95 existence of the war machine but so does the pashas, who wanted to be rid of Hoja
and his slave. When Hoja started up his patter…and spoke of the indispensability of the
weapon, the pashas listening to him in the sovereign’s tent were even more firmly convinced that we were charlatans and our weapon would bring bad
luck. TWC, 138 He spent the evening arguing with the pashas…who said the weapon was sapping
the strength of the army as well as bringing bad luck. TWC, 139
4. Personal Search for Identity as Individual
We only acquire our own identity by imitating the Other —Orhan Pamuk
238
Identity is always contested and influenced by other culture, tradition, art, or even technology. Identity is fluid, it is never fixed, and it always changes.
Loomba also emphasises that, “colonial identities are unstable, agonised, and in constant flux. This undercuts both colonialist and nationalist claims to a unified
self, and also warns us against interpreting cultural difference in absolute or reductive term”.
239
Furthermore, Turkey, now, is still searching for its identity, whether being totally East, being totally West, or being nationalist or secular.
Huddart states that identities operate as palimpsests. He discusses that identities are overwritten on which earlier writing is still visible underneath newer writing.
They offer a suggestive model of hybrid identity.
240
Turkey is now still writing
238
Pamuk, İstanbul, 271.
239
Loomba, ColonialismPostcolonialism, 149.
240
Huddart, Homi K. Bhabha, 107.
96 their new identity above their Islamic Ottoman identity that is still visible even
though it had already erased by the Westernization project. Turkey has three transitional periods exemplify the process of its identity
formation process: the capitulation of the Byzantine city to Sultan Mehmed II, the collapse of the empire and subsequent Turkification of the city, and the nostalgia
for the city’s multicultural past.
241
İstanbul is a model of palimpsest city full of the grandeur as well as harmonious multiple cultures, ethnic, and religion of the
Ottoman Empire, which erased by Ataturk’s Westernization project. The changes of the old İstanbul buildings, which are demolished and replaced by the new
modern apartment buildings, show how the new Turkish identity is overwritten on which the old Ottoman identity is still visible under the newer one since there are
still old Ottoman buildings and ruins that remain. Mehmed II, Atik Sinan, and Murad III are examples of Turkey’s figures who experienced a predicament of the
oscillation identity. In My Name is Red and The White Castle, I discover that the identity crisis is still gnawing on the miniature painters, Enishte Effendi, as well
as Hoja and his Venetian slave. Mehmed II is still searching for his identity. Even though the Fatih wanted
to control the West, he was also very interested to the art and science from the West by inviting many Western artists and scientists. After capturing
Constantinople, he tried to erase the glory of the Byzantine Empire, which had reigned supreme for more than a thousand years,
242
by constructing The Fatih Camii or the mosque of the Conqueror. Nevertheless, his effort to erase the past
241
Komins, “Cosmopolitanism Depopulated”, 365.
242
Boyar and Fleet, Social History, 6.
97 grandeur of the Byzantine Empire with the mosque of Conqueror showed an irony
that the architecture of the mosque was clearly influenced by the Hagia Sophia, the masterpiece of Christian Byzantium.
As has been mentioned in the introduction, Mehmet II, the conqueror of Constantinople, is known to have invited many artists from Florence and Venice
on the 15
th
century to produce medals
243
and paintings.
244
One is Costanzo da Ferrara, who makes a portrait medal of Mehmet the Conquerer,
245
the other is Gentile Bellini who creates the Portrait of Mehmet II.
246
Even though he had conquered the Constantinople, there is still longing to be the West by way of
inviting an Italian painter to paint him in the manner of the Italian Renaissance style. This European image of the great Ottoman leader might 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”.
247
Stierlin, in Turkey: From the Selçuks to the Ottomans, says that Mehmed’s interest to Christianity as well as Western culture and tradition was caused by his
background as the son of a Christian mother. Mehmed II also surrounded himself with scholars, artists, and technicians from Greece, Italy, and Central Europe. The
young sultan, who was still twenty-four years old when he captured Byzantium, always wanted to know and understand the latest developments in the arts and
243
As the Christian West and Muslim East struggled for control for Constantinople, portrait medals of the contending figures competed with each other for ownership of the most resonating
symbols of imperial ruler, accompanied by a scene based around a horse. The more “realistic” the horse, the more convincingly captured in the moment of surging strength, mastered by the
horseman. See Jardine and Brotton, Global Interests, 171-175.
