123 I argue that what Pamuk tries to present in his works is that he wants to “bridge”
the East and the West like the Bosphorus Bridge, which connects the Eastern and the Western side of İstanbul without taking any sides. This statement is in
accordance with Pamuk’s conversation with Elizabeth Farnsworth in PBS NewsHour, where he declares that,
I want to be a bridge in the sense that a bridge doesn’t belong to any continent, doesn’t belong to any civilization, and a bridge has the unique opportunity to see
both civilizations and be outside of it. That’s a good, wonderful privilege.
300
Pamuk considers the bridge, which spans the Bosphorous and unites the European and Asian sides of İstanbul, a metaphor for himself because it belongs nowhere,
but has a foot on two continents.
301
Erdağ Göknar in “Orhan Pamuk and the ‘Ottoman’ Theme”, supports the statement above by saying that “Pamuk himself,
he tries to juxtapose, synthesize, or transcend both”,
302
the East and the West through his oeuvre. By becoming “the Bosphorous Bridge”, Pamuk shows his
impartiality both the East and the West.
2. Self-Questioning
Pamuk’s role, which has already been mentioned in the previous part, is not only as the agent that connects and mediates the East and the West but also as
the critic of the representatives of both sides. The East-West encounter has led to the enchantment and seduction of Western tradition. The longing and desire for
Others also opens the way to the oscillation between embracing the modernity of
300
PBS NewsHour, “Orhan Pamuk: Bridging Two Worlds”.
301
PBS NewsHour, “Orhan Pamuk: Bridging Two Worlds”.
302
Göknar, “Ottoman Theme”, 38.
124 the West or preserving the Islamic Ottoman tradition. Therefore, the tension and
conflict between the two political sides cannot be avoided. In this sub chapter, I display Pamuk’s criticism on Turkish politicians’
monistic view that Turkey should have one consistent soul, only belong to the East or to the West or be nationalistic,
303
which he “paints” in My Name is Red and The White Castle. Through the colours from his pallet to create his “art
works”, which are in a form of words and sentences, I indicate that Pamuk wants to criticise the East and the West, the Ottoman and Western tradition, the
conservatives and the secularists. Even though he is a secularist, Pamuk is critical of the way Turkey has dealt with East-West differences over the past 80 years. In
my view, through MNR and TWC, Pamuk raises his criticism to the elites that were dazzled by the superiority of the West so that they embarked on a program
of Westernizing reforms.
304
The founder of the Turkish Republic also wanted desperately to make Turkey more modern and Western while Pamuk believes that
Ataturk moved too harshly against religion, leaving many people confused and lost
305
and also present the feeling of hüzün. Furthermore, in his novels, I can see that Pamuk raises his criticism to both
“Westernist and anti-Westernist nationalisms sides, which respectively construct myths of origin to contrast East and West”.
306
He mentions that,
in Turkey, both conservatives—or political Islamist—and secularist were upset. The secularists were upset because I wrote that the cost of being a secular radical
in Turkey is that you forget that you also have to be a democrat. …They also didn’t like that I portrayed Islamist as human beings. The political Islamists were
303
Pamuk, Other Colours, 369.
304
Pamuk, Other Colours, 230.
305
PBS NewsHour, “Orhan Pamuk: Bridging Two Worlds”.
306
Ergın, “East-West Entanglements”, 9.
125
upset because I wrote about an Islamist who had enjoyed sex before marriage. …Islamists are always suspicious of me because I don’t come from their culture,
and because I have the language, attitude, and even gestures of a more Westernized and privileged person.
307
As a consequence of his critique to the Westernists and anti-Westernists sides, Pamuk becomes the target of both the secularists and the conservatives.
Moreover, his works also disturb his relationship with his family. İstanbul has destroyed his relationship with his mother and he hardly ever sees his brother.
Pamuk’s relationship with the Turkish public, because of his recent comment and critics to the conservatives and the secularists, is also difficult.
