Orhan Pamuk
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition | Date: 2008
Orhan Pamuk , 1952-, Turkey's most celebrated contemporary novelist, studied Robert College (now Univ. of the Bosporus) and Istanbul Univ. Pamuk uses a variety of formal techniques derived from Western fiction to portray themes and settings from the Ottoman past and the Turkish present. Written in Turkish and translated into dozens of languages, his novels frequently explore the conflicts between European and Islamic aspects of Turkish society and the crises of identity attendant upon that conflict. Pamuk's lyrical style and vivid imagery are often compared to those of Borges , García Márquez , and other innovative Western writers. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2006.
Pamuk's first novel, Cevdet Bey and His Sons, appeared in 1982. He achieved best-seller status at home and fame abroad with The White Castle (1985, tr. 1990), a postmodern historical novel set in 17th-century Constantinople (Istanbul) during the decline of the Ottoman Empire. Pamuk subsequently wrote two intellectual mysteries, The New Life (1994, tr. 1997), at once a thriller and a textual exploration set in rural contemporary Turkey, and My Name Is Red (1998, tr. 2001), a taut and magical story concerning a murdered 16th-century miniaturist. In Snow (2002, tr. 2004), an elaborately plotted tale of love and politics, he treats the current clash of values between theocratic Islamists and secular Westernizers in Turkey. His other novels include The Silent House (1983) and The Black Book (1990, tr. 1994). Istanbul: Memories and the City, a memoir of his youth, was published in 2005.
Pamuk is also an essayist, e.g., Other Colors: Essays and a Story (2007), and a human-rights activist with a particular interest in the rights of Turkish women and Kurds. In 2005 he was charged with denigrating Turkey's national character by publicly stating that 1 million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds had been killed in Turkey, a reference to the 1915 Armenian genocide and more recent Kurdish conflicts. In the face of severe criticism, much of it from the European Union, the charges were later dropped.
Author not available, PAMUK, ORHAN.,
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2008
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press
Related newspaper, magazine, and journal articles from HighBeam Research
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Book review: The deadly style wars of Istanbul; The Books Interview Orhan Pamuk, Turkey's bestselling novelist, mixes the methods of Islam and the West. It's an art to die for, he tells Guy Mannes- Abbott
The Independent - London; 8/25/2001; Guy Mannes-Abbott; 787 words
; Orhan Pamuk is a huge success in Turkey. When his last novel appeared, it sold so many copies so quickly that his publisher was forced to prove the figures in court. The case was a politically- motivated attack on Pamuk, a fierce critic of his government's human rights record, but that only
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 "The Independent (London, England)")
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Book review: The deadly style wars of Istanbul; The Books Interview; Orhan Pamuk, Turkey's bestselling novelist, mixes the methods of Islam and the West. It's an art to die for, he tells Guy Mannes-Abbott.(Features)
The Independent (London, England); 8/25/2001; Mannes-Abbott, Guy; 787 words
; Orhan Pamuk is a huge success in Turkey. When his last novel appeared, it sold so many copies so quickly that his publisher was forced to prove the figures in court. The case was a politically-motivated attack on Pamuk, a fierce critic of his government's human rights record, but that only
Read more
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Turkish Novelist Wins Nobel Prize; Orhan Pamuk Explores How East Can Meet West
The Washington Post; 10/13/2006; Bob Thompson - Washington Post Staff Writer; 787 words
; ... applauded Pamuk both "as an admiring reader" and because Pamuk has been "willing to defy those who would silence free speech." At a news conference yesterday on the campus of Columbia University, where he is currently a visiting scholar, Pamuk deflected questions ...
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BOOKS: The sad, sweet songs of home reets of home e street of mem; Istanbul: Memories of a City By Orhan Pamuk trans. Maureen Freely FABER & FABER pounds 16.99 (346pp) 15.99 (free p&p) from 0870 079 8897.(Features)
The Independent (London, England); 4/8/2005; Adil, Alev; 781 words
; Byline: Alev Adil According to Walter Benjamin, the outsider seeks out the exotic and picturesque, while for the natives of a city their vision is always mediated by memory. Orhan Pamuk's often Proustian evocation of Istanbul will be unfamiliar to the European tourist, for whom the city is a riot
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ORHAN PAMUK SEES THE WORLD THE TURKISH WRITER'S WORK SERVES AS A LITERARY BRIDGE BETWEEN EAST AND WEST
The Boston Globe; 10/11/2004; Mark Feeney, Globe Staff; 787 words
; NEW YORK - Who knew George W. Bush had a taste for Turkish literature? Yet there he was in Istanbul last June, quoting Turkey's most famous novelist, Orhan Pamuk (pronounced OR-han PAH-mook). Sitting in a Greek restaurant near Carnegie Hall, Pamuk recalls the Bush reference with amused
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