244
Çiçekoglu, “Pedagogy”, 4.
245
Jardine and Brotton, Global Interests, 32.
246
Jardine and Brotton, Global Interests, 8.
247
New York Times December 25, 1999, cited in Jardine Brotton, Global Interests, 32.
98 sciences. Moreover, he was also the first Muslim to take an interest in artillery and
he entrusted the production of his cannons to German metalsmiths.
248
Even though Mehmed II had an interest in Western culture, he also tried to challenge the masterpieces of the Byzantine Empire, which was received by
İstanbul and the Ottomans after capturing Constantinople, by constructing The Fatih Camii Mosque of the Conqueror. The mosque was built on the site of the
ruined Byzantine church of the Holy Apostles in order to substitute the grand of Christian Byzantium buildings.
249
The Sultan wants to write the Ottoman’s new identity over the ruined Byzantine buildings that are still visible under the newer
building. The Fatih chose a Christian architect, Christodoulos, or better known under his Turkish name of Atik Sinan Sinan the Elder.
250
The Ottoman’s daily contact with the Byzantine masterpieces and the architect’s background who was
a Christian converted to Islam, had strongly influenced the architecture of the mosque.
251
Additionally, Sinan’s design is the evidence that Hagia Sophia Western heritage has given big influence to the mosque.
The contested identity and the oscillation in Turkey’s identity formation processes become Pamuk’s key colours in “painting” his stories. Pamuk also
blends the capitulation of the Byzantine city, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and the nostalgia of İstanbul’s multicultural past with the issue on Turkey’s
contested identity to presents the oscillation between Self and Other in his two selected works. He delineates how the Other is always present as a threat and
248
Stierlin, Turkey, 100.
249
Stierlin, Turkey, 101.
250
Stierlin, Turkey, 100.
251
Laksana, “İstanbul: Melankoli”; Kuiper, Islamic: Art, 200-206; Stierlin, Turkey, 100.
99 seduction, within the historical confines of the Self. However, the fundamental
issue in his tales is on the matter of identity.
252
Along with the quotation in this opening section, Pamuk mentions in İstanbul that we can only find our identity by
imitating the Other.
253
He narrates that when he was still wanted to become a painter, Utrillo—a French painter whose specialization is in cityscape—had
affected his style of painting and that he had tried to paint the cityscapes and the local landscapes like him. In addition, Pamuk also explains that,
the almost-but-not-quite-shameful truth was that I could paint only when I thought I was someone else. I’d imitated a style. I’d imitated an artist with his
own unique vision and way of painting. And not without profit, I too now had “my” own style and identity.
254
This is the way Pamuk and the Islamic miniature painters find their true identity by using or imitating Utrillo and Frankish style of painting. In the same vein with
Pamuk and the Islamic painters, Hoja also applies Western science and technology to stop the plague and to conquer the West in order to write his new
identity above his Islamic Ottoman identity. In My Name is Red, for example, Pamuk tries to show how the miniaturists
embrace and imitate the Italian Renaissance style as well as the sultan who wants to be painted in the manner of the Frankish masters. By contrast, the miniaturists
are also afraid of the loss of the old painting style that is contested by the Frankish painting. Uncle Effendi states that the love all sultans and rulers feel for paintings,
illustrations, and fine books can be divided into three points: at first, rulers want paintings for the sake of respect, to influence how
others see them. …During the second phase, they commission books to
252
Farred, “Dig a Well”, 88-89.
253
Pamuk, İstanbul, 271.
254
Pamuk, İstanbul, 270-271.