308
Additionally, “Pamuk was also persecuted by his respected states”
309
because of his statement “in an interview with the Swiss newspaper Der Tages-Anzelger”
310
. Through the characters in My Name is Red such as Olive, the miniaturists,
Enishte Effendi, Sultan Murad III, Master Osman, and Nusret Hoja as well as in the The White Castle such as Hoja, the Italian slave, and Sultan Ahmed I, Pamuk
wants to deliver his criticism to both the representatives of the East and the West. Pamuk criticises those who insist that Turkey should have only a single spirit
through their identity formation processes. In modern Turkey identity, the cosmopolitanism is erased and replaced by the new national identity. The irony of
modernization program was indicated by the erasure of cosmopolitanism that was indicated by millions of Greek, Armenians, and Kurds that died when they were
departed and exchanged from Turkey.
307
Pamuk, Other Colours, 373-374.
308
Pamuk, Other Colours, 378.
309
Ali and Hagood, “Heteroglossic Sprees”, 523.
310
Pamuk, Other Colours, 356.
126 Gökberk emphasizes that the erasure of Turkey’s cosmopolitanism makes
people feel “a collective melancholy hüzün over the city’s bygone Ottoman past…and over no meaningful values that have been replaced the old cultural
tradition. Here everybody also seems to be affected by the abrupt erasure of the past.”
311
Under Kemal Ataturk, Turkey’s rich cosmopolitanism was erased and replaced by the new national identity. The elite’s movement, to rapidly “civilize”
the society,
312
is shown by millions of Greek, Armenians, and Kurds who were departed and exchanged. Göknar also mentions that through his works, Pamuk
wants to criticise “Ottoman history and the elite’s modernization project, which rejects
multi-ethnicity, multi-lingualism,
multi-culturalism, and
cosmopolitanism”.
313
Both the Young Turks and the elites were enchanted by Western superiority so that they started the Westernization project. Pamuk also
mentions that Kemal’s Westernizing reforms were based on the belief that Turkey’s weakness and poverty stem from its traditions, its old culture, and its
various religion practices.
314
For those reasons, he constructed a secular republic, votes for women, new political parties, and the Roman alphabet to replace the
Ottoman sultanate, the harem, the fez, the veil, the Arabic alphabet, the Dervish orders, and the caliphate.
315
While, Sultan Murad III, he makes a cultural transformation by abruptly replacing the Ottoman miniature painting with the
Venetian style of painting. Similarly, Sultan Ahmed I, Murad III’s grandson, also imitates Western science and technology to create gigantic cannon that will be
311
Gökberk, “Beyond Secularism”, 8.
312
Göknar, “Ottoman Theme”, 35.
313
Göknar, “My Name is Read”, 55.
314
Pamuk, Other Colours, 230.
315
Karl E. Meyer, “Ghost along the Bosphorus”, World Policy Journal 24, 3 Fall, 2007: 114.
127 used to defeat the West and leaving the astrology as well as the illogical
interpretation of the dreams and stars. The elite national’s project to abruptly “Westernize” and to self-
colonialized the country
316
can be seen from the “conquest fever”, a provocation by the Turkish state to rampage the city, plundering the property of the Greeks,
the Christians, and the minorities
317
. Under Murad III, there was a requirement to wear certain garment and colours to mark the different religious group. As a Jew,
Esther was also forced to wear the pink dress MNR, 68, and “in garments of poorer quality cloth”
318
. Moreover, the Jewish people also suffered from the oppression that caused on “the execution of the Jews in Amasya, on the eve
Passover” MNR, 147. Their neighbourhood not only looked even more deserted and pitiful in the morning cold MNR, 142 but they were also mocked for their
Jewishness MNR, 262. This is such an irony that after the Republic established, more minorities have left İstanbul while after Mehmed II took Constantinople in
1453, he encouraged and invited the Greek, the Armenians, the Kurds, and the Christians to move to the city and even respected them.
Ali and Hagood stress that Pamuk’s text, which shows many perspectives, is aimed to deconstruct the centralizing project, whether the issues on certain
ideology that is embodied by the Sultan and the artists’ guilds within his court and by the religious fundamentalists who want to destroy the figurative art.
319
Pamuk complicates the oscillation of the Eastern and Western painting in My
316
Göknar, “My Name is Read”, 55.
317
Pamuk, İstanbul, 173.
318
Boyar and Fleet, Social History, 177.
319
Ali and Hagood, “Heteroglossic Sprees”, 507.
