x
ABSTRACT
Catharina Brameswari (2015). The Irony of Turkish Modern Identity: Oscillation of the East and the West in Pamuk’s My Name is Red and The White Castle. Yogyakarta: English Language Studies, Graduate Study, Sanata Dharma University.
This research uses Orhan Pamuk’sMy Name is RedandThe White Castle, in order to reveal the tension between the East and the West that is mostly present in Pamuk’s works as well as to uncover how modernity, which is represented by Western art, culture, science, and technology, challenges Turkey’s tradition, culture, art, and identity. Since the Ottoman Empire, modernity that is represented by the West has become a threat as well as seduction. Moreover, I employed the method of library research in dismantling Pamuk’s selected works that highlight the endless oscillation by presenting the internal struggle experienced by the characters whether to leave the old Ottoman tradition or to embrace the modern Western tradition.
This thesis deals with two issues namely the oscillation of the East and the West and the complex desire to imitate others in Orhan Pamuk’sMy Name is Red
and The White Castle as well as the solutions that Pamuk’s selected stories offer to the predicament of the oscillation of the East and the West. In dealing with those two issues, this study employs Edward Said’s discourse on Orientalism and Homi Bhabha’s discourse on Postcolonialism. These two discourses are used to illustrate the oscillation of the East and the West and the complex desire to imitate the Others as well as to illuminate the solutions offered by Pamuk’s selected oeuvre. Since the two novels are rich of Turkey’s historical aspects, therefore, the additional information on Turkey’s history, art, painting, and its socio-condition in the 16thand 17thcentury are presented.
This study shows that Turkey, which is depicted by Pamuk inMy Name is RedandThe White Castle, experiences the oscillation between being enchanted to the West and being drawn to its tradition. Cosmopolitanism, as the result of the encounter between the East and the West, has led to an attraction and later the appropriation of the Italian Renaissance art and European technology and science. However, there are an individual and groups that keep and preserve the Ottoman art and tradition. Additionally, this predicament of the oscillation also leads to the identity crisis that is experienced by Pamuk’s characters. Dealing with the illustrated problems, this study finds that in his two novels, Pamuk does not give any clear solutions to the predicament of the oscillation of the East and the West. Through the characters, Pamuk wants to emphasize his position for not taking sides, his critique to the representatives of the East and the West, and his background as a writer in presenting hybridity in his works.
Finally, the future researcher can explore more on women struggle and position in the Islamic world as well as the identity formation as an interesting topic using Sufism for identity formation is the key point in its teaching.
xi
ABSTRAK
Catharina Brameswari (2015). The Irony of Turkish Modern Identity: Oscillation of the East and the West in Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Redand The White Castle. Yogyakarta: Magister Kajian Bahasa Inggris, Program Pascasarjana, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Penelitian ini menggunakan novel Orhan pamuk yang berjudul My Name is ReddanThe White Castle, yang bertujuan untuk menyingkap ketegangan antara Timur dan Barat yang sering ditampilkan dalam karya-karya Pamuk serta untuk mengungkapkan bagaimana modernitas yang diwakili oleh seni, kebudayaan, ilmu pengetahuan, dan tekhnologi menantang tradisi, budaya, seni, dan identitas Turki. Sebab sejak Kekaisaran Ottoman, modernitas yang terwakili oleh Barat telah menjadi sebuah ancaman dan daya tarik. Selain itu, saya menggunakan metode kajian pustaka dalam menyibak karya-karya Pamuk yang menyoroti tarik-ulur yang tiada habisnya dengan menampilkan perjuangan yang dialami oleh karakter-karakter di dalamnya yang antara mau meninggalkan tradisi kuno Ottoman atau mau memeluk tradisi Barat yang moderen.
Tesis ini membahas dua isu yaitu tarik-ulur antara Timur dan Barat dan keinginan yang kompleks untuk meniru lian yang ditampilkan oleh Orhan Pamuk dalam kedua novelnya My Name is Red dan The White Castle serta solusi yang ditawarkan oleh kedua novel tersebut terhadap tarik ulur antara Timur dan Barat yang kompleks. Untuk menguraikan kedua isu tersebut, studi ini diterangi oleh wacana Orientalisme milik Edward Said dan wacana Poskolonialisme milik Homi Bhabha sekaligus untuk memberikan gambaran pada tarik-ulur antara Timur dan Barat serta keinginan yang kompleks untuk meniru lian. Di samping itu, wacana Said dan Bhabha juga diaplikasikan untuk menerangi solusi yang ditawarkan oleh novel-novel Pamuk. Karena kedua novel tersebut sangat kaya akan aspek sejarah Turki, maka dari itu informasi seputar sejarah, seni, dan lukisan, serta kondisi sosial-ekonomi Turki pada abad ke 16 dan 17 juga disajikan.
i
THE IRONY OF TURKISH MODERN IDENTITY:
OSCILLATION OF THE EAST AND THE WEST
IN PAMUK’S
MY NAME IS RED
AND
THE WHITE CASTLE
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree ofMagister Humaniora
in English Language Studies
by
Catharina Brameswari 126332057
THE GRADUATE PROGRAM OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE STUDIES SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
ii
A THESIS
The Irony of Turkish Modern Identity: Oscillation of the East and the
West in Pamuk’s
My Name Is Red
and
The White Castle
by
Catharina Brameswari 126332057
Approved by
Albertus Bagus Laksana, S.J., Ph.D.
iii
A THESIS
The Irony of Turkish Modern Identity: Oscillation of the East and the
West in Pamuk’s
My Name Is Red
and
The White Castle
by
Catharina Brameswari Student Number: 126332057
was defended in front of the Thesis Committee and Declared Acceptable
Thesis Committee
Chairperson : Albertus Bagus Laksana, S.J., Ph.D. Secretary : Paulus Sarwoto, Ph.D.
Member : Patrisius Mutiara Andalas, S.J., STD. Member : Dr. F.X. Siswadi, M.A.
Yogyakarta, 9 June 2015 The Graduate School Director Sanata Dharma University
iv
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
This is to certify that all the ideas, phrases, and sentences, unless otherwise stated, are the ideas, sentences of the thesis writer. The writer understands the full consequences including degree cancellation if she took somebody else’s idea, phrase, or sentence without a proper reference.
Yogyakarta, 9 June 2015
v
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswi Universitas Sanata Dharma,
Nama : Catharina Brameswari
Nomor Mahasiswa : 126332057
Demi perkembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
The Irony of Turkish Modern Identity: Oscillation of the East and the West in Pamuk’sMy Name Is RedandThe White Castle
beserta perangkat yang diperlukan. Dengan demikian saya memberikan hak kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikannya secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta izin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.
Yogyakarta, 9 June 2015
vi
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First of all I would like to express my greatest gratitude by dedicating this thesis to those who have supported me in finishing this thesis and I dedicate it to the Almighty God, Lord Jesus Christ, for His wonderful love and guidance so that I could finish this thesis.
