Pamuk, Orhan

Pamuk, Orhan (ôr`hän pä`mk), 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 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 one million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds had been killed in Turkey, a reference to the 1915 Armenian genocide and more recent conflicts with Turkish Kurds. In the face of severe criticism, much of it from the European Union, the charges were later dropped.

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Pamuk, Orhan

Orhan Pamuk.

(credit: © Jerry Bauer)

(born June 7, 1952, Istanbul, Tur.) Turkish novelist. Raised in a Western-oriented family, he was educated in Istanbul and received a degree in journalism (1977). He published his first novel in 1982 and achieved international fame with The White Castle (1985), set in 17th-century Istanbul. He lived in the United States in the late 1980s. His works, often autobiographical and intricately plotted, probe the tensions between East and West. His later novels include My Name Is Red (1998) and Snow (2002). In 2005 the Turkish government generated international controversy when it put Pamuk on trial for “denigrating Turkishness.” He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006.