Orhan PamukFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Orhan Pamuk

Orhan Pamuk in Rustaveli Theatre of Tbilisi in 2014

Born Ferit Orhan Pamuk

7 June 1952 (age 62)

Istanbul, Turkey

Occupation Novelist,

screenwriter,

Professor of Comparative Literature and Writing (Columbia

University)

Nationality Turkish

Period 1974 – present

Genre Novel

Subject East–West dichotomy, literature,painting

Literary

movementPostmodern literature

Notable worksKaranlık ve Işık (Dark and Light; debut)

The White Castle

The Black Book

The New Life

My Name is Red

Snow

Istanbul: Memories and the City

The Museum of Innocence

Notable awards International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award

2003

Nobel Prize in Literature

2006

Sonning Prize

2012

Spouse Aylin Türegün

(m. 1982, div. 2001)

Relatives Şevket Pamuk (brother)

Hümeyra Pamuk (half-sister)

Website

www.orhanpamuk.net

Pamuk in his personal writing space

Turkishliterature

By category

Epic tradition

Orhon

Dede Korkut

Köroğlu

Folk tradition

Folk literature

Folklore

Ottoman era

Poetry

Prose

Republican era

Poetry

Prose

V

T

E

Ferit Orhan Pamuk (generally known simply as Orhan Pamuk; born 7 June 1952) is aTurkish novelist, screenwriter, academic and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. One of Turkey's most prominent novelists,[1] his work has sold over eleven million books in sixty languages,[2] making him the country's best-selling writer.[3]

Pamuk is the author of novels including The White Castle, The Black Book, The New Life, My Name Is Red, Snow and The Museum of Innocence.

Born to Circassian parents in Istanbul, Pamuk is the first Nobel laureate to be a Turkish citizen. He is also the recipient of numerous other literary awards. My Name Is Red won the 2002 Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, 2002 Premio Grinzane Cavour and 2003 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

The European Writers' Parliament came about as a result of a joint proposal by Pamuk andJosé Saramago.[4] In 2005, the ultra-nationalist lawyer Kemal Kerinçsiz sued Pamuk over his statement regarding the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.[5] His intention, according to Pamuk himself, had been to highlight issues relating to freedom of speech (or lack thereof) in the country of his birth. The court initially rejected to hear the case, but in 2011 Pamuk was ordered to pay 6,000 liras in total compensation for having insulted the plaintiffs' honor.[6]

Contents

  [hide] 

1 Early life

2 Work

o 2.1 My Name Is Red

o 2.2 Snow

o 2.3 The Museum of Innocence

o 2.4 Non-fiction

3 Style

4 Personal life

5 Trial

o 5.1 Pamuk's statements

o 5.2 Prosecution

o 5.3 International reaction

o 5.4 Charges dropped

o 5.5 Interplay

6 Awards and honours

o 6.1 Nobel Prize

o 6.2 Other awards and honours

7 List of works

8 References

9 External links

Early life[edit]

Pamuk was born in Istanbul, in 1952, and grew up in a wealthy yet declining upper-class family; an experience he describes in passing in his novels The Black Book and Cevdet Bey

and His Sons, as well as more thoroughly in his personal memoir Istanbul. He was educated at Robert College secondary school in Istanbul and went on to study architecture at theIstanbul Technical University since it was related to his real dream career, painting.[7] He left the architecture school after three years, however, to become a full-time writer, and graduated from the Institute of Journalism at the University of Istanbul in 1976. From ages 22 to 30, Pamuk lived with his mother, writing his first novel and attempting to find a publisher. He describes himself as a Cultural Muslim who associates the historical and cultural identification with the religion while not believing in a personal connection to God. [8]

Work[edit]

Orhan Pamuk started writing regularly in 1974.[9] His first novel, Karanlık ve Işık (Darkness and Light) was a co-winner of the 1979 Milliyet Press Novel Contest (Mehmet Eroğlu (* tr) was the other winner). This novel was published with the title Cevdet Bey ve Oğulları (Mr. Cevdet and His Sons) in 1982, and won theOrhan Kemal Novel Prize in 1983. It tells the story of three generations of a wealthy Istanbul family living inNişantaşı, the district of Istanbul where Pamuk grew up.

Pamuk won a number of critical prizes for his early work, including the 1984 Madarali Novel Prize for his second novel Sessiz Ev (The Silent House) and the 1991 Prix de la Découverte Européenne for the French translation of this novel. His historical novel Beyaz Kale (The White Castle), published in Turkish in 1985, won the 1990 Independent Award for Foreign Fiction and extended his reputation abroad. The New York Times Book Review stated, "A new star has risen in the east—Orhan Pamuk." He started experimenting with postmodern techniques in his novels, a change from the strict naturalism of his early works.

Popular success took a bit longer to come to Pamuk, but his 1990 novel Kara Kitap (The Black Book) became one of the most controversial and popular readings in Turkish literature, due to its complexity and richness. In 1992, he wrote the screenplay for the movieGizli Yüz (Secret Face), based on Kara Kitap and directed by a prominent Turkish director, Ömer Kavur. Pamuk's fifth novel Yeni Hayat(New Life) caused a sensation in Turkey upon its 1995 publication and became the fastest-selling book in Turkish history. By this time, Pamuk had also become a high-profile figure in Turkey, due to his support for Kurdish political rights. In 1995, Pamuk was among a group of authors tried for writing essays that criticized Turkey's treatment of the Kurds. In 1999, Pamuk published his book of essays Öteki Renkler (Other Colors).

My Name Is Red[edit]Main article: My Name Is Red

Pamuk's international reputation continued to increase when he published Benim Adım Kırmızı (My Name is Red) in 2000. The novel blends mystery, romance, and philosophical puzzles in a setting of 16th century Istanbul. It opens a window into the reign of Ottoman Sultan  Murat III in nine snowy winter days of 1591, inviting the reader to experience the tension between East and West from a breathlessly urgent perspective. My Name Is Red has been translated into 24 languages and in 2003 won the International Dublin Literary Award, the world's most lucrative literary prize.

Asked the question "What impact did winning the IMPAC award (currently $127,000) have on your life and your work?", Pamuk replied:

Nothing changed in my life since I work all the time. I've spent 30 years writing fiction. For the first 10 years, I worried about money and no one asked how much money I made. The second decade I spent money and no one was asking about that. And I've spent the last 10 years with everyone expecting to hear how I spend the money, which I will not do. [10]

Snow[edit]Main article: Snow (Pamuk novel)

Pamuk followed this with the novel Kar, published in 2002 (English translation: Snow, 2004). Set in the border city of Kars, it explores the conflict between Islamism and Westernism in modern Turkey. Snow follows Ka, an expatriate Turkish poet, as he wanders around the snowy Kars and gets caught up in the muddle of aimless Islamists, MPs, headscarf advocates, secularists, and a number of factions who die and kill in the name of highly contradictory ideals. The New York Times listed Snow as one of its Ten Best Books of 2004.

In conversation with Carol Becker in the Brooklyn Rail about creating sympathetic characters in the political novel, Pamuk said:

I strongly feel that the art of the novel is based on the human capacity, though it’s a limited capacity, to be able to identify with “the other.” Only human beings can do this. It requires imagination, a sort of morality, a self-imposed goal of understanding this person who is different from us, which is a rarity.[11]