I give my sincere gratitude to Albertus Bagus Laksana, S.J., Ph.D. my thesis advisor who had spent his precious time, and dedicated his energy in guiding me to finish this thesis. His inputs, patience, guidance, and correction throughout the processes of writing this thesis are the biggest contributions, which have helped me to finish it. I would also like to thank all the lecturers in the English Language Studies (ELS) Department, especially F.X. Mukarto, Ph.D., Dr. Novita Dewi, M.S., M.A. (Hons), Dr. B.B. Dwijatmoko, M.A., the late Prof. Dr. Bakdi Soemanto, S.U., Patrisius Mutiara Andalas, S.J., STD., and Dr. F.X. Siswadi, M.A. for their professional support throughout my study.
Then, I would like to express my particular thanks to mbak Maria Adelheid Lelyana, the secretariat staff, for her care and help during my study and also Siwi for being my partner in KBI secretariat. Additionally, I also want to say thank you to my friends in Literature class batch 2012, Mbak Hari, Mbak Elis, Seto, Sita, Gisa, Maxi, Pak Arif, and Andrew for their support and encouragement.
vii
sister and my brother for their love and support during my study in English Language Studies. A special thank is for F.X. Hening Pamungkas Jagaddhita for his great love, patience, and attention. He is my place to share joys and sorrows. I would like to say thank you for encouraging me doing my thesis and helping me to solve my problems. His support when I am down really help me to struggle through the hardest and bitter moment I had during the processes of writing this thesis.
viii
2.1.1. Turkish Miniature Painting VS Italian Renaissance Painting...20
2.1.1.1. Turkish Miniature Painting ...21
2.1.1.2. Italian Renaissance Painting...24
2.1.2. The Ottoman Sultan in the 16thand 17thCentury...26
2.2. Discourse on Issues of Postcolonialism and Orientalism...28
2.2.1. The Discourse on Postcolonialism ...29
2.2.1.1. Colonialism ...29
2.2.1.2. Postcolonialism ...31
2.2.2. The Discourse on Orientalism ...36
3. Theoretical Framework...40
CHAPTER III THE IRONY OF THE OSCILLATION ...42
1. Cosmopolitanism ...43
ix
1.2. Cosmopolitanism in İstanbul...45
1.3. Cosmopolitanism in Pamuk’s Works...49
1.4. Turkification...55
2. The Enchantment and Appropriation of Western Art and Technology...58
2.1. The Enchantment and Appropriation of Western Science and Technology...63
2.1.1. The Enchantment of Western Science and Technology...64
2.1.2. The Adoption of Western Science and Technology...67
2.2. The Enchantment and Appropriation of the Italian Renaissance Painting...75
2.2.1. The Enchantment of the Italian Renaissance Painting...76
2.2.2. The Appropriation of the Italian Renaissance Painting ...81
3. Maintenance and Preservation of Eastern Aspects ...86
4. Personal Search for Identity as Individual ...95
5. Theoretical Observation...105
CHAPTER IV PAMUK’S SOLUTION TO THE OSCILLATION ...110
1. Impartiality...111
The Summary of Orhan Pamuk’s Oeuvre ...178
My Name is Red...178
x
ABSTRACT
Catharina Brameswari (2015). The Irony of Turkish Modern Identity: Oscillation of the East and the West in Pamuk’s My Name is Red and The White Castle. Yogyakarta: English Language Studies, Graduate Study, Sanata Dharma University.
This research uses Orhan Pamuk’sMy Name is RedandThe White Castle, in order to reveal the tension between the East and the West that is mostly present in Pamuk’s works as well as to uncover how modernity, which is represented by Western art, culture, science, and technology, challenges Turkey’s tradition, culture, art, and identity. Since the Ottoman Empire, modernity that is represented by the West has become a threat as well as seduction. Moreover, I employed the method of library research in dismantling Pamuk’s selected works that highlight the endless oscillation by presenting the internal struggle experienced by the characters whether to leave the old Ottoman tradition or to embrace the modern Western tradition.
This thesis deals with two issues namely the oscillation of the East and the West and the complex desire to imitate others in Orhan Pamuk’sMy Name is Red and The White Castle as well as the solutions that Pamuk’s selected stories offer to the predicament of the oscillation of the East and the West. In dealing with those two issues, this study employs Edward Said’s discourse on Orientalism and Homi Bhabha’s discourse on Postcolonialism. These two discourses are used to illustrate the oscillation of the East and the West and the complex desire to imitate the Others as well as to illuminate the solutions offered by Pamuk’s selected oeuvre. Since the two novels are rich of Turkey’s historical aspects, therefore, the additional information on Turkey’s history, art, painting, and its socio-condition in the 16thand 17thcentury are presented.
This study shows that Turkey, which is depicted by Pamuk inMy Name is RedandThe White Castle, experiences the oscillation between being enchanted to the West and being drawn to its tradition. Cosmopolitanism, as the result of the encounter between the East and the West, has led to an attraction and later the appropriation of the Italian Renaissance art and European technology and science. However, there are an individual and groups that keep and preserve the Ottoman art and tradition. Additionally, this predicament of the oscillation also leads to the identity crisis that is experienced by Pamuk’s characters. Dealing with the illustrated problems, this study finds that in his two novels, Pamuk does not give any clear solutions to the predicament of the oscillation of the East and the West. Through the characters, Pamuk wants to emphasize his position for not taking sides, his critique to the representatives of the East and the West, and his background as a writer in presenting hybridity in his works.
Finally, the future researcher can explore more on women struggle and position in the Islamic world as well as the identity formation as an interesting topic using Sufism for identity formation is the key point in its teaching.
xi
ABSTRAK
Catharina Brameswari (2015). The Irony of Turkish Modern Identity: Oscillation of the East and the West in Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Redand The White Castle. Yogyakarta: Magister Kajian Bahasa Inggris, Program Pascasarjana, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Penelitian ini menggunakan novel Orhan pamuk yang berjudul My Name is ReddanThe White Castle, yang bertujuan untuk menyingkap ketegangan antara Timur dan Barat yang sering ditampilkan dalam karya-karya Pamuk serta untuk mengungkapkan bagaimana modernitas yang diwakili oleh seni, kebudayaan, ilmu pengetahuan, dan tekhnologi menantang tradisi, budaya, seni, dan identitas Turki. Sebab sejak Kekaisaran Ottoman, modernitas yang terwakili oleh Barat telah menjadi sebuah ancaman dan daya tarik. Selain itu, saya menggunakan metode kajian pustaka dalam menyibak karya-karya Pamuk yang menyoroti tarik-ulur yang tiada habisnya dengan menampilkan perjuangan yang dialami oleh karakter-karakter di dalamnya yang antara mau meninggalkan tradisi kuno Ottoman atau mau memeluk tradisi Barat yang moderen.