100 satisfy their own taste. Because they’ve learned sincerely to enjoy
paintings, they amass prestige while at the same time amassing books, which after their deaths, ensure the persistence of their renown in this
world. …Later, they will come to the conclusion that painting is an obstacle to securing a place in the Otherworld, naturally something they all
desire. MNR, 175 The quotation above shows how the Italian painting not only works as a seduction
but also as a threat and obstacle for the sultan and even for the miniaturists to enter the gates of Heaven…”for Our Prophet warns that on Judgement Day, Allah
will punish…the painters and those who make idols” MNR, 175. Shekure, Enishte’s daughter, is also still searching for her true identity
since she experiences the oscillation between her contempt of the Frankish painting her father admires at and her longing to be painted in a manner of that
painting style. Shekure is both “fed up with those illustrations he was having the miniaturists make in imitation of the Frankish masters, and sick of his
recollections of Venice” MNR, 152. In the end of the story, she expresses her desire to have her own portrait in the manner of the Italian Renaissance style.
My whole life, I’ve secretly very much wanted two paintings made, which I’ve never mentioned to anybody: my own portrait. …How happy I’d be
today, in my old age—which I live out through the comfort of my children—if I had a youthful portrayal of myself”. MNR, 443
What is experienced by Shekure above is an example of ambiguous desire to become Others. Her searching of identity is illustrated in her longing to have her
self-portrait. Moreover, as it is quoted in the beginning of this session, that we can only know our true identity by becoming the “Other”.
101 In The White Castle, Pamuk complicates the Self-Other binary
255
between Hoja and his Italian slave, which has no end. The writing of “Why am I what I
am” is a way of learning and becoming the Others in order to know their true identity. Through the process of writing the memoir, both Hoja and his Italian
slave share their memories in the past in order to that later they will adopt the Other’s manner and life-stories as their own. TWC, 63 The writing of memoir
and the sharing with one another or the sharing of memories entails a certain blurring of identities. Their conversation, scientific enterprises, and lives together
become a sort of mutual demolition, tearing down what makes each one distinct.
256
The memoir has similarity with the European novel. Both of them are ways of thinking, understanding, and imagining and also a way of imagining
oneself as someone else. For Pamuk, European novel has helped him to understand Europe’s borders, histories, national distinctions in constant flux, a
new culture, and a new civilization.
257
The memoir, moreover, has help both Hoja and his Italian slave to understand the other’s history, culture, and identity as well as imagine themselves
to be someone else. Here, I argue that both Hoja and his Italian slave share the same problem on the personal search for identity. They want to be someone
else—to be like the other—but sometimes they want it with jealousy. It can be seen when the Italian slave wants to imitate Hoja but also envies him because his
master can “play upon the fear in the plague and the mirror” TWC, 83.
255
Farred, “Dig a Well”, 88.
256
Berman, “La Maison Du Silence”.
257
Pamuk, Other Colours, 233.
102 Hoja says that he is the Italian slave and the slave is him. The young slave
also feels that Hoja is he, his very self. TWC, 98 As has been mentioned before, I can draw a conclusion that The White Castle is a mirror of Pamuk’s relationship
with his older brother. Having a brother who is only eighteen months older has inspired him to write this novel. The jealousy Pamuk felt toward his brother is
reflected in the novel when Hoja feels jealousy toward his slave and the slave is jealous of his master. Pamuk assumes that Europe for the East read: Turkey is
like a very competitive brother. Europe is also Turkey’s alter ego and the Italian slave is Hoja’s alter ego, the representation of authority. This is what exactly
happened to Pamuk by having his older brother as his alter ego. Both Pamuk and Shevket, his brother, as well as the master and his Italian slave are competing all
the time. They always worry about how much the other’s strength or success might influence them. Pamuk stresses that this jealousy—the anxiety about being
influenced by someone else—reflects Turkey’s position when it looks West.
258
In terms of the exchange of identity and double identities, The White Castle presents the switch of identity between Hoja and his slave in the end of the
story. The switch of identity is begun when Hoja and his slave exchange their clothes. Moreover, Hoja also cuts his beard while his slave let his to grow, which
makes their resemblance in the mirror even more shocking. TWC, 84 “Come, let us look in the mirror together.” I looked, and under the raw
light of the lamp saw once more how much we resembled one another. … At that time I had someone I must be; and now I though he too must be
someone like me. The two of us were one person TWC, 82
258
Pamuk, Other Colours, 368.
