysical detectie stories often

emphasi'e this transcendence, moreoer by becoming self-refle!ie 7that

is, by representing allegorically the te!ts own process of composition9.

7qtd. in


26/61

Wasif 26

of a metaphysical detectie story, the solution to a problem lies not in soling it but in

self-actuali'ation that results from a failure to sole such a mystery.


27/61

Wasif 27

suffering led him to self-actuali'ation, the ultimate goal of a loer in 0ufi mystical

traditions. Thus )umi, while pining for his beloed, actually reali'ed himself, much like


28/61

Wasif 28

metaphor for the spiritual +ourney in the 0ufi tradition, one must undertake to redeem

oneself and regain ones lost identity.

This 0ufi parable in The 2lack 2ook also brings to life another lost subaltern

oice - that of the sacred, the deified and the lost mystical traditions. )ead against the

backdrop of authoritarian )epublic and its denouncement of anything religious and

anything remotely reminiscent of its Ottoman past, this particular parable becomes

another subaltern that must be liberated.

;or one thing, the ery mention of these 0ufi traditions that hae largely been

relegated to the periphery of the grand master narratie of Turkish )epublic, would be

blasphemous especially from an oertly nationalistic iewpoint. Pamuk then, turns this

blasphemy on its head and deliberately creates binaries of the sacred and blasphemous to

drie home the idea that a master narratie can only ignore the subaltern narratie for so

long. Qltimately it has to be unearthed.

0econdly, as the 0ubaltern 0tudies Pro+ect basically aims towards a reisionist

historiography, we consider how The 2lack 2ook achiees this aim. The 0ufi parable

already demonstrates the fact that subaltern narraties can be immensely powerful in

creating tensions in a master narratie. "n addition to this, subaltern narraties can also be

used to pinpoint the biases of master narraties, which more often than not are

%urocentric in their approach.

s =hakrabarty points out in his article ?(istory as =ritique and =ritiques of

(istory@ 7//9, the 0ubaltern 0tudies approach can be used to change history at its ery

center. =hakrabarty argued that most histories of colonial "ndia were unapologetically

eurocentric in their approach and een when recounting narraties of the unpriileged, the

tone was unmistakably imperialistic. The only way to correct the tone of these narraties


29/61

Wasif 29

would be according to =hakrabarty, to reanaly'e them from a different iewpoint, i.e., the

iewpoint of the subaltern.

This incidentally is what is being done in the unierse of The 2lack 2ook.

Pamuk, the deils adocate re+oices in blaspheming about eerything from )epublic to

0ufi parables. &hen )umi and 0hams are mentioned, it is actually the dominant discourse

of the )epublic that is being challenged through means of a 0ufi parable. 0imilarly, when

(urufis the fourteenth century mystical brotherhood and their"ir;a'lallah starabadi

are mentionedin the noel, there is a sense of loss of mystery in the narratie. This loss

e!tends to the loss of the old Turkish alphabet as well, and contributes to a general sense

of loss in the narratie.

The (urufis and the old Turkish alphabet are therefore many of those subaltern

oices that hae been brutally relegated to a peripheral status. "ndeed the description of

the letters


30/61

Wasif 30

hae been strangled to a degree that they can only silently cry at their plight. =ell who

has made all those drawings that


31/61

Wasif 31

postmodernist trope used by Pamuk, that is reminiscent of %co, there are endless clues

strewn throughout the noel that ultimately amount to nothing. These clues do not

contribute anything to the plot at all but perform a ery different function H that of

dethroning the main plot and shifting the focus to the small sub-plots within the te!t.

;or e!ample, +ust when 9

This ties up with what ;. *. SIncI had to say in the first section of his book.

ccording to him, of the two ?warring twins@ 7B4>9 %ast and &est

J all these great historical eents illustrated a truth to which ;a'lallah had

made frequent eiled illusions in his writingJ"n ?any gien historical

period@, the winning side was the one that succeeded in seeing the world

as a mysterious place awash with secrets and double meanings. &hereas

the side that saw the world as a simple place, deoid of mystery and

ambiguity was doomed to defeat and in ineitable consequence, slaery.