Tesis ini membahas dua isu yaitu tarik-ulur antara Timur dan Barat dan keinginan yang kompleks untuk meniru lian yang ditampilkan oleh Orhan Pamuk dalam kedua novelnya My Name is Red dan The White Castle serta solusi yang ditawarkan oleh kedua novel tersebut terhadap tarik ulur antara Timur dan Barat yang kompleks. Untuk menguraikan kedua isu tersebut, studi ini diterangi oleh wacana Orientalisme milik Edward Said dan wacana Poskolonialisme milik Homi Bhabha sekaligus untuk memberikan gambaran pada tarik-ulur antara Timur dan Barat serta keinginan yang kompleks untuk meniru lian. Di samping itu, wacana Said dan Bhabha juga diaplikasikan untuk menerangi solusi yang ditawarkan oleh novel-novel Pamuk. Karena kedua novel tersebut sangat kaya akan aspek sejarah Turki, maka dari itu informasi seputar sejarah, seni, dan lukisan, serta kondisi sosial-ekonomi Turki pada abad ke 16 dan 17 juga disajikan.
xii
Akhir kata, peneliti di masa yang akan datang dapat mengeksplorasi topik seperti perjuangan dan posisi perempuan di dalam dunia Islam serta proses pencarian identitas masyarakat Turki dengan menggunakan Sufisme karena pembentukan identitas merupakan kunci dari ajarannya.
1
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
To God belongs the East and the West.
—KORAN, “THE COW”1
Everyone is sometimes a Westerner and sometimes an Easterner—in fact a constant combination of the two.
—Orhan Pamuk2
1. Background of the Study
Geographically, Turkey—officially the Republic of Turkey—is a very special country. It lies mostly in western Asia and on the east trace of south-eastern Europe. This unique location has made Turkey have various cultures—a blend of Eastern culture and Western culture and traditions—the “Westernisation” of the Ottoman Empire by Mustafa Kemal3. With the determined leadership of
Kemal Atatürk, the elite that founded the Turkish Republic pursued a more radical modernization.4 Richard Eder, in “My Name is Red” explains that the
“Westernisation” had destroyed 600-year Islamic Ottoman Empire tradition and become a secular country, which was the valuable price as the consequence of Turkey’s membership in the European Union. He transformed the religion-based former Ottoman Empire into a modern nation with a separation of state an
1Orhan Pamuk,My Name is Red(Benim Adim Karmizi) translated by E. M. Göknar, (London:
Faber & Faber, 2001) vii.
2Orhan Pamuk,Other Colours: Writing on Life, Art, Books, and Citiestranslated by Maureen
Freely (London: Faber and Faber Limited, 2008).
3 Douglas A. Howard, The History of Turkey (London: Greenwood Press, 2001) 1; Mustafa
Kemal Pasha is the first President of the Republic of Turkey and one of the most important world figures of the twentieth century.4
religion, such as the restriction of veils in the parliament and school and alteration alphabet from Arabic in the Turkish language into Latin5. Pamuk’s Other Colours
(2008) tells that none of the Turks can read the Arabic script now for Turkey has adopted Latin alphabet in order to be more European.6
Since the Ottoman Empire, Turkey always moves closer to the West. Mehmet II, the Sultan who conquered Constantinople, invited many artists from Florence and Venice in the 15th century to create medals and paintings.7 Gentile
Bellini, the most famous artist in Venice during his lifetime (1429-1507), for instance, was invited to İstanbul to create the Portrait of Mehmet II8. He was
Jacopo Bellini’s elder son who was also sent by the Venetian senate as a cultural ambassador for eighteen months as the result of the peace treaty between the Ottomans and Venetians in 1479. Bellini’s oil portrait of Mehmet has been regarded as not only as the icon of the Ottoman sultan9but this European image of
the great Ottoman leader might also serve as an appropriate focus for modern Turkey’s desire to retrieve some of its European roots and influences in its “new turn toward Europe”.10
Mehmet’s eyes were certainly on the West for he spent much time studying the position of Italy and learning the situation of the West. His troops did arrive in Italy but not until 1480 when Ottoman forces landed at Otranto, only to
5 Richard Eder, “My Name is Red”, New York Times September 2, 2001, May 20, 2013
<http://NYTimes.com.htm>.
6Pamuk,Other Colours,192.
7Feride Çiçekoglu, “A Pedagogy of Two Ways of Seeing: A Confrontation of ‘Word and Image’
in8My Name is Red”, Journal of Aesthetic Education 37, 3 (Autumn, 2003): 4.
Lisa Jardine & Jerry Brotton, Global Interests: Renaissance Art between East and West
(London: Reaktion Books Ltd., 2000) 8.
9Pamuk,Other Colours,313-314.
evacuate on the following year due to the death of the Sultan.11 In 1438, the
Ottoman Sultan Murad II’s forces also moved up through Hungary and Transylvania.12 The other moving westward is the transfer of Sultan’s palace,
from Topkapi13 palace to the palace of Dolmabahçe14 around the mid of
nineteenth century, which was considered at that time more suited to the modern age.15
If the Ottoman Sultans tried to come closer to the West and Kemal Ataturk destroyed all Eastern and Islamic traditions and transforms them to the Western traditions, Orhan Pamuk combines those two traditions, the East and the West, to produce a hybrid in his works. As a novelist—who won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature for his highly appreciated work My Name is Red (2001)—Pamuk, firstly, wants to delineate the endless oscillation between the East and the West in his works; especially in My Name is Red and The White Castle16. These two
novels depict the internal struggle within the Italian Renaissance painting and the traditional miniature style as well as the modern technology and scientific invention from Europe and the prediction and interpretation of dreams and stars.
11Ebru Boyar and Kate Fleet, A Social History of Ottoman İstanbul,First Edition (New York:
Cambridge University Press, 2010) 9.
12Jardine & Brotton,Global Interests,26.
13 Topkapi Palace was constructed under the reign of Sultan Mehmed II. It was primarily
residence of the Ottoman Sultans for about 400 years. From here, the sultans were to run the affairs of state until the mid-nineteenth century, when they transferred to the palace of Dolmabahçe. Boyar and Fleet,Social History,28.
14 Under Mahmud II’s successor, Dolmabahçe Palace became the residence of the sultan.
Topkapi Palace was abandoned totally and the multi-storey European-style places continued to be built on both shores of the Bosphorus—Çirağan and Yildis on the European side and Beylerbeyi on the opposite, Asian side. The most important interior feature of these palaces was their gigantic staircase imitating the European style. Moreover, the nineteenth-century palace built in European style was also embellished with European-style gardens. Boyar and Fleet,Social History,28, 245, 310.
15Boyar and Fleet,Social History,28.
16 These books will be cited as, respectively, MNR and TWC in the text for all subsequent
Afridi and Byuze say that Pamuk’s stories focus on the question of searching for the identity of the Turks and the encounter between the East and the West, which are not the contemporary issues since the Ottoman Empire is “dramatized” in the new symbol of the clash and mix of cultures in his works. In addition, they usually circle around the construing of East and West as a conflicting yet reconciling aspect in his works.17 Secondly, as a writer, Pamuk
does not choose one of the sides explicitly neither judge nor criticize.18 He gives
space and appreciates the process of an individual who is looking for his identity without any claims from the others, which can distract him from his identity formation process.
