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A VOTE AGAINST 'CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS'
By Erdag Goknar Guest Columnist
The Herald-Sun (Durham, NC)
October 18, 2006 Wednesday
Final Edition
The awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Turkish author Orhan
Pamuk does more than acknowledge the power of the writer's complex
and lyrical narratives, which intertwine European and Muslim literary
traditions. It helps free Turkey from the tired, age-old cliche in
the West of it being "poor, populous, and Muslim" -- all code words
for Turkey's exclusion from Europe.
The prize -- the first Nobel for a Turkish author and only the second
Nobel for an author from a Muslim country -- was an indirect vote
for Turkey's accession to the European Union. Pamuk's fiction and
Turkey's delicate E.U. membership talks are vital for the acceptance
of Muslims in the West. The fate of the current government of Prime
Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who now oversees this historic integration
of Europe and Islam, rests in the continuation of this process.
Culture and politics are implicitly conjoined in Pamuk's work. In his
seven novels and other writings, Pamuk advocates for understanding
between what at first appears to be contrary, opposing cultural
logics. In his novel "The White Castle", a 17th century Venetian
character exchanges understandings of the world with an Ottoman as
their identities and fates begin to overlap. In "My Name is Red",
which I rendered into English, Pamuk uses Renaissance painting and
Islamic arts of miniature as metaphors for distinct worldviews that
merge through mutual influence.
Pamuk's fiction questions the very notion of a national identity
based on a single ethnic, religious or cultural characteristic. Its
recognition by the Nobel committee will encourage a favorable
re-examination of Turkey's past, present and future.
Finally, the prize encourages forces of change within Turkey. Pamuk
is an author who has been charged in Turkey under the now infamous
Article 301 for denigrating "Turkishness." The charges emerged out
of the author's statement during a 2005 interview that "one million
Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in these lands." The trial
was confirming evidence for those in Europe against Turkey's E.U.
accession. What was overlooked was that no one knows this better than
anti-E.U. nationalist groups within Turkey who are using such trials as
part of a strategy to keep their country out of the E.U. The awarding
of this Nobel Prize takes the side of Pamuk -- the side of pluralism
and internationalism over exclusionary nationalism.
Erdag Goknar is Assistant Professor of Turkish at Duke University. He
is also the English translator of the Orhan Pamuk best seller "My
Name is Red."
By Erdag Goknar Guest Columnist
The Herald-Sun (Durham, NC)
October 18, 2006 Wednesday
Final Edition
The awarding of the Nobel Prize in Literature to Turkish author Orhan
Pamuk does more than acknowledge the power of the writer's complex
and lyrical narratives, which intertwine European and Muslim literary
traditions. It helps free Turkey from the tired, age-old cliche in
the West of it being "poor, populous, and Muslim" -- all code words
for Turkey's exclusion from Europe.
The prize -- the first Nobel for a Turkish author and only the second
Nobel for an author from a Muslim country -- was an indirect vote
for Turkey's accession to the European Union. Pamuk's fiction and
Turkey's delicate E.U. membership talks are vital for the acceptance
of Muslims in the West. The fate of the current government of Prime
Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who now oversees this historic integration
of Europe and Islam, rests in the continuation of this process.
Culture and politics are implicitly conjoined in Pamuk's work. In his
seven novels and other writings, Pamuk advocates for understanding
between what at first appears to be contrary, opposing cultural
logics. In his novel "The White Castle", a 17th century Venetian
character exchanges understandings of the world with an Ottoman as
their identities and fates begin to overlap. In "My Name is Red",
which I rendered into English, Pamuk uses Renaissance painting and
Islamic arts of miniature as metaphors for distinct worldviews that
merge through mutual influence.
Pamuk's fiction questions the very notion of a national identity
based on a single ethnic, religious or cultural characteristic. Its
recognition by the Nobel committee will encourage a favorable
re-examination of Turkey's past, present and future.
Finally, the prize encourages forces of change within Turkey. Pamuk
is an author who has been charged in Turkey under the now infamous
Article 301 for denigrating "Turkishness." The charges emerged out
of the author's statement during a 2005 interview that "one million
Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in these lands." The trial
was confirming evidence for those in Europe against Turkey's E.U.
accession. What was overlooked was that no one knows this better than
anti-E.U. nationalist groups within Turkey who are using such trials as
part of a strategy to keep their country out of the E.U. The awarding
of this Nobel Prize takes the side of Pamuk -- the side of pluralism
and internationalism over exclusionary nationalism.
Erdag Goknar is Assistant Professor of Turkish at Duke University. He
is also the English translator of the Orhan Pamuk best seller "My
Name is Red."