7B4>9


32/61

Wasif 32

SIncI goes on to describe the relationship between letters and faces and suggests

controersially that in good times, peoples faces are full of meaning, and predictably

only the (urufis could gauge that meaning. (oweer since the persecution of (urufis

began and since they anished without a trace, the world lost its mystique and the human

faces their letters.The only way out according to SIncI was to locate the meaning of

faces using Fatin letters now, as the old Turkish alphabet was e!tinct.

SIncIs logic regarding all this is that all te!ts carry any number of infinite

possibilities within - a bit like ?an unending ma'e of city streets, with each street leading

to anotherJ@ 7B/59. (e also deelops his argument further by claiming that the more a

mystery becomes apparent, the more it intensifies. nd when, a person finally wearies of

these series of neer ending mysteries, he would be met with diine reelation in the form

of the *ehdi or the *essiahs message, or so SIncI claims.

This argument of SIncI is another step in the direction of the unearthing of the

subaltern narraties. 0ubaltern narraties howeer are not simple plot deices that merely

play peek-a-boo with readers. 0uch narraties lead to other narraties and it is suggested

if the meaning of a te!t is to be gleaned in its entirety, a more holistic approach is needed,

that of looking for narraties beneath narraties.

The 2lack 2ook in a sense is e!actly about this hunt for those layers of narratie

beneath the master narratie, that lend a richness to the main narratie without eer being

isible themseles.

&hile discussing the subalterns in The 2lack 2ook, there is another theme that

is e!tremely important especially if we wish to trace the relationship between the

subalterns in The 2lack 2ook to those of Pamuks other noels. The theme of hI'In is

one that is often repeated in Pamuks works and is a recurring metaphor for the feeling of

loss that permeates his te!ts.


33/61

Wasif 33

(I'In, the rabic and Turkish word for melancholy is used to describe not +ust a

feeling of unrelieed sadness and gloom but also its reason, namely spiritual loss. "n

"stanbulC *emories of a =ity, Pamuk in the chapter deoted to hI'In states that

Jwhen it appears in the 6oranJit means much the same as the

contemporary Turkish word. The Prophet *ohammed referred to the year

in which he lost both his wife (atice and his uncle %buTalip, as ?Senettul

huzn#-or the year of the melancholyK this confirms that the word is meant

to coney a feeling of deep spiritual loss.@ 7qtd in


34/61

Wasif 34

(u'un, the melancholy that is felt throughout the te!t is there because of a loss of

spirituality and by e!tension, there is a sense of loss in the material world too. Towards

the end of the noel, while much of the mystery remains unsoled, as is to be e!pected of

a metaphysical detectie story,


35/61

Wasif 35

The final passages of The 2lack 2ook while dont e!actly proide a closure to

the mystery of )Iya, =ell and their murderers, bring together two identities so that they

could be merged together. The identities of


36/61

Wasif 36

Chapter (.Sno#.

"n 0now, as in the other noels, 6a, the narrator becomes a catalyst, helping reeal

many different identities that are symbolic of the multifaceted identity of modern day

Turkey. The headscarf wearing girls, the secular"slamic diide and clashes in modern day

Turkey are all captured by 6a, who has become a medium for the uneiling of the

subaltern.

6a, a poet traels throughout the length and breadth of 6ars, a fictional town in 0now in

search of different stories and during this course comes across different identities.

The ery beginning of the noel snow inspires a sense of melancholy and to an

e!tent foreboding. The silence of snow eokes not a soothing and calming silence but

the sort that often precedes a storm. nd it is e!actly like this in this case. There is a

storm of sorts already happening in the remote city of 6ars, where the noel takes place

but another and much more lethal storm is also about to take place in the narratie. One

that inoles suicide, torture, a coup and a furious battle of different ideals. ll of this

takes place when it is snowing heaily in 6ars.

?The silence of snow, thought the man sitting +ust behind the bus drier. "f

this were the beginning of a poem, he would hae called what he felt

inside him the silence of snow.@7B9

One ma+or reason 6a isits 6ars is his curiosity regarding the suicide girls.

There hae been a lot of suicides among young girls and 6a is interested in finding out

the reason. (oweer 6a is struck by the fact that most suicides hae been carried out by

the girls in an e!tremely drab, almost boring manner without any rituals or suicide notes.