According to Iyer, in his article “A View of the Bosphorus”, Pamuk’s refusal to settle into one position has made him the target of both secularists and religious conservatives19 for the religious conservatives and Turkish politicians
demand that Turkey should have only one soul that it should belong to either the East or the West or to be nationalistic.20To quote Pamuk’s own words:
“It is not a big problem for Turkey to have two different cultures and spirits and they should not worry about it because it is not a bad thing. Just let this process become natural for if you worry too much about one part of you, which can kill the other part, you will be left with a single spirit.”21
Moreover, slavishly imitating the West or slavishly imitating the old dead Ottoman culture is not the solution.22 His denial to choose one position has
17Mehnaz M. Afridi and David M. Byuze,Global Perspectives on Orhan Pamuk (New York:
Palgrave Macmillan, 2012) 5.
18Çiçekoglu, “Pedagogy”, 3.
19Pico Iyer, “A View of the Bosphorus”, New York Times September 30, 2007, November 6,
2013 <http://www.nytimes.com>.
20Pamuk,Other Colours,369. 21Ibid.
delivered books, which are a mixture of Eastern and Western methods, styles, habits, and histories. He confesses that he can wander between the two worlds and in both he is at home.23
Turkey’s desire and longing to Westernize and the dilemma of the Ottoman Turks who are searching for their identity in the influence of Western values have been captured by Orhan Pamuk into his works through the history of the miniature painting in the Ottoman miniature guild, which is filled by conflict, jealousy, and murder among the painters (MNR) and also through the character of Hoja, which is presented by the scientific inventions and technology (TWC). In general, Pamuk sees the tension arising out of a clash between the traditional— represented by the East—and the modern—represented by the West—as a powerful force in his works.24 This condition is supported by Edward Said who
argues that Western political and intellectual domination over the East has defined the nature of the Orient potentially as weak and of the Occident as strong.25 There
is a revisit of the Orientalism, which comes in a different style and form. The West, that is the deepest image of the other, is actually colonialized by the Ottoman. However, the self-inflicted that is felt by Turkey in the end of the Empire has led to self-orientalism because it tries to erase the grand Ottoman tradition and abruptly change it with Western culture. In Pamuk’s, it is in the way the traditional miniature painting can be replaced by the Italian Renaissance painting and in the way the traditional can be replaced by modern technology. However, it is not an exaggeration if I say that the question on the oscillation
23Pamuk,Other Colours,264.
between the East and the West that is knitted in the historical context is the main hinge of Pamuk’s works.Moreover, he confirms this in the opening page of My Name is Red, a quotation from Koran, “To God belongs the East and the West” (The Cow, 115) (MNR,2).
Pamuk’s oeuvre always demonstrates the binary opposition within them, between the Self and the Other. In My Name is Red, Pamuk uncovers the history of the Ottoman miniature painter, which is also filled with conflicts, jealousy, and murder among the miniaturist.26 The concern is mainly on the debate around
traditions of painting as two different cultures, which comes in contact with each other27 where the traditional miniature painting is contested by the Italian
Renaissance painting style that flourishes during the Ottoman period. According to Farred, Pamuk’s novel can only be understood trough the act of comparison of its Otherness28, for instance, “the Venetian master and the master illustrators and
calligraphers of Tabriz, Mashhad, and Aleppo” (MNR, 25); “the Persian artists, a direct comparison within the world of the East, had made more extraordinary illustrations, more masterpieces, than we Ottomans” (MNR, 346); or worse, how the painting that is produced by the Venetian masters has broken into Ottoman miniature painting when “the Jesuit priests of Portugal long ago introduced European painting and methods there. They are everywhere now”. (MNR,433)
26 Grant Farred, “To Dig a Well with a Needle”: Orhan Pamuk’s Poem of Comparative
Globalization, The Global South 1, 2 (Fall, 2007): 87.
My Name is Red is a murder story whose murderer is one of the finest miniaturists who is deeply influenced by the Venetian style29 and works on the
illustration of the secret book. The story is set in the late 16th century in İstanbul,
Turkey, during the reign of Sultan Murat III (1574-1595). To celebrate a thousand anniversary of Islam, Sultan Murat III—who is mostly interested in miniatures and books30—commissions a secret book that will show to the world Islam’s
military strength and pride as well as the power and wealth of his own dynasty. (MNR, 121) Enishte Effendi, Sultan’s ambassador to Venice who is in charge of finishing this book, is secretly instructed to make the illustrations, which adopt the Italian Renaissance style to impress the Western and to prolong the age of His rule.31
In The White Castle, Pamuk complicates the Self-Other or the binary opposition and grasp the conflict between Self and Other. Here, Pamuk delineates how the Other is thus always present, frequently as a threat and seduction, within the historical confines of the Self. Both Hoja and the Venetian slave share an uncanny resemblance to each other32 because Hoja is not only the Venetian’s
master but also his pupil for Hoja also asks his slave to teach him everything he had learnt in his country (TWC,32). Hoja always dreams to live in the West. From the very beginning, Hoja does not like the activities of the pashas and Sultan for they depend on the astrology and the illogical interpretation of the dreams and stars. He also dislikes them for they have little interest in science.
29Çiçekoglu, “Pedagogy”, 3. 30Çiçekoglu, “Pedagogy”, 6.
31 David Martyn, “Turkish-German Literature Goes İstanbul, or, Lessons for Multicultural
Complexities in Hoja’s life and his exhaustion on the Sultan and his “traditionality”, “forced” him to adore the identity of his Venetian slave whose life is more interesting in Italy where people do not depend on the prediction and interpretation of the dreams and stars. In the end, master Hoja changes his identity with his Venetian slave—who is more knowledgeable in the science and has physical similarities—after his “war machine” does not give victory to the Sultan. He wants to correspond with men of science in Venice, Flanders, whatever faraway land occurred to him at that moment. (TWC,121)
2. Research Questions
Based on the background information above, this study is focused on the issues concerning with the discourse of the clash between the East and the West and the identity crisis and the problems of the study can be formulated as follows: 1. How is the oscillation of the East and the West and Turkey’s complex desire to
imitate the Other depicted in Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red and The White Castleand how do the theories of Said and Bhabha help this discourse?
2. What are the solutions that Pamuk’s selected stories offer to the predicament of the oscillation of the East and the West?
3. Scope of the Study
the desire to become and imitate the Other have led Turkey to this high tension. Turkey also experiences the up and down emotion of the anxiety to embrace the forced modernity as well as the feeling of hüzün because of the loss of the Ottoman past’s glory. Due to this predicament, this research uses Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red andThe White Castle in order to reveal the negotiation and the complexity of the oscillation between the East and the West, the seduction of the European art and technology that lead to the complex desire to imitate the Other and identity crisis faced by the characters, and its solution offered in these two tales. It is a critical reading using Said’s discourse on Orientalism and Bhabha’s discourse on Postcolonialism, which focuses on in-betweenness, self-orientalism, mimicry, ambivalence, and hybridity. These points are very important sinceMNR and TWCcomplicate Turkey’s desire to imitate the Other and how it manages to overcome the anxiety by combining the Self and the Other. These two discourses are used to expose the oscillation of the East and the West and the complex desire to imitate the Other. In addition, Said’s and Bhabha’s discourses are also applied to illuminate the solutions offered by Pamuk’s selected oeuvre. Since the two selected novels are rich of and related to Turkey’s historical aspects, therefore, other aspects such as Turkey’s socio-culture condition in the 16thand 17th century
4. Research Methodology
In this study I mainly employ the method of library research. There are two kinds of sources that are used; they are primary and secondary sources. The method applied in conducting the study is qualitative approach, while the primary sources are novels written by Orhan Pamuk, a Turkish novelist, entitledMy Name is Red(2001) andThe White Castle(1998).
