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
My world is a mixture of the local—the national—and the West. —Orhan Pamuk
332
I only want to amuse myself frontside and backside, to be Eastern and Western both.
—Orhan Pamuk MNR, 382 Bhabha discusses that mimicry leads to hybridity. Through imitating the
Other, the Self tries to rewrite his identity in the liminal space by becoming
329
Mohamad, Catatan Pinggir 6, 134.
330
Pamuk, Other Colours, 240.
331
Daglier, “Orhan Pamuk on the Turkish Modernization Project”, 147-148.
332
Pamuk, Other Colours, 410.
139 hybrid.
333
This is also experienced by Turkey, which tries to rewrite its new identity by way of abruptly adopting Western culture and erasing its Islamic
Ottoman culture. However, by mentioning the quotation above that his world is a mixture of the East and the West, Pamuk wants to offer hybridity as an alternative
solution to resolve the tension of these two poles. In this section, I try to present Pamuk’s background as a writer in presenting hybridity in My Name is Red and
The White Castle, which influences his solution to the predicament of the oscillation between being enchanted to the West and being drawn to its own
tradition that Turkish society is undergoing. Although Ataturk’s Westernization seemed to eliminate cosmopolitanism
in Turkey, there are still remnants left and remained and even be a hybrid. The concept of hybridity shows that the culture of a nation is not purely the result of
the absolute national culture itself but rather the result of the interaction between nations, groups, or ethnics.
334
In the case of Turkey, the interaction and contact between the Ottoman and the West as well as the West migration to İstanbul had
flourished since the 15
th
century
335
and it had created new cultures, which were the result of the cultural assimilation between Eastern and Western culture. As it
is explained in the previous chapter, Mehmet II even let and encouraged the Greek, the Armenian, and the Jews to live in İstanbul after the Fall of
Constantinople in 1453. The city, moreover, had flourished as a multicultural society for hundreds of years and became the city of tolerance.
336
It is a very
333
Bhabha, The Location of Culture, 120.
334
See Bhabha, The Location of Culture.
335
Jardine and Brotton, Global Interests, 32.
336
Komins, “Cosmopolitanism Depopulated”, 366.
140 special city because it is a door that connects Europe to Asia.
337
As the result of the old cosmopolitanism, İstanbul has become the city of hybrid, “cross-cultural
exchange,”
338
which is the mixture of Western culture and Eastern tradition. Furthermore, the grand mosques and buildings in Turkey are mostly the
result of the dialogue between the Byzantine Empire and the Ottoman Empire culture. Hagia Sophia, the legacy of the late Byzantine Empire, is the most
obvious example of hybrid in İstanbul. At the Byzantine Empire era, this building was a grand Orthodox church, which was also as the centre of the Greek Orthodox
religion. After Mehmet took Constantinople, which was as the centre of the Eastern Roman Empire,
339
the basilica’s function had changed into a mosque and its name also transformed into Ayasofya. Aşikpaşazade, quoted by Boyar and
Fleet, explains that Mehmed the Fatih, on the first Friday after the conquest, held the prayer in Ayasofya,
340
an Orthodox church that was used as a mosque.
341
After the Ottoman conquest, Hagia Sophia, the Orthodox Basilica, became a mosque, remaining in this state until the early days of the Turkish Republic
342
when it was converted into museum by the first Turkey’s president, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Moreover, Turkey also has some mosques, whose architecture is a
337
Martins, “Orhan Pamuk”, 171.
338
Ashcroft, et.al, Post-Colonial Studies, 109.
339
Laksana, “İstanbul: Melankoli”.
340
Boyar and Fleet, Social History, 11.
341
The Christian mural paintings that exist in Hagia Sophia’s walls and ceiling were covered and plastered. Besides, the removal of ceremonial furniture, the insertion of mihrab, the addition of
Islamic calligraphies, and four minarets were the evidence showed the conversion from church to mosque. William Emerson and Robert L. Van Nice, “Hagia Sophia and the First Minaret Erected
after the Conquest of Constantinople”, American Journal of Archaeology 54, 1 1950: 28.
