Mir Imtiyaz Aafreen
Turkey is the country with a unique geographical position, lying partly in Asia and partly in Europe, acting both as a barrier and a bridge between the two continents. Although there is no state religion, almost all Turks are Muslims. The great Ottoman Empire, which once was the greatest Islamic Empire, flourished in Turkey and it brought about not only a heritage of Islamic values but also socio-cultural advancement with it. After ruling over Turkey for more than six hundred years, finally the Turkish Republic was proclaimed on October 29, 1923, with Mustaffa Kemal as its first president. Kemal planned to transform the Islamic Turkey into a secular western state, which was an uphill task but he was able to accomplish it with the help of the Western forces who provoked the Arabs to revolt against the Turks. The assembly replaced the Ministry of Secret Law (Shariah) with a Directorate of Religious Affairs within the premier’s office. The Islamic Law was replaced by the Western democratic system. This historical moment brought about a division in the Turkish society. The people saw themselves in a dilemma as they were supposed to accommodate both Islamic political ideology and the western concept of democracy, which are to a large extent antithetical to each other. Right from those times, the Turkish people have been vacillating between the Islamic socio-political system and ‘Modernity’. Thus, the antiquity clashes with the present and the spirit with the matter. However, Turkey becomes a meeting point between Islam and the West which have been involved in an ideological rivalry from the ages. Islam was forcibly kept away from the current generation by the Turkish Government which intended to model the country after the European states. The spiritual leaders like Said Nursi worked very hard in this period to keep the spirit of Islam alive. They resorted to private preaching and kept the light burning for a long time. As a result of the efforts like these, the Turkish youth were motivated to find their cultural roots, they wanted to lay the foundation of their present on the ruins of the past and this laid the foundation of Islamist politics in Turkey. On the one hand sections of Turkish society are proud of being ‘modernized’ and becoming a part of European civilization but on the other hand, there are sections who desire to bring about the Islamic Renaissance. This has resulted in the formation of a culturally fragmented and alienated ‘Self’ and it finds a poignant expression in the novels of Orhan Pamuk. Orhan Pamuk, the first Nobel Prize winning novelist of Turkey, was born in Istanbul on June 7, 1952 and he is a professor of comparative literature at Columbia University. However, he has been a controversial figure for his views in his homeland and in the words of Carlyle, he has been, “walking solitarily in the crowds”
Pamuk is one of Turkey’s most prominent novelists who actually writes in Turkish but his works have been translated into more than fifty different languages of the world. In 2006, the Swedish Academy announced that Pamuk had been awarded the prize in literature for Istanbul. In its citation, the Academy said, “In the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city, [Pamuk] has discovered new symbol for the clash and interlacing of cultures”. Pamuk realizes that Turkey is made in such a way that the country’s culture is made of two spirits, not essentially fighting with each other but trying to find ways of blending the two. In such novels as, The White Castle, My Name Is Red, and Snow, Pamuk has served as a literary bridge between Islam and the West, fundamentalism and secularism, Ottoman past and the increasingly European present, Oriental spirituality and the Western materialism. For Pamuk, novel is the greatest invention of Western culture. He is inspired by the duality of Turkish culture, half-way between the East and the West; He epitomizes the young literary tradition in Turkey. In the middle of cultural chaos and confusion, Pamuk offers a mystical insight into the predicament of the Turks. His works are characterized by a confusion or loss of identity brought on in part by the conflict between European and Islamic, or more generally Western and Eastern values. They are often disturbing or unsettling, but include complex, intriguing plots of great depth. His works are also redolent with discussion and fascination with the creative arts, such as literature and painting. In My Name Is Red and Snow, Pamuk touches on the deep-rooted tension between East and West, Tradition and modernism, Islamism and secularism. He believes that the East-West dichotomy is just the innovation of human mind and in reality human existence is same everywhere. The socio-cultural differences are just the reflection of the diversity persistent in the Universe, thus he strives for uniting the broken threads of humanity. He goes on to transcend all political, communal, regional and linguistic diversities and looks deep in the depths of human consciousness and expresses its longings, desires and traumas. In “My Name is Red” Pamuk not only exhibited his mastery over postmodern themes but also cemented his position as one of the greatest Turkish writers.
Pamuk’s novel Snow documents how ‘big ideas’ convulse his Turkish homeland, where Islamists and secularists indulge in ideological fantasies that leave little or no room for a moderate and rational political existence. The main character, Ka, is a mystical poet (resembling Rumi) whose meditations serve as experiments in personal existence amidst the ideological rubble. He strives to transcend Islamists and Secularists and to serve as a meeting point between Turkey and the West. Ka serves for personal non-ideological existence in a globalised world. He professes not dogma but in the words of James Joyce, tries ‘to fly high’ by the barriers which create divisions in the human society. Pamuk’s novels are not only an ambivalent symbol of purgation and mysterious cosmic order but also of intellectual oblivion that represents the secondary reality in which Turkey is convulsed. Pamuk’s mystical ideology is deeply rooted in the love for humanity. Like the great Sufi Ibn Arabi, he shifts from the macrocosm of the Universe to the microcosm of human existence and explores its depths and comes ashore with the solution for the problems of the fragmented mankind. Pamuk’s novels offer a sensible insight to the schizophrenic and culturally alienated ‘Self’ and he destabilizes the rotten and decadent extremist mindset. He looks forward for striking a moderate balance between conservative and uncompromising attitudes and sets out to bridge the unfriendly communities of the world. According to ‘The Guardian’, ‘Snow’ is not only about ‘other’ people but also about ‘us’. It doesn’t matter if you read this Pamuk’s 2004 novel today or tomorrow, it remains endlessly relevant.
The author can be reached at imtiyazaafreen@gmail.com