128 Name is Red to illustrate the binary opposition between self and other. The
Persian painting represents the only way of seeing from Allah’s perspective, “seeing the world from above” MNR, 272, which is “from the top of the
minaret” MNR, 78. On the contrary, Frankish painting describes the world “as the eyes sees it” MNR, 186 and from the various viewpoints. Therefore, this
represents the individual style of Pamuk’s work that has many narrators. Through Olive, Pamuk wants to criticize the miniaturists who are overly
bound to Eastern and Western style. Olive’s identity is split into two as a master miniaturist and also as a murderer. His voice is a metaphor, which shows the
binary opposition between the East and the West as well the complex oscillation between Self and Other.
Now I am completely divided, just like those figures whose head and hands are drawn and painted by one master while their bodies and clothes
are depicted by another. When a God-fearing man like myself unexpectedly becomes a murderer, it takes time to adjust. I’ve adopted a
second voice, one befitting a murderer, so that I might still carry on as though my old life continued. MNR, 108
This double identity is reflected in the murderer’s speech when he adopts a second voice as an unidentified murderer and when he speaks under his workshop name
as a palace miniaturist. Enishte emphasizes that Olive is “the most talented, divinely inspired artist with the most enchanted touch and eye for detail that
Enishte has ever seen in all his sixty years” MNR, 184. However, it is such an irony that Olive experiences ambivalence because as the most gifted Islamic
painting who has the finest work he is also drawn to Frankish style that promises fame, money, and style. On the other hand, he is also sad that the domination of
Venetian painting can harm the existence of the Islamic Ottoman painting.
129 Olive, as stated, kills Enishte Effendi because he is “the one who duped
him into drawing images removed from their stories”
320
. In addition, Olive’s reason for killing Elegant Effendi, one of Nusret Hoja’s followers, is that because
he is afraid of being accused as a blasphemer by being involved in the making of the Sultan’s commissioned book. This is chiefly seen when Olive, as a murderer,
narrates that Elegant Effendi, had slandered those of us who’d worked on that book Our Sultan had
secretly commissioned. If I hadn’t silenced him, he would’ve denounced us unbelievers. …If someone succeeded in announcing that the
miniaturists were committing blasphemy, these followers of Erzurumi…wouldn’t just be satisfied with doing away with master
miniaturists, they’d destroy the entire workshop and Our Sultan would be helpless to do anything but watch without a peep. MNR, 134-135
As mentioned above, Olive is a miniaturist “who is most bound to the old tradition, who knows most intimately the legends and styles of Herat and whose
master-apprentice genealogy stretches back to Samarkand” MNR, 360. Even though Olive is afraid of being accused as a blasphemer, he also imitates the
Frankish style. He kills Elegant as his devotion to the old miniature tradition as well as to save the miniaturists and the entire workshop from the Hoja of the
Erzurum and his followers. Imitating the Frankish style is an act of competing with God and it is
contrary to the Islamic teaching that every human is the same in front of God. Moreover, they imitate the Venetian painting without mastering the technique.
Olive not only criticizes the miniaturists but also Sultan Murad who orders Enishte Effendi to make the secret book, which is believed as a door that can lead
320
Göknar, “My Name is Read”, 55.
130 the Ottoman to receive recognition from the West. From his critique, Olive wants
to show that the lack of the proficiency of the miniaturists in making the portrait will only make them fail and the other possibility is that they will only be
restrained by the Erzurumis. The attack of the Coffee house by the Erzurumis shows that they want to punish the illustrators because they have made pictures
with the perspectival methods of the Franks that are portrayed in the Sultan’s commissioned book.
The Erzurumis, incited by Elegant’s murderer, and perhaps because Elegant Effendi had described Enishte’s book to them, held Enishte
responsible for the murderer and killed him; and, they must’ve raided the Coffee house to complete their revenge. MNR, 399
As I have already mentioned above, the great preacher Nusret Hoja intends to punish those who veered from the path of Exalted Muhammad, especially the
miniaturists. For the Erzurumis, the illustrators, who emulate the Frankish style, are justified that they have made an act of competition with God by creating
illustration of the living things and also portraiture, for He alone can create something that is alive.