342
Komins, “Cosmopolitanism Depopulated”, 363.
141 borrowing from Hagia Sophia. Those mosques are the Şehzade
343
and the Süleymaniye, which built under the reigned of Sultan Süleyman the Magnificent
by Sinan the Great, and “the Blue Mosque, which built under Sultan Ahmed I”
344
. Sinan’s design of the Şehzade and the Süleymaniye is a product of the dialogue
between Ottoman tradition and the Byzantine paradigm of Hagia Sophia.
345
This is the way used by Sinan to overcome the hüzün and the tension of the East and
the West. Stierlin stresses that, “the Süleymaniye design’s owes much to Hagia Sophia. The spaces created are like those of Hagia Sophia and the two buildings
are of similar dimensions”.
346
Süleyman was intensely aware of this hybrid architecture. Indeed, Süleyman conceived that the Süleymaniye was a parallel to
Hagia Sophia.
347
If Stierlin says that this building is a parallel to Hagia Sophia, I argue that Süleymaniye is a rivalry to the building, which is the monument of the
Byzantine Empire. Süleyman the Magnificent tries to write a new story above the Byzantine’s, which is still visible underneath the newer writing.
It is not only the city of İstanbul and the mosques that are hybrid but a number of Ottoman sultans are also hybrid. They were Murat I, the son of Orhan
Gazi, and his son, Bayezit I, both of them had Christian Greek mothers.
348
Moreover, Selim II and Murat III were also had Christian mothers. Selim II was
343
Şehzade is the first sultanic mosque, which is as the symbol of Süleyman’s absolute power. Ernst Egli states that this mosque was estimately built in 1543. Moreover, Sinan’s the Şehzade was
also influenced by Atik Sinan’s design for the Fatih Camii. See Stierlin, Turkey, 120.
344
Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire, 190.
345
Stierlin, Turkey, 122.
346
Stierlin, Turkey, 126-127.
347
Stierlin, Turkey, 131.
348
Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire, 24.
142 the son of Süleyman I and Sultana Roxelana
349
, while Murat III was the son of Selim II and Safiye Sultan,
350
who was originally a Venetian.
351
However, the weddings of the Ottoman sultans with the Western women were done to bridge
the in-betweenness between the Ottoman Empire and the Byzantine Empire the West in order to firm diplomatic and family ties.
352
In addition, Shaw adds that along with the marriage alliances,
the Ottomans inevitably inherited Byzantine…fiefs, taxes, ceremonials, officials, and administrators. …Court ceremonial and central administrative practices were
affected by Byzantine patterns. …The vassal Christian princes of the Balkans also sent contingents to the Ottoman army as well as advisers who helped develop
Ottoman provincial and central administrative institutions. Since conversion was not yet a prerequisite for entering Ottoman service, many Christians served the
sultans as officers, soldiers, and administrators.
353
The Ottoman Sultans’ mix marriages, I argue, were not only ways to firm diplomatic and family ties, as it has been mentioned above. The marriage
“coalition” is also an attempt to “control and conquer” the West through marrying the Christians princess.
This hybrid background also influences the way the Ottoman Sultans see the West, for instance Mehmed II, Murad III, and Ahmed I. Borrowing from Said,
I indicate that Europe is the Ottoman Sultans’ cultural contestant and one of their deepest and most recurring images of the Other. The Sultans not only made an
effort to conquer Europe’s territories but they also seduced by Europe’s art,
349
Roxelana, also known as Hürrem Sultan, was a woman of Russian origin captured in Galicia by the Crimean Tatars. She was one of the most powerful women in Ottoman history and
Süleyman’s favourite wife. Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire, 90. Stierlin, Turkey, 120.
350
Safiye Sultan was not only controlling the affairs in the capital but in politics, as the leader of a major party, she also represented the pro-Venetian members of the Ottoman court. Shaw, History
of the Ottoman Empire, 179, 184.
