Orhan Pamuk

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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

EastWest dichotomy, literature,painting

Literary

Postmodern literature

movement

Notable works

Karanlk ve Ik (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 Tregn
(m. 1982, div. 2001)

Relatives

evket Pamuk (brother)

Hmeyra Pamuk (half-sister)
Website
www.orhanpamuk.net

Pamuk in his personal writing space

Turkish
literature
By category

Epic tradition

Orhon
Dede Korkut
Krolu

Folk tradition
Folk literature
Folklore

Ottoman era
Poetry
Prose

Republican era
Poetry
Prose

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, his work has sold over eleven million books in
sixty languages, making him the country's best-selling writer.
[1]

[2]

[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 tranger, 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
andJos Saramago. In 2005, the ultra-nationalist lawyer Kemal Kerinsiz sued Pamuk over
his statement regarding the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire. 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.
[4]

[5]

[6]

Contents
[hide]

1 Early life

2 Work
o

2.1 My Name Is Red

2.2 Snow

2.3 The Museum of Innocence

2.4 Non-fiction

3 Style

4 Personal life

5 Trial

5.1 Pamuk's statements

5.2 Prosecution

5.3 International reaction

5.4 Charges dropped

5.5 Interplay

6 Awards and honours

o

6.1 Nobel Prize

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. 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.
[7]

[8]

Work[edit]
Orhan Pamuk started writing regularly in 1974. His first novel, Karanlk ve Ik (Darkness
and Light) was a co-winner of the 1979 Milliyet Press Novel Contest (Mehmet Erolu (* tr)
was the other winner). This novel was published with the title Cevdet Bey ve Oullar (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 inNianta, the district of
Istanbul where Pamuk grew up.
[9]

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 Dcouverte
Europenne 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 eastOrhan 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
Yz (Secret Face), based on Kara Kitap and directed by a prominent Turkish director, mer
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 teki 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 Adm
Krmz (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 OttomanSultan 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 its 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]