This is suspicious in the sense that suicide is often a way for indiiduals to finally claim


37/61

Wasif 37

some limelight in death, something they were denied while they were alie. 6as

obseration is important in another perspectie. The suicide girls are, in a way on the

wrong side of history , at least as far as Turkish historiography is concerned. Their

suicides committed in a no-nonsense way is for a cause that is doomed to be suppressed.

This cause, that of being allowed to wear head scares isnt a stunt told by the girls in a

feror inspired by the "slamists as is commonly assumed but a fight for their own identity.

2ut the suicide stories he heard that day would haunt him for the rest of his

life. "t wasnt the poerty, or the helplessness, or the insensitiity that 6a

found shocking in these stories. 1or was it the constant beatings to which

the girls had been sub+ectedK or the conseratism of their fathers, who

wouldnt een let them go outsideK or the constant sureillance of +ealous

husbandsK or the lack of money. &hat shocked and frightened 6a was the

manner in which these girls had killed themselesC abruptly, without ritual

or warning, in the midst of their eeryday routines. 7/B9

The e!tremely clich:d debate regarding headscares and identity is gien

coerage here and it soon transpires as the narratie moes forward that clich:s ultimately

are based in reality. 2y choosing to coer their heads, girls are not protecting their

modesty so much as they are protecting a subaltern iewpoint that is often trampled by

the official )epublican narratie. "ndeed these suicides, remarkable because of the lack of

ritual tied to them, become all the more remarkable when 6a who has been pondering this

issue, reali'es that these girls hae been e!tremely brae in pulling off something that had

always scared him due to the loneliness of the act.

This argument can be compared with the one


38/61

Wasif 38

on the basis of anything other than her gender. (er recounting of the incident of

2huaneswari 2haduri proes this point.

"n his fantasies suicide was a solemn ceremony with sleeping pills and

whisky, a final act you performed alone and of your own free will. %ery

time he had eer imagined doing away with himself, it was the

indispensable loneliness of it that scared him offK and so, he had to allow,

he had neer really been seriously suicidal.7/39

&heneer the discussion of the subaltern entails, the subaltern of religion often

attracts the greatest amount of controersy , especially when discussed with respect to the

chief practitioners of religion- the bearded sheikhs.

? $o you really want guidance from meE asked the sheikh. &e are +ust

like those people you mentioned H bearded proincial reactionaries. %en

if we shaed off our beards, there is no cure for being proincial."m

proincial, too, and " want to become een more proincial. " want to be

forgotten in the most unknown corner of the world under a blanket of

snow, said 6a. (e kissed the sheikhs hand again. The ease with which he

could do this pleased him, but he knew that one part of his mind stilloperated in a different way, in a &estern way, and he despised himself for

that.

6a, when he isits 0heikh 0aadettin is so impressed by the 0heikhs humility and

his self-depreciating speeches that he is immediately moed to make a few of those


39/61

Wasif 39

speeches himself. (oweer he soon discoers that the 0heikhs humility while not

entirely an act, is definitely meant to put isitors such as 6a, who are sceptics by nature

into a sense of awe and fascination regarding religion and


40/61

Wasif 40

intellectual figure of 6a. ll of these subalterns emerge from their clich:d cocoons and

demonstrate their own fluidity.

This is also eident when Turgut2ey adises 6a to be on the watchout for "slamists as

they are currently, going about making atheists lies hell. &hen 6a replies that he has

decided to open his heart to


41/61

Wasif 41

it soon becomes clear that none of them would like to witness any blood being shed due

to a theatrical act, howeer noble its ideals might be.

;rom the mid-thirties through the early years of the 0econd &orld &ar,

when it was known asMy .atherland or My Scar'# this short play was

performed frequently in lyc:es and town halls all oer natolia, and it was

ery popular with &esternising state officials eager to free women from

the scarf and other forms of religious coercion. 2ut, after the fifties, whenthe ardent patriotism of the 6emalist period had gien way to something

less intense, the piece was forgotten. 7/A49

"n the second scene, when the women made her grand gesture of

independence, launching herself into enlightenment as she remoed her

scarf, the audience was at first terrified. &e might say that een the most&esternised secularists in the hall were frightened by the sight of their

own dreams coming true. ;ear of the political "slamists was so great that

they had long ago accepted that the city must remain as it always had been.