351
Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire, 177.
352
Boyar and Fleet, Social History, 21.
353
Shaw, History of the Ottoman Empire, 23-24.
143 culture, science, and technology. As the Orient’s intimate Other, Europe has
seduced Turkey with its glimmering modern art, culture, science, and technology. Pamuk also mentions that for Turkey, Europe has always seen as a dream, a vision
of the future, a goal to achieve or danger, and a future.
354
“Sultan Murad III is the Ottoman Sultan 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” MNR, 447. Nevertheless, Sultan Murad III wants to emulate Europe using the
secret book, which is completed by Uncle Effendi and his palace miniaturists using the Frankish style. In addition, Sultan Ahmed I, who experiences few
military failures, wants to conquer Europe using an incredible weapon that is developed using Western science by Hoja and his look-alike Italian slave.
Orhan Pamuk himself is “hybrid”. He is a Turk who comes from a secular bourgeoisie, Westernized İstanbul family in Turkey. For the bourgeoisie, religion
and God is only for those in pain, to offer comfort for those who are so poor, to care for the beggars, and to aid pure-hearted innocents in times of trouble.
Similarly, in Attaturk’s view, to move away from religion is to be modern and Western since Islamic traditions and practices are impeding Turkish national
progress.
355
Personally, Pamuk does not believe in God as much as he might have wished for he is a Westernist. He expresses his secret love of God in trembling
confusion and painful solitude. However, when he was grown up, the pain he felt
354
Pamuk, Other Colours, 190.
355
Pamuk, İstanbul, 176-182.
144 was not in being able far from God but from everyone around him, from the
collective spirit of the city.
356
Pamuk’s identity is also split into two. Part of him longs like a radical Westernizer who wants the city to become entirely European but another part
yearns to belong to İstanbul he has grown lo love, by instinct, by habit, and by memory.
357
This is similar to Black, one of the main characters in MNR, who longs for the Western painting and loves for the Eastern tradition. His searching
for his love, Shekure, and his journey for twelve years in Persia shows the process on finding his true self. On the other hand, another part of him still longing for his
beloved has caused a deep sorrow for he does not have her portrait. As Black said after meeting Orhan, Shekure’s youngest son,
Had I taken Shekure’s portrait with me, rendered in the style of the Venetian masters, I wouldn’t have felt such loss during my long travels
when I could scarcely remember my beloved, whose face I’d left somewhere behind me. For if a lover’s face survives emblazoned on your
heart, the world is still your home. MNR, 35 After twelve years in his exile, when he returns to the city at the age of thirty-six,
Black is painfully aware that he starts to forget his beloved’s face. MNR, 7 The quotation above stresses that Black also wants to appropriate the Frankish
painting because this painting method is important to remind him of his lover’s beautiful face and keep the flame of his love towards Shekure. Black believes that
it is okay for the palace miniaturists to embrace Western style of painting as well as preserving the Islamic illumination tradition for it is necessary to value
people’s uniqueness. His openness to the Italian Renaissance painting is shown by
356
Pamuk, İstanbul, 185-187.
357
Pamuk, İstanbul, 323.
145 his decision to come back to his hometown and helps his uncle, Enishte Effendi,
to finish Sultan’s commissioned book and also find the murderer of Elegant Effendi, the gilder.
Along with Pamuk’s “hybrid” life, I argue that his oeuvre is also “hybrid” because it is a reflection of his personal life. Pamuk also mentions that the tension
between the past and present in his split identity is reconciled by combining his love for modern art and Western literature with the culture of the city in which he
lives.
358
In The White Castle, he even inserts his childhood memories to illustrate the tension between the East and the West and reflects his relationship with his
brother, Şevket, which is full of jealousy and competition in the characters of Hoja and his young Italian slave. As Pamuk mentions in his essay that,
Like my Italian hero, I once had a new outfit that my brother got to wear because his was torn to pieces. …On cold winter morning, if our mother bought us
something to eat, she would say the same thing as the Master’s mother: “Let’s eat these before anyone sees us.”