To support the primary data, the secondary data are taken from books, Pamuk’s non-fictions: İstanbul: Memories of the City (2006) and Other Colours (2008), journals, articles, criticisms, interview, book review, and videos discussing and analysing Orhan Pamuk and his literary works. The data, then, are analysed to discover the connection between the socio-culture and historical condition and the events portrayed in both novels.
5. Benefits and Significance
This study is conducted with the aim to reveal how the agenda of Turkish modern identity—which is represented by the Italian Renaissance art and European technology—challenges the Turks’ life, tradition, culture, art, and identity, how the oscillation of the East and the West and Turkey’s complex desire to imitate the Other, and the solutions that Pamuk offers to the predicament through his works. My Name is RedandThe White Castle have all aspects, which can sharpen the readers’ awareness on the seduction of modernity that can disrupt their culture and traditions and also lead to identity crisis—or even lose it. Through these two stories, the readers can learn that the Turks have orientalised themselves—in other words: Orientalised by the oriental—by feeling inferior to the art they make and to the knowledge and science they master, for they believe that West can bring them to modernity.
oeuvre, especially on Turkey’s fiction, which is still less studied by the Indonesian academic, especially the students of Sanata Dharma University. However, learning other people’s culture and tradition is not a sin. Actually, it is useful to help the Indonesian readers and academics to be acquainted with their culture and tradition more as Pamuk also mentions that we can only know our identity by imitating the Other.33
This study is also conducted with the hope to raise the reader’s awareness regarding the identity degradation as a result of the encounter between the East and the West tradition. I hope that the Indonesian readers can filter the Western traditions and choose which one is suitable to their custom, belief, and culture so that they can still maintain and hold their tradition and identity as Indonesian. It is for the reason that nowadays I still find many young generations who are reluctant to deal with the Indonesian culture and traditions, which have high value, and proud to have, use, or consume Western or American products and perform their traditions. My vision is that the young generations can still embrace modernity without leaving their tradition and identity as Indonesian.
6. Chapter Outline
The first chapter in this study is introduction, which presents the background of the study, research questions, scope of the study, research methodology, and benefits and significance. The second chapter is literature review, which covers the précis of the previous related studies on the same literary
works and review of theories used in this study. Furthermore, short review on the art, cultural, and historical condition of Ottoman Empire and the summary on a selection of Orhan Pamuk’s fictions are also presented in this section. The last part is the theoretical framework of the study.
The answers of the first and second research questions are discussed in chapter three and four. Chapter three discusses the complexity of the oscillation between the East and the West and the enchantment and appropriation of the Italian Renaissance style and European technology by the Ottoman miniature painter and Hoja. In chapter four, the solutions that Pamuk’s stories offer to the predicament of the oscillation between being enchanted to the West and being drawn to Turkey’s own tradition are provided.
14
CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
The chapter is divided into three sections namely review of related studies, review of theoretical concept, and theoretical framework. The first sub chapter shows literature review of related studies on the works of Orhan Pamuk that are investigated by six researchers.
The second sub chapter illustrates review of theoretical concept that is divided into two main segments. They are context of the novels and discourse on issues of Orientalism and Postcolonialism. The first main segment has three sections. The first segment is the summary of Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red and The White Castle. Next segment discusses Turkish traditional miniature painting and the Italian Renaissance painting. In addition, since Pamuk’s selected stories focus on the Ottoman history in the 16th to 17th century therefore the third
section will present brief information on the reign Sultans. The second main section discusses Edward Said’s concept of Orientalism and Homi K. Bhabha’s Postcolonialism that are used to illuminate this thesis in dealing with the East-West entanglement.
1. Review of Related Studies
Orhan Pamuk, the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006, tries to reintroduce the Ottoman past to his readers through his tales. As he tells his tales, the past becomes (more like) a creative puzzle in the pages of My Name is Red (2001) and The White Castle (1998).34 His works invite scholarly discussions
especially on the dialogue, tension and negotiation between the East and the West, the high tension between the enchanting Western technology and art and the Ottoman traditions, as well as the identity formation process toward the so-called a new ideal identity.
The first research to mention is by Feride Çiçekoglu,35titled “A Pedagogy
of Two Ways of Seeing: A Confrontation of ‘Word and Image’ in My Name is red”36, which claims that My Name is Red is a chronicle of the confrontation of
two ways of seeing and the story of how the quest for representationalism defeats the miniature tradition, although such defeat is, by no means, a one-dimensional praise of the impact of Venice and its quest for naturalism on Islamic art. In addition, this article attempts to pick up clues inMy Name is Red for tracing two different ways of seeing East-West framework in the late 16th century, not as a
binary opposition but as a dialectical trope of word and image.37 In other words,
34Pinar Batur, “Author in the Classroom: An Interview with Orhan Pamuk”, Middle East Studies
Association Bulletin 41, 1 (June, 2007): 9.
35An Associate Professor and Director of the Master Program in Visual Communication Design,
İstanbul Bilgi University, İstanbul.
36This article is developed from Çiçekoglu’s earlier version written in Turkish (Çiçekoglu 2001)
when she was an artist-in-residence in Rotterdam (January-May 2002) under a grant from the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture, and Science, the Municipality of Rotterdam and Rotterdam Art Foundation. Çiçekoglu, “Pedagogy”, 1-20.
Çiçekoglu wants to see the East-West relations apart from the different way of seeing between those two poles.
Çiçekoglu’s another research on the same novel is “Difference, Visual Narration, and ‘Point of View’ in My Name is Red”38, which employs visual
narration technique and point of view. It focuses on the difference between the Eastern and the Western ways of visual narration. This essay discusses issues of portraiture and character, movement and time, and story and space with reference to the narrative structure in fiction film. It aims to contribute to the discussion on point of view in visual narration, narrative structure of film as a continuation, and interaction of different traditions in East and West.
A research written by David Martyn entitled “Turkish-German Literature goes İstanbul, or, Lessons for Multicultural Germanists in Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red” (n.d.)39 firstly explains “Germanophonie” or literature written in
German by non-German, transcultural authors, especially Turkish immigrants who live in Germany and publish literature. He observes Pamuk’s My Name is Red, as a contemporary Turkish literature, which can help in recognizing the individual value of the writings of Germanophone authors. This engagement concerns the notion ofindividualitythat is used to point out what is missing in the existing research on Germanophone authors. Martyn states that Pamuk’s work can be read as an eloquent commentary on the double binds that modernity imposes on individuals. He also notes that his research is an indication of what is designed
38Feride Çiçekoglu, “Difference, Visual Narration, and ‘Point of View’ in My Name is Red”.