103 Additionally, it can be seen when Hoja and his Italian slave change their identity
after their war machine fails to break the white castle. We exchanged clothes without haste and without speaking. I gave him my
ring and the medallion I’d managed to keep from him all these years. …He put it around his neck…then he left the tent and was gone. I watched him
slowly disappear in the silent fog. TWC, 145 The erasure of the old identity is similar to the Islamic Ottoman identity that was
replaced by Ataturk’s project to Westernized Turkey after the Empire collapsed in the First World War. This condition is similar to Hoja’s, whose weapon fails in
the battle. After the war machine does not succeed to break the white castle, Hoja leaves his identity as a Turk and write his new identity by turning to be his slave
and running away to his slave’s country. The exchange of identity, which is symbolized using the exchange of clothes between Hoja and his slave, shows how
Turkey abandoned and lost its old identity that was forced and conducted abruptly by the elite Westernists. The failure of the mass destructive weapon is similar to
the fell of the Empire that was, then, followed by the founding of a new Republic. Turkey, which has an ambition to conduct Westernization, couldn’t go far enough
and its effort to be the European Union is still rejected. Until now, Turkey is still knocking on Europe’s door, asking to come in, full of high hopes and good
intentions but also feeling rather anxious and fearing rejection. ...Watching the negotiation with the European Union, seeing that for all our efforts to
be Western, they still don’t want us.
259
Through the exchange of identity between Hoja and his slave, Pamuk is bitterly critical of Attaturk’s Westernization project, which abruptly erased the Islamic
259
Pamuk, Other Colours, 215 370.
104 Ottoman tradition and simplified Turkey’s cosmopolitanism as well as identity
that are complex and multidimensional. According to Almond in “Islam, Melancholy, and Sad, Concrete
Minarets”, the Orient was a source not of knowledge but self-knowledge for the Westerner, a means by which he could construct a “true” identity for himself
through an immersion in the exotic.
260
The Italian slave moves deeper and deeper into Hoja’s life and embraces his master’s identity. Therefore, the Italian slave’s
identity as a Westerner is obscure and almost unseen as he starts to admire his master and imitate his master’s personality.
Did we understand “defeat” to mean that the empire would lose all of its territories one by one? We’d lay out our maps on the table and mournfully
determine first which territories, then which mountains or rivers would be lost. Or did defeat mean that people would change and alter their beliefs
without noticing it? We imagined how everyone in İstanbul might rise from their warm beds one morning as changed people; they wouldn’t
know how to wear their clothes, wouldn’t be able to remember what minarets were for. Or perhaps defeat meant to accept the superiority of
others and try to emulate them. TWC, 109 The Italian slave shares his sorrow along with Hoja for the lost of the Ottoman
territories even though he is a Westerner. Moreover, “he even does not seem to rejoice in the fact that there might arise possibility for the West of defeating Islam
altogether with the fall of the Ottoman Empire.”
261
The slave even feels that Western culture is a pretentious nonsense after listens to the latest orchestra that is
brought from Venice by the ambassador.
260
Ian Almond, “Islam, Melancholy, and Sad, Concrete Minarets: The Futility of Narratives in Orhan Pamuk’s The Black Book”, New Literary History 34, 1 2003: 84.
261
Kantar, “The Stylistic Dialogue”, 131.
105 The search for identity is not only experienced by an individual but also
Turkey’s people, as one community, one İstanbul citizen, and one nation also experience and live in the identity formation process. Ataturk’s forced
modernization and all the attempts to Europeanized Turkey or to divide Turkey have brought the grief to the entire city. Through the Gezi protesters and the spirit
of unity that they bring, show that Turkey’s people come together in the third space to deconstruct the authoritarian of their leader that systematically uses
violence against ethnic and religious minorities
262
and forces Turkey to have only one single identity. Hüzün, which is suggested as “a communal feeling, an
atmosphere, and a culture”
263
, is felt and shared by the protesters that come from different identities. The hüzün they feel for their city has broken down the wall
that separate the narrow identity that is build by Turkey’s elites for Muslim and Christians, men and women, secularists and conservatives have raised their voices
to challenge the power of the “new colonizer”.
5. Theoretical Observation