Global Perspectives on Orhan Pamuk: Existentialism and Politics (Literatures and Cultures of the Islamic World)

Explores existential and political themes in Orhan Pamuk's work and investigates the apparent contradictions in an arena where Islam and democracy are often seen as opposing and irreconcilable terms. Existential themes delve into literary nuances in Pamuk that discuss love, happiness, suffering, memory and death. Global Perspectives on Orhan Pamuk's: Existentialism and Politics is an interdisciplinary collection of essays that captivates Pamuk's multifaceted approach to ordinary Turkish life. The contributors of this volume come from an array of international perspectives that place the reading of Pamuk into dynamic arenas of new interpretation and reflection in interdisciplinary academic fields. The themes of existentialism and politics are further examined in the illuminating essays through such issues as: nationalism, religion/secularity, traditional/modern, exile/home, and comparative readings to such writers as Mohsin Hamid, Naguib Mahfouz, Italo Svevo, and Amitav Ghosh. This is an indispensable collection for understanding Pamuk, global literature, and crucial issues in today's world Front Matter....Pages i-xviii Introduction....Pages 1-6 Front Matter....Pages 7-7 Modern Postcolonial Intersections: Hamid, Mahfouz, and Pamuk....Pages 9-24 Tensions in the Nation: Pamuk and Svevo....Pages 25-43 Front Matter....Pages 45-45 Mirroring Istanbul....Pages 47-61 Problematizing East-West Essentialisms: Discourse, Authorhood, and Identity Crisis in Orhan Pamuk’s Beyaz Kale [The White Castle]....Pages 63-74 Framing My Name Is Red: Reading a Masterpiece....Pages 75-89 On the Road or between the Pages: Seeking Life’s Answers....Pages 91-105 Front Matter....Pages 107-107 The Imagined Exile: Orhan Pamuk in His Novel Snow ....Pages 109-124 Silence, Secularism, and Fundamentalism in Snow ....Pages 125-139 The Spell of the West in Orhan Pamuk’s Snow and Amitav Ghosh’s In an Antique Land ....Pages 141-155 Front Matter....Pages 157-157 Orhan Pamuk’s Kara Kitap [The Black Book]: A Double Life in English....Pages 159-176 Occulted Texts: Pamuk’s Untranslated Novels....Pages 177-198 Back Matter....Pages 199-206