Journal of Aesthetic Education 37, 4 (2003): 124-137.
to overcome the dualist mode of thought that sees everything before the backdrop of an East-West dichotomy.
Abdur Rahman Shahin’s article “Why am I what I am: Hoja’s Impatience at Turkish Identity in Orhan Pamuk’s The White Castle”40 discusses a searching
for a stable identity for Hoja, the main character in The White Castle,who finally changes his identity with the Italian slave. Shahin, in his writing, wants to explore the reasons of Hoja’s intolerance to his Turkish identity and critic to the legacy of the Ottoman Empire that finally compelled him to change it.
Another research by Dilek Kantar, entitled “The Stylistic Dialogue of East and West in Orhan Pamuk’s The White Castle”41, which borrows Mikhail
Bakhtin’sdialogic heteroglossia, illustrates how another speech is infused into the speech of the main characters in Pamuk’s novel. Bakhtin says that in dialogic heteroglossia, language lies between oneself and the other and the word used is half someone else’s. However, it can be one’s own when he appropriates the word and adapting it into his own speech.42 Here, Kantar also analyses “stylistic
hybrids” that speculate Western and Eastern conceptions of self in The White Castle’s dialogue interaction. According to Baktin, a “stylistic hybrid” is an utterance that belongs to a single speaker, but actually contains mixed within it two utterances, two speech manners, two styles, two “languages”, two semantic
40Abdur Rahman Shahin, “Why am I what I am: Hoja’s Impatience at Turkish Identity in Orhan
Pamuk’sThe White Castle”,Language in India (August, 2012): 323-334.
41Dilek Kantar, “The Stylistic Dialogue of East and West in Orhan Pamuk’sThe White Castle” a
journal compilation in theChallenging the Boundariesedited by Işil Baş and Donald C. Freeman. (New York: Rodopi B. V., 2007) 125-134.42
and axiological belief systems.43InThe White Castle,this hybrid construction can
be found in the relationship between Hoja and his slave, which makes them more and more alike until they lose their own voice, as they more immersed in the other’s lifestyle, and finally fuse on the story.44 Stylistic hybrids also let Pamuk
challenge the boundary between the Eastern and the Western patterns of thinking personified by the main characters in his novel, Hoja and his Italian slave.
Grant Farred’s “To Dig a Well with a Needle: Orhan Pamuk’s Poem of Comparative Globalization” (2007)45 tries to deconstruct the concept of
comparative globalization in Pamuk’s oeuvre, which are impossible to understand except as an instance of globalized comparison, using Derrida and Heidegger’s. Farred states that Pamuk’s works address themselves persistently to criticizing the traces of globalization that was the Ottoman Empire and the globalization that seems always just on the horizon. Moreover, they also demonstrate the comparison between Self and Other and can only be understood through the act of comparison of its Otherness. The comparison, then, is not only between Self and Other but also, more essentially, at the very core of the Self.
A research on Orhan Pamuk’s oeuvre is also discussed by an Indonesian scholar even though it is only a few. Albertus Bagus Laksana’s article entitled “İstanbul: Melankoli yang Mendera” (2013)46 explores the concept of hüzün in
Pamuk’sİstanbul: Memories and the CityandMy Name is Redas a deep spiritual loss towards past’s glory and a fear to face the future. Here, Laksana states that
43Bakhtin, “Discourse in the Novel”, 126. 44Kantar, “The Stylistic Dialogue”, 127. 45Farred, “Dig a Well”,81-99.
the entire İstanbul resident as well as the characters in My Name is Red cannot free the complexity of hüzün from their spiritual and cultural experience. However, he also offers a solution to overcome the complexity of hüzün by combining and living in the two traditions—the East and the West tradition.
2. Review of Theoretical Concept
This section is divided into two main sections namely context of the novels and discourse on issues of Orientalism and Postcolonialism. The information on Turkish miniature painting and Italian Renaissance painting and the reign of the Ottoman sultans in the 16th and 17th century is presented in the first section. They
are presented to give a depth information and understanding to the readers as well as give an illustration of the overall story. In addition, they are presented in order to illuminate the two tales that are interrelated to Turkey’s history, its traditional miniature painting, and the influence of Italian Renaissance painting. Moreover, to analyse Orhan Pamuk’s selected novels, this study employs Edward Said’s discourse on Orientalism and Homi K. Bhabha’s discourse on Postcolonialism that are presented in the second section. Those theories are used to uncover the predicament of the oscillation between the East and the West and unearth the solutions Pamuk’s stories offer to overcome the problems.
2.1. Context of the Novels
2.1.1. Turkish Miniature Painting V. Italian Renaissance Painting
In the previous part, I have explained thatMy Name is Red focuses on the two painting traditions; the tradition of miniature painting during the Ottoman period in the late 16th century İstanbul and also the tradition of the Italian
miniature painting have different way in seeing their objects. However, Sultan Murat III who wants to get a support from the Western to prolong his position tries to protect the secret book, which is the threat for the Ottoman traditional miniature art because it contains Western paintings in it.
Due to the novel’s focus as well as the problems on the imitation and adoption of the Western painting style, I provide further information concerning the two conflicting painting traditions, which have different way of seeing the objects, the Italian Renaissance Art and Turkish traditional miniature painting. Additionally, the information on their histories and functions is also presented since My Name is Red mostly discusses these two painting methods and their different ways in seeing their objects.
2.1.1.1. Turkish Miniature Painting
Kuiper (2010), in Islamic: Art, Literature, and Culture, states that a closely parallel development of the impact of the Islamic religion on the visual arts is the celebrated question of a Muslim iconoclasm. However, the Koran is not totally against the representation of living things. It is equally true that from about the middle of the 8th century, a prohibition against life-like imagery had been
formally stated and thenceforth it would be a standard feature of Islamic thought. The justification for the prohibition tended to be that any representation of a living thing was an act of competition with God, for He alone can create something that is alive.47 The representation of the living things, moreover, is “like growing
47 Kathleen Kuiper, Islamic: Art, Literature, and Culture (New York: Britannica Educational
arrogant before God, like considering oneself of utmost importance, like situating oneself at the centre of the world.” (MNR, 119-120)
Despite the fact that Islam prohibited figuration, miniature paintings were allowed because they were universal, a decoration of the text and subordinate to it. The Ottoman miniature painters did not mainly aim to depict the human beings and other living or non-living beings realistically.48 “Painting is the act of seeking
out Allah’s memories and seeing the world as He sees the world.” (MNR, 88) Çiçekoglu adds that miniature painting becomes an extension of the text, rather than an independent art. In the tradition of miniature painting, images are not seen as things in themselves but they are treated as illustrations of the text or “footnotes” even when the image seems to dominate the written word on the page. It serves the purposes of the words for a better understanding of the meaning and for a description of a narration.49
In Islamic miniatures, the goal is perfection, not expression of the artist’s individuality.50 Enishte Effendi also supports that miniature painting is used to
beautify the manuscript we read and it depicts the most vital scenes in the story. Moreover, the image is the story blossoming in colour, which accompanying story. (MNR, 27) Pamuk also mentions that,
painting in Islamic culture was permissible only to decorate the insides of the books and…never were these paintings meant to hang on walls, and they never did!51
It is in line with Olive’s statement that “the illustrations of the Persian masters and
48Kuiper,Islamic: Art,131. 49Çiçekoglu, “Pedagogy”, 1.
even the masterpieces of the greatest masters of Herat are ultimately seen as an extension of border ornamentation” (MNR, 424).