" say dreams, but not een in their sleep could they hae imagined the

state forcing women to remoe their headscares as it had done in the

early years of the republic. They were prepared to lie with the practice,

as long as the "slamists dont use their intimidation or force to make

&esternised women wear scares, as wee seen in "ran.

"t is ironic that Turgut2ey denounces the audience of the play for being cowards,

when he himself, towards the end of the noel decides to issue a +oint statement with

many other similar minded people to protest the coup.


42/61

Wasif 42

2ut the truth of the matter is thisC all those ferent secular 6emalists in

the front rows werent really 6emalists at all-they were cowardsN said

Turgut2ey to 6a after it was all oer. 7/A/9

That is why regardless of the impassioned defense of his play by the playwright,

the audience do not relate to the sub+ect matter as people in a staunchly )epublican

country might do. This is indicated in the cat calls that follow the performance of the play,

suggesting that anyone who adocates the remoal of head scares so passionately might

as well strip and run to %urope as the urge to snatch head scares is not so much an

impulse to proide women their rights but a plea to %urope for acceptance. The islamists

and the 6emalist secularists are +u!taposed throughout the noel tohint at the reluctance

of either party to let the other speak.

&hen the angry girl tore the scarf off her head, she was not +ust making a

statement about people, nor about national dressK she was talking about our

souls, because the scarf, the fe', the turban and the headdress were all

symbols of the reactionary darkness in our souls, from which we should

liberate ourseles and run to +oin the modern nations of the &est. lthough

few could make out herwords, eeryone heard one taunt from the back

ery clearlyC 0o why not take off eerything and run to %urope stark

nakedE 7/AA9

The speech that 0unayVaim deliers at the time of his mock on-stage reolution

is teeming with clich:s and e!pleties for the other, the uncouth and the irrational.

&hat is interesting is that in snow the subaltern is not hidden, but deliberately pointed

out and paraded in front of the readers. &hat then, is the need to liberate the subaltern

oices when they are already e!tremely prominent in the narratieE The answer lies in the


43/61

Wasif 43

fact that "slamists or secularists do not constitute the subaltern in the narratie, neither

do the suicide girls. "t is speech itself which has been muted and art which has been

castrated in a metaphorical sense and becomes impotent during much the narratie.

"ndeed in the unierse of 0now, it isnt the narraties of either "slamists orthe

secularists that trouble the readers but how two key tropes of speech and art hae been

treated. 2oth speech and art hae been reduced to their most shameful traesties, with

speech, especially free speech being rewarded with bullets and art being suberted to

sere truly horrific purposes such as enactment of a mock reolution that ends in the

murder and torture of many people.

Oh, honorable and beloed citi'ens of Turkey, said 0unayVaim. Moue

embarked on the road to enlightenment and no one can turn you back from

this great and noble +ourney. $o not fear. The reactionaries who want to

turn back time, those ile beasts with their cobwebbed minds, will neer

be allowed to crawl out of their hole. Those who seek to meddle with the

republic, with freedom, with enlightenment will seek their hands crushed.

7/A59

&hen 0unayVaim is told of the murder of director of the %ducation "stitute, he

becomes distraught with grief and in one of the most ironic speeches in the entire

narratie, insists ?This lowly murder will be the last assault on the republic and the

secular future of TurkeyN@The following actions of his band of followers, dressed as

soldiers result from a religious school student who shouts ?$amn the godless secularistsN

$amn the fascist infidelsN@7/A9. The actorssoldiers open fire on the audience and in a

classic postmodernist instance of reality merging with fiction, it becomes unclear if the

performance is staged or lie.


44/61

Wasif 44

The e!perimentation with art forms, another one of the noels sub plots is

e!plored in the eents that follow the coup that takes place after the shooting incident.

0unayVaim decides to act out a suggestion of the three men who had taken part in

0unayVaimsthreatrical act of brutality. The three men suggest to 0unay that they should

turn the ending of *y ;atherland or *y 0carf into a reality and 0unay agrees, not so

much because of the brilliance of the proposal but because he feels the urge to teach the

audience about nuances of modern art.

J and he had resisted their proposal for a whole day, fearing that the

inolement of the shady, armed adenturers would ruin the artistic

integrity of the piece. 2ut, in the end, he could not counter the argument

that he might need a man e!perienced with guns to control the lowlifes in

the audience who were unlikely to appreciate the nuances of modern art.