321
In My Name is Red, Pamuk also wants to criticize the miniaturist, especially those who are overly bound to the Eastern painting tradition. For
instance, in a story told by a picture of horse, it clarifies that all illustrations made by miniaturists from memory are also an act of competing with Allah because
they are trying to depict the world the way Allah sees. All miniaturists illustrate all horses from memory in the same way, even
though we’ve each been uniquely created by Allah. …They are attempting
321
Kathleen Kuiper, Islamic: Art, Literature, and Culture New York: Britannica Educational Publishing, 2010 131.
131 to depict the world that God perceives not the world that they see. Doesn’t
that amount to challenging God’s unity, that is—Allah forbid—isn’t it saying that I could do the work of God? Artists who are discontent with
what they see with their own eyes, artists who claim that the best horse is what blind miniaturists draw from memory, aren’t they all committing the
sin of competing with Allah? MNR, 238 From the quotation above, it can be seen that the illustrators who make paintings
from their memory and from the top of the minaret also make a competition with God because they have tried to emulate the way Allah sees the world. The way the
miniaturists depict the world from an elevated Godlike position, like Ibn Shakir did three hundred fifty years ago from a high minaret is the evidence.
Sultan Murad III uses the Italian painting as a movement to rapidly modernize the Empire. He asks Enishte to prepare the secret book in order to
strengthen the position of the Ottoman Empire that is in a regression. The sovereign believes that the Islamic painting tradition will not bring the Ottoman to
the glory. In addition, the Islamic painting is considered to be the barrier for the Empire. By depicting Sultan Murad III who encourages the miniaturists to imitate
the Frankish painting, Pamuk wants to illustrate the loss of the old painting tradition. Ataturk’s Westernization project, which had erased 600-year Islamic
Ottoman Empire tradition, is similar to Murad III who has forced the miniaturists to leave the old painting tradition and adopt the Frankish painting. Ironically, the
secret book that is made for the aim to get the acceptance from the West is left unfinished in the Sultan’s treasury room.
If Nusret Hoja, a great preacher and a representative of the East in My Name is Red, wants the empire belong only to the East, it is different from Hoja
TWC who claims that the empire should belong to the West. Hoja, who
132 represents the Westernist side in the present time of Turkey, is tired of pashas and
Sultan’s dependence on the illogical interpretation of the dreams and stars. He wants to modernize and Westernize the Islamic Empire by enforcing the young
sultan using his stories to adopt Western science and technology. In the end, Hoja is able to dupe the child Sultan to make a war machine, which will be used to
destroy the enemies. As has been explained above, the “modern” was part of the elite’s ongoing
project of progress to rapidly “civilize” society that borrowed from both the Soviet example and Europe.
322
Particularly, Pamuk wants to question and challenge this project through his fictions, My Name is Red and The White Castle
and using the Ottoman past, he tries to take a critical look at the present.
323
This is especially seen in the character of Enishte Effendi. By presenting this character,
Pamuk illustrates how the Kemalists or the modernists or the secularist want to modernize and “civilize” Turkey by slavishly adopting and imitating Western
tradition and culture and leaving the old Ottoman tradition. Moreover, it is clear that Enishte Effendi, who is overly bound to the Italian painting, wants that all
miniaturists adopt and use this style “with the justification that ‘it is the will of Our Sultan’ and ‘betray’ the entire artistic tradition.” MNR, 362
Pamuk shows in his works that the theme of impersonation in My Name is Red and The White Castle is reflected in the fragility Turkey feels when faced
with Western culture. He adds that the anxiety about being influenced by someone else resembles Turkey’s position when it looks West. Pamuk also criticises
322
Göknar, “Ottoman Theme”, 35.
323
Göknar, “Ottoman Theme”, 37.
133 Turkey, especially the modernists, who aspire to become Westernized but then
being accused of not being authentic enough.