Dimand in “Islamic Miniature Painting and Book Illumination” says that Turkish miniature painting was derived from Persian art52, which is under
influenced by Chinese painting that is brought by the Mongolian ruler.53 He
explains that a brilliant period of Persian Painting was inaugurated in Herat under Sultan Husain Mirza (1468-1506), who was the patron of the celebrated painter Bihzad, or who is called Master Bihzad54 in My Name is Red. Bihzad reveals
himself as a keen observer of nature and he also enriched the palette of Persian painter by creating effective new colour combination.55 During the second half of
the 15th century, Bihzad’s interest in observing his environment resulted in the
introduction of more realistic poses and the introduction of numerous details of daily life. Iranian individualism is especially apparent in painting, in which Chinese and other foreign styles were consistently adapted to express intensely Iranian subject, thereby creating a uniquely Persian style.56
Compared to the Persian painting, the Mughal style of painting, which was flourished under the Emperor Akbar from Hindustan (1556-1605), combine Persian, Hindu, and European elements in its style. As a result of contact with the European art, which was greatly admired by Akbar, Mughal painters introduced
52Maurice S. Dimand, “Islamic Miniature Painting and Book Illumination”, The Metropolitan
Museum of Art Bulletin 28, 10 (October, 1933): 171.
53Dimand, “Islamic Miniature”, 168.
54Master Bihzad was the most prominent Persian miniaturist who lived in the 15thcentury. He
was a painter who developed miniature painting style, which was used in Ottoman Turkey. Herat was the centre of painting in the Islamic world and home to the great Master Bihzad. (MNR, 445) In addition, he had also painted the most magnificent pictures and the most incredible masterpieces. (55 MNR, 304)
Dimand, “Islamic Miniature”, 170.
atmospheric effects and even perspective into their paintings. It is also mentioned in My Name is Red that the Persian painters or calligraphers are encouraged to sign their names (MNR, 432-433), which are written in the margin in red ink.57
Turkish painting of the 16thand 17thcenturies followed Persian prototypes
in the main, but the figures were dressed in Turkish costumes and certain vivid colours peculiar to Turkey were used with very decorative effect.58 Kerametli
adds that “Turkish miniatures colours were strikingly brilliant…and the most used colours were bright red, scarlet, green, and different shades of blue”.59 However,
theOttoman miniature painting does not compare in quality with Persian painting,
which originally influenced the Turkish school. Yet, Ottoman miniatures do have a character of their own, either in the almost folk-art effect of religious images or in the precise depictions of such daily events as military expeditions or great festivals.60It is against such worlds of arts that Pamuk’s works are set.
2.1.1.2. Italian Renaissance Painting
The word Renaissance comes from the word “rinascita”.It represents the revival of a spirit that has been all but destroyed during the Dark Ages, the beginnings of which decline were already evident under the first Christian Emperor Constantine and are confirmed when “barbarian” or “gothic” tribes invaded and brutalized an over-ripe classical civilization.61 Philip M. Soergel, in
57M.S. Dimand, “Persian and Indian Miniature Paintings”, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Bulletin 30, 12 (1935): 249-250.
58Dimand, “Islamic Miniature”, 171.
59Can Kerametli, “Turkish Miniatures in the 16thCentury”, The Turkish Journal of Collectable
Art 4 (1985).
60Kuiper,Islamic: Art, 208.
Arts and Humanities through the Eras: Renaissance Europe (1300-1600), states that in its influence to the arts and sciences, Renaissance praises creativity as a sign of humankind’s creation in God’s likeness for man is the depiction of God. Moreover, human creativity was also celebrated as divine attributes62 and the
large goal of these explorations was to identify ways in which the human soul might achieve mystical union with God, to commune with God.63
John Hale adds that Renaissance is popularly associated with the visual arts, science, medicine, ancient languages or astronomy. It first appeared in the writings of neither an intellectual nor humanist but of an art-promoting painter and architect who compiled a book of the lives of his fellow post-medieval artist, Giorgio Vasari.64 Gilbert, in The Renaissance and The Reformation, supports the
statement above that in the Renaissance era art and science are closely related. Both the artist and the scientist strove for the mastery of the physical world, and the art of painting profited by two fields of study that may be called scientific: anatomy, which made possible a more accurate representation of the human body, and mathematical perspective. Due to the close relation between art and science, some men are both artists and scientists, notably Leonardo da Vinci.65
Pamuk narrates in My Name is Red that “the image of the Italian Renaissance painting was of an individual” (MNR, 28). Eder also adds that the world-view underlying European Renaissance Painting was also different from
62Philip M. Soergel,Arts and Humanities through the Eras: Renaissance Europe (1300-1600)
(Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2005) 235-236.
63Soergel,Arts and Humanities, xv.
64John Hale,England and the Italian Renaissance: the Growth of Interest in its History and Art,
Fourth Edition (Malden: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2005) x.
that of tradition Ottoman miniature painting. The Italian Renaissance portraits are of specific people, and even trees and dogs are particulars. The Italian Renaissance painters mainly aim to depict human beings and other living or non-living beings realistically.66 In this painting method, every people are depicted
realistically in their portraits because they are seen as “different from all others, a unique, special, and particular human being” (MNR, 187).
Soergel emphasizes that image in Renaissance painting takes a special importance. Religious images served as a vital textbook that instructed in the teachings and history of Christianity and the church, conveyed political and religious agenda, as well as tools of propaganda.67 The other religious images,
such as portraiture, were also commissioned to commemorate a family member who was already dead. Portrait paintings were intended to preserve a positive memory and an inner strength and gentleness of the subject after death. This painting was also said as a vehicle that expressed something about the subject’s own individual nature.68
2.1.2. The Ottoman Sultan in the 16thand 17thCentury
Since Pamuk’s selected novels also focus on the Ottoman history and this thesis also deals with the historical aspects of the Ottoman Empire in the 16thand
17th century therefore I present the information on the reign Sultans that can give
the readers deeper understanding on my thesis. The information on the reign
66Eder, “My Name is Red”.
Sultans in My Name is Red and The White Castle is substantial because the two Sultans, Murad III and Ahmed I, have important roles in encouraging the miniature painters as well as Hoja to imitate and adopt Western art, science, and technology.