"t was later said that he felt great remorse about his decision in the hours

that followed, and great pangs of passion in the face of the bloodshed

caused by this band in tramps clothing. 2ut, as is so often the case, this

was only a rumour. 7/3>9

rt and creatiity, while made a mockery of in much of the narratie, ultimately

sere as the only reasons for hope. s in the 2lack 2ook, so in 0now as long as

creatiity is forthcoming, all seems to be well. One day after the massacre at the theatre,

6a is shown taking a walk around the city and he is not perturbed by the odd sound of a

gun shot or the staging of a coup. (e is only happy that the night is a beautiful one and

that the city of 6ars is filling him with poems. 6a like any writer feels most alie when

his muse is urging him on and the fact that his long standing writers blck came to an end

while in 6ars is what matters to him mostC


45/61

Wasif 45

Once the men were inside, 6a went on his way. (e continued to hear the

odd gunshot, but he now paid no more attention than he gae to howling

dogs. (is mind filtered out eerything but the beauty of the night. ;or a

time, he tarried before an empty old rmenian house. Then he stopped at

an rmenian church to pay his respectsC the trees in its gardens were

dripping with icicles and looked like ghosts. The pale yellow streetlamps

cast such a deathly glow oer the city that he felt himself in some strange,

sad dream, and, for some reason, it made 6a feel guilty. 0till, he was

mightily thankful for this silent and forgotten country now filling him with

poems. 7/39

"n stark contrast to 6a, 0unayVaim who also has his own share of artistic urges,

but neertheless has always been somewhat unfulfilled in terms of getting opportunities

to practice his art, is shown as always being caught up in a quandary wheneer the chance

to proe himself presents itself.

&hen the military took oer in the /54, all left wing plays were banned,

and it was not long afterwards that it was decided a ma+or new teleision

drama about tatIrk would be commissioned to celebrate the hundredth

anniersary of his birthJThe predominant iew was that great national

films called for great international stars like Faurence Oliier, =urt #urgens

and =harlton (eston. 2ut this time,/rriyet# the biggest Turkish

newspaper, entered the fray to promote the iew that for once a Turk

should be allowed to play the role. 7/>9

The irony presented here is unmistakable of course. The fact that to play tatIrk,

one must be %uropean is in direct clash with the ideals of the ultra-1ationalist military


46/61

Wasif 46

coup. (oweer the iew that for great 1ational heroes, the local population simply would

not do and it would hae to be international stars of great stature to portray the father of

the Turks, smacks of the ery proincial mentality, most of the secularists and the

bourgeoisie so actiely denounce. The fact that the countrys biggest newspaper has to

+ump in to make people see sense, is suggestie of the colonial mindset of the people as

is the newspapers point that for once, a Turk should be accorded this honor.

0unay howeer is described as finding himself in trouble when he tries to earn

himself a reputation first a staunch secularist fit to fill taturks boots, and later as a

ferent admirer of the Prophet *ohammedC

The small "slamist periodicals went on the rampageC


47/61

Wasif 47

0unayVaimsactually has a lot of subersie potential, as what he is describing is one of

subaltern 0tudies Pro+ects ma+or concerns, i.e., the ob+ectiity of history. (istoriography,

traditionally has been often sub+ected to rigorous reisionism by the subaltern 0tudies

theorists as it is often with the agency of historiography, especially one that has been

written in a predominantly %urocentric mode of writing. The fact that it is 0unayVaim

who is mentioning all this points to yet another irony in the narratie H namely of the

master narratie helping the subaltern narratie come to forefront.

"t was (egel who first noticed that history and theatre are made of the

same materials, said 0unay. )emember that, +ust as in the theatre, history

chooses those who play the leading roles. nd +ust as actors put their

courage to the test on the stage, so, too, do the chosen few on the stage of

history. 78489

The argument is further e!tended when 0unayVaimtells 6a that his bleeding heart

liberal attitudes wont help him curry faor with the terrorists as they absolutely hate the

ery semblance of anything remotely &esternised. The argument is deeloped in a style

typical of both )ight and Feft wing radicals who announce the imminent arrial of an

apocalyptic time if people dont follow them.