359
Pamuk’s experience that is mentioned above can also be found in The White Castle, when he narrates Hoja’s life in Edirne when was twelve years old. After
visiting his grandfather in the hospital, “his mother would buy them halva and whisper, ‘Let’s eat it before anyone sees us’.” TWC, 80 Moreover, Pamuk also
tells his childhood memories through the Italian slave that recount an episode from his life in Venice when he was a child. The fireworks display in İstanbul that
he prepared reminds him of his first experience watching a fireworks display in Venice. He was unhappy at that time because “it was not him who was wearing
358
Pamuk, İstanbul, 111.
359
Pamuk, Other Colours, 251.
146 his new red suit, but his big brother who’d torn his own clothes in a quarrel the
previous day”. TWC, 27 Göknar mentions that My Name is Red exhibits Pamuk’s autobiographical
self-reflexivity.
360
In MNR, Pamuk copies the character of her mother, his brother, and he himself into the story. There are some similarities that we can find within
the characters in this novel. Enishte’s daughter, Shekure, she has the same name and personality as Pamuk’s mother.
There is some of my mother in Shekure. The way she scolds Şevket in the novel, the way she watches over the brothers are copied from life. This is a strong
dominant woman who knows what she is doing. But there the similarity ends.
361
In My Name is Red, the characters named Orhan and Şevket also have some similarities to Pamuk’s and his older brother’s. He emphasises this in Other
Colours that,
as in My Name is Red, our father lived far away from us. My mother, my brother, and I lived together. As in the book, we brothers fought. As in the book we would
talk of our father’s return. Our mother would give us a hard time when we did. As My Name is Red, she would shout at us when she was angry. But there the
similarity ends.
362
Orhan and Şevket’s father is a soldier who “failed to return with the rest of the army from warring against the Safavids” MNR, 49. Those boys will always talk
about their father’s return for their still believe that their “father will return from the war” MNR, 100. Moreover, when the two boys are quarrelling and when
Shekure is angry, she will slap them. MNR, 153, 155, 227 Orhan Pamuk tries to mediate and to create the liminal space, to bridge the
in-betweenness, as well as to conciliate the oscillation between the East and the
360
Göknar, “Ottoman Theme”, 36.
361
Pamuk, Other Colours, 268.
362
Pamuk, Other Colours, 269.
147 West by combining and mixing those two traditions, methods, styles, habits, and
histories, which he delivers in his tales.
363
In My Name is Red, Orhan Pamuk narrates that miniature painting itself is a hybrid. It is a mix of various painting
methods and techniques from Arabic illustration and Mongol-Chinese painting. In addition, the Ottoman miniaturists also take their inspiration from Persian
painting,
364
which flourished in the Herat school of Bihzad and continued during the reign of Shah Tahmasp.
365
“Nothing is pure,” said Enishte Effendi. “In the realm of book arts…two styles never brought together have come together to create something new
and wondrous. We owe Bihzad and the splendour of Persian painting to the meeting of an Arabic illustrating sensibility and Mongol-Chinese
painting. Shah Tahmasp’s best paintings marry Persian style with Turkmen subtleties.” MNR, 176
From the quotation above, Enishte wants to emphasize that even the miniature painting is not pure; this painting style is hybrid. Kuiper explains further that
stylistically, Persian painting is related to Chinese painting whose influence introduced by the Mongols during the Il-Khanid period.
366
Moreover, I indicate that after the conquest of Constantinople, the Ottoman miniature painting had
been influenced by the Western style of painting. Can Kerametli also mentions that Ottoman miniature painting style is the result of “the meeting of the Eastern
and Western painting school”.
367
The secret book is Pamuk’s alternative solution to the endless oscillation whether to embrace Western painting or to preserve the
Islamic illumination. It contains the “two styles never brought together have come
363
Pamuk, Other Colours, 264.