Murad III(1574–1595), the reign Sultan inMy Name is Redwho is based on the real historical figure, was Sultan Selim II’s successor.69 After his father
dead, Murad III, as Selim’s eldest son, carried on one family tradition with ferocity—killing all five of his brothers on the day of his accession. Murat was the last of the sultans to have had some field experience before taking the throne, having served as a provincial administrator under both his grandfather Süleyman and his own father. But his unusually spirited passion for women resulted in the presence of 40 concubines in his court who in all produced some 130 sons in addition to uncounted female children.70
He was the Ottoman sultan who most interested in miniatures and books and he had the Book of Skills, the Book of Festivities and the Book of Victories produced in İstanbul. The most prominent Ottoman miniaturists, including Osman the Miniaturist (Master Osman) and his disciples, contributed to them. Moreover, the Persian miniaturist Velijan (Olive), who is commissioned to work for the Ottoman court, came in 1583 to İstanbul.71 InMy Name is Red, Murad orders the
Head Illuminator Master Osman to work on the Book of Festivities and Uncle Effendi to work on the secret book. The Story of Black and the Ottoman palace
69Pamuk,My Name is Red, 446.
70Stanford J. Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, Volume 1: Empire of the Gazis: the Rise and Decline of the Ottoman Empire, 1280–1808,First Edition (Cambridge: Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge, 1976) 179.
painters was begun in 1591, a year before the thousandth anniversary (calculated in lunar years) of the Hegira. Black, “a character whose thoughts, constitution, and temperament are close to Pamuk’s,”72 returns to İstanbul from the east,
beginning the events recounted in the novel.
Sultan Ahmed I (1603-1617) was Murat III’s grandson—mentioned in the last part of My Name is Red as the Ottoman ruler who destroyed the large clock with statuary sent to the sultan as a present by Queen Elizabeth I. He was Mehmed III’s eldest surviving son who was still 13 years old in his succession. Ahmed abandoned the old tradition of killing his brother and sent his brother, Mustafa, to live at the Old Palace at Bayezit along with their grandmother.73 The
reign of Ottoman Sultan Ahmed I was during whose rule the events ofThe White Castle take place. It is for the reason that the Sultan here is called “the young sultan” and “the child” by the narrator (TWC, 39)—for he was still very young, 13 years old, when he became the sultan—and because the narrator also mentions that the sultan in this story is Ahmed the First, Murad the Third’s grandson. (TWC,43)
2.2 Discourse on Issues of Postcolonialism and Orientalism
Orientalism is closely related to Postcolonialism since the analysis of the of the binary opposition and the relationship between the Self and the Other, the East and the West are at the heart of Postcolonialism. Due to the problems mentioned above, Said’s discourse on Orientalism and Bhabha’s discourses on
72Pamuk,Other Colours, 268.
Postcolonialism will be used to enlighten this thesis in dealing with predicament of the oscillation of the East and the West as well as in finding Pamuk’s solutions to the predicament of the oscillation inMy Name is RedandThe White Castle.
2.2.1. The Discourse on Postcolonialism
Here, I used postcolonial theory to deconstruct the complex and ambiguous desire to imitate the Other, which is mainly on the Turkish characters in My Name is Red and The White Castle. In order to dismantle the complex and ambiguous desire to imitate the Other, Homi K Bhabha’s discourse on postcolonialism will be employed in this research, which also focuses on hybridity, in-betweenness, mimicry, and ambivalence.
2.2.1.1. Colonialism
Although this study uses the discourse on Postcolonial theory from Homi Bhabha as the main reference, it will start with concept of colonialism. It is for the reason that Turkey is one of the countries in Europe, which has never been colonialized by other nations or by Western powers. As a non-postcolonial country, Turkey experiences a self-colonization as the result of brutal Westernization, which was “part of the ongoing project, associated with an elite movement, to rapidly “civilize” society borrowed from the Soviet example and Europe.”74 In addition, Europe is used by the elite as the main reference to
“civilize” Turkey through imitating their values of modernity.
Ania Loomba defines colonialism as conquest, domination, and control of other people’s land and goods. It is the expansion of various European powers
into Asia, Africa, or Americas from the 16th century onwards.75 While Ashis
Nandy, inThe Intimate Enemy(1983), which adapts Foucault’s analysis of power, says that modern colonialism is a new way of colonialism in which the colonizer or the powerful changes its way in colonizing the Orient or the powerless.76
Nandy builds an interesting distinction between two chronologically distinct types or genres of colonialism. The first focused on the physical conquest of territories, whereas the second was more insidious in its commitment to the conquest and occupation of minds, selves, and cultures. The second was established by rationalists, modernists, and liberals who argued that imperialism can bring civilization to the uncivilized world.77Furthermore, Nandy writes:
This colonialism colonises minds in addition to bodies and it releases forces within colonised societies to alter their cultural priorities once and for all. In the process, it helps to generalise the concept of the modern West from a geographical and temporal entity to a psychological category. The West is more everywhere, within the West and outside, in structures and in minds (Nandy, 1983, p. xi).78
Along with Nandy’s types of colonialism, Orhan Pamuk, in “The Paris Review Interview” also mentions that even though Turkey was never a colony but the suppression that Turks suffered was self-inflicted. In that suppression, there is a sense of fragility but that self-imposed Westernization also brought isolation. As a result, the Turks were strangely isolated from the Western world they rivalled.79
Their desire to Westernize their country had created their commitment and ambition to the conquest of Turks own mind, selves, and culture. The Turks
75Loomba,Colonialism/Postcolonialism, 7-8.
76 Cited in Leela Gandhi, Postcolonial Theory: A Critical Introduction, First Edition (Crows
Nest, Allen & Unwin: 1998) 15.
77Gandhi,Postcolonial Theory, 15.
78See Ashis Nandy,The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self under Colonialism(Delhi,
Oxford University Press, 1983) xi.
argued that facing the West is “really the messianic harbinger of civilization to the uncivilized world”.80 In additional, to have Turkey civilized and modernized, they
erased their history and left the Ottoman tradition. They felt that Islam and the Ottoman tradition were their biggest obstacles in order to be the West and modern.
2.2.1.2. Postcolonialism
Leela Gandhi states that colonialism does not end with the end of colonial occupation and its resistance begins with the onset of colonialism.81 Loomba adds
that after colonialism ends, postcolonialism appear as the contestation of colonial domination and legacies of colonialism.82 In line with Pope’s statement that
postcolonialism believes that such identity is created as a result of colonialism,83
Turkey, now, is still experiencing identity ambivalence as the result of the radical modernization that is forced by the elite colonizer (read: the Kemalists). Homi K. Bhabha, just as Edward W. Said in Orientalism, also analyses the discourse on colonialism. His keys concepts in the discourse on postcolonialism are hybridity and the third space, in-betweenness, mimicry, and ambivalence.
In The Location of Culture, Bhabha says that the important feature of colonial discourse is its dependence on the concept of “fixity” in the ideological construction of otherness. Fixity is the sign of cultural/historical/racial difference in the discourse of colonialism. It is the force of ambivalence that gives the colonial stereotype its currency: ensures its repeatability in changing historical
80Gandhi,Postcolonial Theory, 15. 81Gandhi,Postcolonial Theory, 17.
82Loomba,Colonialism/Postcolonialism, 16.
83Rob Pope,The English Studies Book: An Introduction to Language, Literature, and Culture,