324
This can be seen when Olive fails to make his self-portrait by imitating Western style of painting. No matter how
hard he tries, he cannot make a painting as fine as the Frankish masters do. When I could see my face in the mirror from where I sat, I attempted to
draw my portrait in charcoal. I drew for a long time, patiently. Much later, when I saw that once again the face on the page didn’t resemble my face in
the mirror, I was filled with such misery that tears welled in my eyes. Later still, I cursed the European painters and Enishte both, erased what
I’d done and began looking into the mirror anew to begin another drawing. MNR, 307
The quotation above shows that Olive is experiencing the ambivalence of mimicry. He fails to imitate the Western style of painting in portraying himself
because the result is not the same as the Italian Renaissance painting. Bhabha highlights that the condition of “almost the same, but not quite” can be used by
the colonized as a weapon to mock the colonizer.
325
However, here, I have different opinion. In this case, the imitation conducted by Olive and the other
miniaturists will only lead to mockery from the West towards the East that tries to resemble and even emulate them. This is because they do not have the ability to
create paintings, which are as fine as the Frankish style. In addition, Olive is also experiencing a cultural inferiority because he
tries to be the West by imitating the way they paint but he fails and what he can do is only blaming the Frankish master and Enishte toward his failure.
I feel like the Devil…because my portrait has been made in this fashion. But now, the isolation terrifies me. Imitating the Frankish masters without
324
Pamuk, Other Colours, 368.
325
Bhabha, Location of Culture, 86.
134 having attained their expertise makes a miniaturist even more of a slave.
Now, I’m desperate to escape this trap. MNR, 430 Olive’s feeling of cultural inferiority is similar to Turkey’s when the Empire
collapsed and the country tried to find its new national identity. Olive realises that his desire to imitate the Frankish style can only lead to the problems of
authenticity. He emphasized that the imitation to the Frankish painting is a big irony. In addition, the Venetian masters will only scorn the secret book, which is
believed to bring the Empire back into the past glory. It is for the reason that the miniaturists do not have the proficiency of the Franks so that the secret book that
is going to be presented to the Venetian Doge will only make the Venetians masters look down to the Ottomans. As Olive emphasizes to his fellows
miniaturists that after, “Enishte Effendi’s book been completed and sent to them, the Venetian
masters would’ve smirked, and their ridicule would’ve reached the Venetian Doge—that is all. They’d have quipped that the Ottomans have
given up being Ottoman and would no longer fear us.” MNR, 431 The imitation is an irony because this series of Occidental style of paintings by the
palace miniaturists is placed in an Oriental stylebook of calligraphies and be gifted to the Venetian Doge.
326
Without the proficiency, as Esra Almas has pointed out in “Reading My Name is Red: Unveiling a Masterpiece”, innovation
becomes mere imitation and individuality will therefore be reduced to nothing but a signature.
327
Moreover, by imitating the Western style without having the proficiency will only make a miniaturist even more of a slave. MNR, 176 This
326
Üner Daglier, “Orhan Pamuk on the Turkish Modernization Project: Is It a Farewell to the West?”, Humanitas 25, 1-2 2012: 155.
327
Esra Almas, “Reading My Name is Red: Unveiling a Masterpiece”, The International Journal of the Humanities 5, 7 2007: 157.
135 imitation has brought anxiety and left cultural inferiority to Olive even though he
is a brilliant miniaturist for he cannot appropriate the Frankish style precisely. Master miniaturists’ slavish imitation of the Frankish painting is criticized by
Pamuk for this imitation will only revoked Turkey from its Islamic Ottoman root. Pamuk reflects Turkey condition in master miniaturists’ attempt to appropriate the
West. He also wants the whole country to embrace, combine, and live in the two traditions and invent another new tradition rather than only has one single
identity. The miniaturists are experiencing ambiguity from the cultural step, which
they take by imitating the Frankish painting. This is the way Self the East finds a new identity by using the West to define them through the secret book they are
preparing. In My Name is Red, this is also experienced by the Ottoman Empire that actually wants to be acknowledged and accepted by the West by adopting the
Other’s cultural symbol. “Precisely, what Our Sultan stated He wanted: A book that depicted the
thousandth year of Muslim calendar, which would strike terror into the heart of the Venetian Doge by showing the military strength and pride of
Islam, together with the power and wealth of the Exalted House of Osman. …Furthermore, since the illustrations were made in the Frankish style
using Frankish methods, they would arouse the awe of the Venetian Doge and his desire for friendship. MNR, 247
What is ironic here is that the modernists or the Westernist want to modernize the Empire by forcing the miniaturists to leave the old painting tradition and adopt
Frankish painting. The miniaturists are slavishly imitating Western painting style without having the proficiency of the Franks to get the acceptance from the West.