&hen we go the way of "ran, do you really think anyone is going to

remember how a porridge-hearted liberal like you shed a few tears for the

boys from the religious high schoolE &hen that day comes, theyll kill you

+ust for being a little &esternisedK for being frightened and forgetting the

rabic words of a simple prayerK een for wearing a tie, or that coat of

yours. 784L9


48/61

Wasif 48

6as reply to all this is a confession that he might be starting to beliee in


49/61

Wasif 49

Ottoman god, he considers it as his duty to uphold the will of the people, who are in this

instance against the coup.

The question is, speaking as the communist, moderni'ing, secular,

democratic patriot " now am, what should " put first- the %nlightenment or

the will of the peopleE "f " beliee first and foremost in the %uropean

%nlightenment, then " am obliged to see the "slamists as my enemies and

should support this military coup. "f, howeer, my first commitment is to

the will of the people- if, in other words, "e become an unadulterated

democrat H then " hae no choice but to go and sign that statement. &hich

of the things "e said is trueE 78>L9

"n the final denouement of the fren'ied days 6a spends in 6ars, 0unayVaim is

unwittingly killed by 6adife on stage in another e!ample of the boundaries of art and

life being blurred. The death of 0unayVaim and that of 2lue, another ma+or character in

the noel, described by many as an "slamist, suggests the death of two ma+or ideals. "t

also signalsan end to 6as brief stay in 6ars as he is forced to leae 6ars and "pek, the

woman who so beguiled and enchanted him while in 6ars, refuses to leae with him for

;rankfurt as she is coninced he betrayed 2lue to the police.

The narratie is fast forwarded to four years later, when 6as friend, Orhan isits

6ars after the murder of 6a in ;rankfurt. (ere, once again Pamuk resorts to his faorite

postmodernist trope of introducing the author-figure in the noel. Orhan, listens to stories

of 6ars, stories about 6a and finally towards the end of his narratie discusses the process

of meta fiction. ;a'ils assertion that he does not want to be a part of any narratie that

presents him as an ob+ect to be pitied is taken seriously by Orhan. "t is another instance


50/61

Wasif 50

of the postmodernist narratie structure allowing for the subaltern oices to make their

presence felt without any fear of being +udged.

2ut " can tell from your face that you want to tell the people who read the

noels how poor we are, and how different we are from them. " dont want

you to put me into a noel like that.

&hy notE

2ecause you dont een know me, thats whyN %en if you got to know

me and described me as " am, your &estern readers would be so caught up

in pitying me for being poor that they wouldnt hae a chance to see my

life. ;or e!ample, if you said " was writing an "slamist science-fiction

noel, theyd +ust laugh. " dont want to be described as someone people

smile at out of pity and compassion. 7>/9

0now, set against a ery gloomy backdrop is Pamuks only oertly political noel

written in the wake of a controersial interiew that led him to getting labeled as a traitor

by the ultra-nationalists for insulting Turkishness. Met it is precisely that quality of

Turkishness that Pamuk e!plores here, all the while demonstrating that Turkishness

cant be and has neer been a monolithic entity. "t is a multi-layered entity that is made

richer by the inclusion of arious narraties.


51/61

Wasif 51

Chapter ).Conclusion.

&hat Pamuk demonstrates throughout his fiction is that identities will remain

subaltern as long as they are imprisoned within a homogenous narratie. The moment,

presence of different narraties in acknowledged in the te!t, the imprisoned identities or

subalterns come into their own. *y 1ame is )ed, The 2lack 2ook and 0now

illustrate this fact on different leels.

Pamuks popularity at home and abroad might stem from his own assertion that he

was a noelist writing in the new and contemporary style +ust as the older generation of

Turkish writers was fading away. "t can howeer in some part also be attributed to the rich

comple!ity of Pamuks writing and his willingness to e!plore new aenues in terms of

thematic concerns, that hae rarely been e!plored before. (is use of postmodernism

allows him to let multiple narraties do the talking at once. "t also paes a way for him to

e!plore centuries old themes of spiritual loe, loss of cultural heritage, as well as

contemporary ones such as din s delet and the significance of oerlapping narraties.

Pamuk redefines and rehistorici'es dominant Turkish literary tropes 79 and in the

process lets the subaltern oices embedded in the narratie come out and make their

presence felt.