364
Pamuk, İstanbul: Memories, 44.
365
Çiçekoglu, “Pedagogy”, 10.
366
Kuiper, Islamic: Art, 196.
367
Kerametli, “Turkish Miniatures in the 16
th
Century”.
148 together to create something new and wondrous”. MNR, 176
Due to the remnants of the Byzantine Empire and a Venetian painter who was called by Mehmed II, I argue that the miniature painting technique of that
period could be the result of the Eastern painting technique that meets the Western style of painting. In the same vein with Dimand that “as a result of contact with
European art, which was greatly admired by Akbar, Mughal painters introduced atmospheric effects and even perspective into their paintings”.
368
Therefore, it cannot be denied that before Mongols ruled Persia, Persian painting’s style was
similar to the Italian Renaissance painting. In the Mughal School under the Emperor of Akbar, the Emperor “encourages all his artists to sign their work”
MNR, 432-433 in addition “a Persian calligrapher was added his name written in the margin in red ink.
369
Olive’s great ability as a miniaturist is also hybrid. As one of the workshop’s most brilliant creator, he can wonderfully combine the Persian,
Mongol, and Chinese painting styles. Master Osman emphasizes this that “Herat painting and İstanbul ornamentation happily merged in Olive” MNR, 279. With
his background as a miniaturist who is trained by Persian painting master and his longing to embrace the Western style of painting, Olive tries to overcome his
hüzün by combining those two painting traditions. In fact, he still fails in making his self-portrait in order to realize his ambition to create an authentic identity even
though he has made an attempt for many times.
368
Dimand, “Persian and Indian Miniature Paintings”, 249.
369
Dimand, “Persian and Indian Miniature Paintings”, 250.
149 Moreover, I argue that the secret book itself is also hybrid. It contains
paintings that are a mixture of the Turkish miniature and the Italian Renaissance painting. The book contains Sultan’s portrait that is painted in the Venetian style
and the depiction of Death, which is inspired by familiar scenes found in many Book of Kings
370
volumes, is painted in a combination of the two painting styles. MNR, 122-123
Among the pictures that depicted the funeral of the late Sultan Suleyman was one I’d made with bold but sad colours, combining a compositional
sensibility inspired by the Franks with my own attempt at shading—which I’d added later. …I reminded him that Death was unique, just like the
portraits of infidels I had seen hanging in Venetian palazzo; all of them desperately yearned to be rendered distinctly. MNR, 123
The last painting made by Olive is also the evidence that the secret book is a combination of the Ottoman miniature and the Venetian painting. Master Osman
also mentions that the book the Sultan has commissioned is a mix of the Western way of seeing and the Eastern way of seeing. It can be seen when he examines the
pages on “the painting prepared for Enishte Effendi’s book” MNR, 272 that are given to the Head Treasurer.
The desire to depict a tree simply such, as a Venetian masters did, was here combined with the Persian way of seeing the world from above, and
the result was a miserable painting that was neither Venetian nor Persian. …Attempting to combine two separate styles, my miniaturists…had
created a work devoid of any skill whatsoever. MNR, 272 However, the hybrid painting style, which is resulted from the imitation of the
Frankish painting, can also create ambivalence towards the miniaturists because it
370
Book of Kings or that is also known as Shah-nameh, consists of Persian painting that is influenced by Chinese painting. Its main importance lies in its being the earliest known illustrative
work to depict in a strikingly dramatic fashion the meaning of the Iranian epic. Its battle scenes, its descriptions of fights with monsters, its enthronement scenes are all powerful representations of
the colorful and often cruel legend of Iranian kingship. Kuiper, Islamic: Art, 196-197.