136 Bhabha emphasizes that mimicry for the colonized, is important because it is an
attempt that is made to get the acceptance from the colonizer.
328
This also happens to the Ottoman Empire in the 17
th
century that is described in The White Castle that the Westernist and the Sultan want to revive
the Empire from crisis. Hoja, a new imperial astrologer, has an obsession to bring the glory of the Empire back and defeat Europe by using a war machine whose
technology is borrowed from the West. Unfortunately, the artillery that is made by Hoja and his Italian slave fails to break the White Castle.
Moreover, Pamuk also illustrates the ironic characterization of the young Western slave who should be a slave from an Eastern master that wants him
teaches all Western science, knowledge, and lifestyle he knows from his country. The Eastern master also wants to prove that his slave is not superior to him in any
aspect by acting like “a clever boy who tries to prove that the this his big brother knows are really not all that much” TWC, 33.
According to him, the gap between his knowledge and mine was no greater than the number of volumes he’d had brought from my cell and
lined up on a shelf and the books whose content I remembered. With his phenomenal diligence and quickness of mind, in six months he’d acquired
a basic grasp of Italian which he’d improve upon later, read all of my books, and by the time he’d made me repeat to him everything I
remembered, there was no longer any way in which I was superior to him. TWC, 33
From the quotation above, the master underestimates his slave’s ability and knowledge in science as well as to show that he is superior than his slave. He also
says that the gap of his knowledge and his slave’s knowledge is just as much as
328
Bhabha, The Location of Culture.
137 the books his slave has. However, the Italian slave ironically portrays his master
as a lazy little brother who wants to catch up the lesson. The irony of Turkish modern identity formation process in The White
Castle is the mirror of Ataturk Westernization project that transformed the traditional Ottoman into a civilize nation. Turkey’s failure in the First World War
had raised a suspicion on the Greek and the Christians that they had been spy for Western Allies. This also experienced by the Italian slave who is accused by the
Ottoman as the Western spy when the war machine fails to break the Doppio Castle.
It was then that the rumours increased about how our siege engine...would bring misfortune, even a curse upon us. ...As always it was not Hoja but
me, the infidel, whom they blamed. TWC, 138 Since the rumours that I was accursed and a spy, no longer went to the
sovereign’s tent. That night when he went to interpret the events of the day, Hoja managed to tell tales of victory and good fortune that the sultan
seemed to believe. TWC, 140 The Italian slave is blamed by the sovereign for the failure at the siege of Doppio
that leads to the exchange of the identity between Hoja and his slave. Through The White Castle, Pamuk wants to show how dangerous the forced Westernization
and the longing to be totally the East or the West because it can kill each other. Ahmed I’s abrupt project, on the revolution of the Ottoman astrology and the
interpretation of dreams and stars that is duped by Hoja as his Imperial astrologer to defeat the White Castle, has left hüzün within Hoja and his slave. In the end,
the slave cannot go back to Venice while Hoja must escape from his country. Mohamad supports this by mentioning that even though modernization promises
138 liberation, it causes melancholy.
329
The gigantic kettle that is built by Hoja has left the Ottoman soldiers in fear and death.
“The nearly one hundred men...broke formation and scattered during the weapon’s first assault. Some of them were crushed to bits by the weapon
itself, some of them, after a few ineffective shot, were hit...when they left without cover. Most of them fled in fear of bad luck, and we were unable
to regroup to prepare a fresh assault.” TWC, 141 As a novelist and as a man, Pamuk criticises “the ruthless, murderous
Turkey’s non-Western ruling elites of the postcolonial era”
330
that share the intolerance towards the minorities groups in his works. Western Postmodernism
that is imitated by Turkey’s elites is an irony. Western movement that upholds humanism and gives value to human lives is even bloody and full of violent in its
practice. Moreover, he is also sceptical of Turkey’s state-led modernization project and bitterly critical of the elite Westernists for seeking to abandon
Turkey’s traditional values and identity.
331
3. Hybridity