The application of theories of the 0ubaltern studies pro+ect to Pamuks works

might seem like a strange idea at first. fterall, Pamuk hails from a country that has neer

e!perienced colonialism and that as a result has neer really missed any part of its

cultural legacy. lso it has no residue to speak of from its association with any dominant

culture. (oweer Turkey is one of those countries that hae been sub+ected to a massie

upheaal from within. The abolition of the Ottoman %mpire and the moement to


52/61

Wasif 52

induce in people a mass amnesia regarding all things Ottoman, has resulted in a

confusion regarding many things that +ust refuse all attempts to sweep them under the

carpet.

To begin with, the Turkish alphabet was )omani'ed, but it retains its oriental

sounds. The Ottoman %mpire was abolished, but the sense of being reered by the

millions of 0unni *uslims worldwide remained a distinct memory in the Turkish

imagination for many years to come. "n addition to this Turkeys bittersweet relationship

with the %uropean Qnion is a frequent reminder of the schi'ophrenic sense of national

identity.

&hat Pamuk does in his noels is to e!plore e!actly this part of the Turkish

identity and in his arious noels, he has e!plored different narraties contributing to the

grand metanarratie of Turkish identity and culture.

The theories of the 0ubaltern studies group can therefore act as a gauge to

determine e!actly how Pamuk liberates the subaltern in the metanarratie of Turkish

identity.

The term subaltern is a fluid one that can mean many things at the same time. This

study considers the subaltern oices as those oices that hae been deliberately pushed

into the background as they are seen as a threat to official Turkish historiography and the

grand metanarratie of Turkish )epublic.

&hile Pamuk cannot strictly be pigeonholed into one category, his writing has a ery

predominant postmodernist strain and his liberal use of postmodernist tropes in his noels

help him in reimagining the Turkish metanarratie and also help him indulge in igorous

reisionism of Turkish historiography.

s )ana+it


53/61

Wasif 53

in his workd attempts to subert this tradition as much as possible. ;or him, as for the

ma+or proponents of the subaltern 0tudies Pro+ect, the relationship between te!ts and

power is a ery important one. Te!ts are mostly used by the powerful as a way of

imposing their identities on to others. One ma+or reason the 0ubaltern 0tudies group gies

such importance to this relationship is because historically nations that hae been

sub+ugated by dominant cultures hae had their histories cast in an elitist mode, i.e., the

mode used by their masters. Pamuk reali'es this only too well and this is one

relationship he e!plores at length in *y 1ame is )ed.

*y 1ame is )ed, as a te!t anticipates the downfall of the Ottoman %mpire as the

influence of enetian masters on the Ottoman mode of painting becomes more

pronounced. The miniaturists in the noel, especially the young ones are so coninced of

their own inferiority to the techniques of the enetians that they become indifferent to the

modes of painting used by the old masters of (erat. The enetian ideal of letting the

indiiduality of a face come out in the painting is taken up the miniaturists but without

much success. They hae learned to sign their pictures with their indiidual stamps but

not paint their faces with the same success as the enetians. The result is a hodgepodge of

style and form that refuses them any control oer what they paint.

The fact that the sultan himself has commissioned a book to be illustrated in the

manner of the enetians is suggestie. &hen the %mperor himself allows the art of his

people to become subaltern to that of another culture, the downfall of an empire can be

said to hae begun.

nother concern of the subaltern studies


54/61

Wasif 54

One solution to this dilemma of course would be to proinciali'e %urope as $ipesh

=hakrabarty suggests, howeer in case of some cultures, and Pamuks portrayal of the

Turkish culture is one of them, %urope looms larger than life. "t resists any attempts to

proinciali'e it to diminish its hegemony by aiming for an alternatie ersion of history.

Pamuk depicts this with striking images in 0now. Throughout the narratie

structure of the noel, the one ideal towards which the secular )epublicans aim, is being

&esterni'ed. The idea of &esterni'ation is not limited to merely clothes or language but

e!tends to the belief system itself. %uropean )enaissance is the supreme ideal towards

which an enlightened mind must aspire to. "ndeed this idea is so predominant throughout

the noel that, as is often the case with such grand ideas, the )enaissance is also referred

to as the %uropean enlightenment something that should be the ultimate aim of all Turks.