150 stays in and two painting styles that are totally different and contradict. This
condition also mirrors the Ottoman Empire as well as Turkey that “struggle to negotiate between competing Eastern and Western Ideology”
371
and the predicament of the oscillation between being drawn to Western tradition or to
preserve Eastern tradition. From the explanation above, I find that the Sultan’s secret book, which
contains the hybrid style of painting, is similar to Pamuk’s alternative solution towards Turkey’s predicament of the oscillation between the East and the West.
Pamuk suggests that Turkey should embrace the two different cultures, live with the two souls, and create a new tradition that is a hybrid of the Eastern Ottoman
tradition and the Western modernity. In My Name is Red, by presenting the secret book, Pamuk tries to mediate the complex problem of the oscillation by
harmonizing the two contradict ways of seeing. Additionally, two artists who combine the two different worldviews of painting also solve the predicament of
the oscillation. Sinan Beg—an Ottoman artist from Topkapi Palace whose work was inspired by Bellini’s portrait—as well as Şeker Ahmet Pasha drew from both
Eastern and Western traditions that the results of their works were neither a Venetian Renaissance portrait nor a classic Persian-Ottoman miniature.
372
The East-West conflict and the hybrid construction of those two different poles in The White Castle can be seen more on Hoja and his Italian slave’s speech
and narration.
371
Ali and Hagood, “Heteroglossic Sprees”, 506.
372
Pamuk, Other Colours, 316.
151 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
Kantar mentions that the sentence above has a hybrid construction for it describes “the slave’s ironic characterization of the master, and the master’s scornful
attitude towards the slave”.
373
The memoir that is written by Hoja and his young Italian slave is also hybrid. In additional, the writing of memoir “Why am I what I
am” has caused blurring identities between Hoja and his slave. The slave also emphasises by saying that,
More important, I felt as if his sufferings and defeats were my own. ...The person I once had been had left me and was gone, and the I that was now
dozing in a corner jealousy desired him, as if in him I could recover the enthusiasm I had lost. TWC, 107
Their close relationship, their scientific project—a firework display, a model of a universe, a clock, and the giant weapon—their lives together, and their exchange
of identities—which show the Self’s desire for the Other—have erased the binary opposition between Hoja and the Italian slave. Now, Hoja is like his Italian slave
83. Their resemblance is even more horrible TWC, 84 and the two of them were actually one person TWC, 82.
After Hoja goes to Venice and the Italian slave takes his place as the “imperial astrologer, get married, and have four children” TWC, 147, it seems
that Hoja himself that speak through the slave. For the sake of my readers in that terrible world to come, I did all I could
to make both myself and Him, whom I could not separate from myself, come alive in the story. TWC, 55
373
Kantar, “The Stylistic Dialogue”, 129.
152 The way the Italian slave tells his story to the visitor who comes to his house
shows that “the Westerner is no longer talking through an Easterner’s point of view, but we have the voice of Hoja himself talking through his slave.”
374
In other words, the Italian slave, now, becomes hybrid by appropriating and living in
Hoja’s character. Pamuk himself mentioning that in the last chapter of The White Castle, he is not able to differentiate whether it is Hoja or the Italian slave who
narrates the story by stating that “I am still not sure if it was the Italian slave or the Ottoman master who wrote the manuscript of The White Castle.”
375
Bhabha underlines that, essentially, hybridity shows that the culture is the result of the interaction between nations, groups, or ethnics of a nation or between
nations. In MNR, the meeting of the two different painting traditions, the Islamic miniature and the Italian Renaissance painting, has led to the East’s admiration
towards the West. The enchantment of Western tradition has created the in- betweenness and the oscillation that are experienced by the miniaturists between
preserving the Islamic miniature painting and imitating the Venetian masters. This tension also leads the miniaturists to mix those two styles as the solution that they
take in the third space. However, hybridity can lead to ambivalence because it lives and embraces two things that are contradicted. Additionally, by extolling
Western superiority, the East has made a myth that Europe is superior to the East.
374
Kantar, “The Stylistic Dialogue”, 133.
375
Pamuk, Other Colours, 250.
153
4. Theoretical Observation