The fact that the father of the nation must be portrayed by a %uropean actor speaks

olumes about the strength of that nations belief in itself. "n 0now, Pamuk is not

concerned so much with suicides and the political factions of "slamists and 6urdish and

rmenian minorities but the fact that Turkish identity has been reduced to a subaltern

status and the efforts of the "slamists, howeer radical or irrational might be on one leel

about the ned for an alternatie metanarratie, one that can represent Turkishness in all

its glory.

%dward 0aid once praised the efforts of the 0ubaltern 0tudies Pro+ect and

particularly lauded their efforts to subert %urocentricism by writing in discourses once

resered e!clusiely for %uropean scholars. Pamuks efforts can be said to be directed in

this regard. &hile Pamuk himself is unapologetic about his elitist westerni'ed "stanbulla

background, his noels on many leels subert the ery westerni'ation Pamuk has more

than once taken flak for.


55/61

Wasif 55

This is not to say that Pamuk writes in the tradition of preachers or rabid

reolutionaries, but that Pamuk feels a distinct need to adopt a different approach to

storytelling than is usually employed by writers of his country. Pamuk employs all the

deices of the postmodern noel, but suberts the narratie structure by letting the

subaltern oices that are a part of any narratie dictate the course of the master narratie.

*eta-fiction is another important literary trope that Pamuk makes use of. The

creation of te!ts, narraties, discourses and books are a familiar part of Pamuks writing

and all of them are an e!tension of the theme of meta-fiction. Pamuk has declared in his

book, Other =olours that life is full of things that conspire to keep a person from

pursuing literature. 7Pamuk, Other =olours. !i9 this sentiment is echoed repeatedly in all

three of his noels discussed in this study.

Fiterature then is another subaltern that emerges from Pamuks narratie as it is

literature that has more subersie potential than any other subaltern the readers might

come across in Pamuk. "t is so feared that it is often pushed off center stage into the

background, for fear that it might help any subalterns come to light. lso Pamuks

treatment of narratie structure suggests that he does not treat it as something of primary

importance. (e is only interested in fragments as he calls the different narraties, in that

reole around a center. nd Pamuk in his usual playful tone hopes towards the end of

his preface in Other =olours that the readers would en+oy imagining the center of his

books into being. 7!i9

measure of an authors success in his translatability or his ability to reach out

to other cultures, once translated from his original language. The translatability

determines the releance of a te!t once it has been translation and its reception depends a

great deal on the releance of narratie structure and sub+ect matter once they hae


56/61

Wasif 56

migrated from the host te!t to secondary te!t. s the title of this study suggests, Pamuk

reaches out from the center towards the periphery and then helps pull the subaltern

narraties towards the master narratie. The phenomenal success of Pamuk with foreign

readers is a testament not only to his great skill as a writer but also to the fat that he has

been able to proide the subaltern oices in his te!t, a safe passage so that they can

moe from the periphery towards the center of the narratie.


57/61

Wasif 57

Bibliography

lmond, "an. D"slam, *elancholy, and 0ad, =oncrete *inaretsC The ;utility of 1arraties

in Orhan PamukWs The 2lack 2ook.DNew +iterary /istory7844B9C LA-4. &eb.

ndrews, &alter


58/61

Wasif 58

Yiekoglu, ;eride. D$ifference, isual 1arration, and DPoint of iewD in *y 1ame "s

)ed.D1ournal o' 3esthetic 2ducation7844B9C /8>-/BL. &eb.

$harwadker, inay. DTranslating the *illenniumC "ndian Fiterature in the 3. &eb.

%rturk, 1ergis. DThose Outside the 0ceneC 0now in the &orld )epublic of Fetters.DNew

+iterary /istory784/49C 3BB-A8. &eb.

;arred, 3-A4. &eb.

9C 8>8->>. &eb.


59/61

Wasif 59


60/61

Wasif 60

1oet'ke, =hristian Fee. DThe 0ubaltern 1umenC *aking (istory in the 1ame of LA-/>4. &eb.

0assoon, nne 0howstack. 6ramsci and Comtem"orary Politics Beyond Pessimism o' the

0ntellect. 1ew MorkC )outledge, 8444. &eb.


61/61

Wasif 61

Varakal, yse. DTurkey, "slam, 1ationalism, and *odernityC (istory, /L5-844L by

=arter aughn ;indley.DReview o' Middle 2ast Studies&inter 84//C 88>-88A.

&eb.