Orhan Pamuk

1.1. Early life and education

Born in Istanbul in 1952, Orhan Pamuk grew up in a wealthy, albeit declining, upper-class family. His paternal grandfather was a first-generation engineer who installed railways across Turkey, and his maternal grandfather studied law in Berlin. The Pamuk family resided together in the Pamuk Apartments in Nişantaşı, a district in Istanbul where Pamuk spent his formative years. His parents divorced early in his life.

From the age of seven until 22, Pamuk harbored aspirations of becoming a painter. He attended Robert College secondary school in Istanbul. Under family pressure to pursue a career in engineering or architecture, he initially enrolled in Istanbul Technical University to study architecture, a field he felt was related to his artistic dreams. However, after three years, he left the program to dedicate himself to writing full-time. He subsequently graduated from the Institute of Journalism at the University of Istanbul in 1976. From the age of 22 to 30, Pamuk lived with his mother, focusing on writing his first novel and seeking a publisher. He identifies himself as a Cultural Muslim, acknowledging Islam historically and culturally without a personal belief in God.

1.2. Personal life

On 1 March 1982, Orhan Pamuk married historian Aylin Türegün. From 1985 to 1988, while his wife pursued graduate studies at Columbia University in the United States, Pamuk held a position as a visiting scholar there. During this period, he conducted research and wrote his novel *The Black Book* at the university's Butler Library. He also held a visiting fellowship at the University of Iowa. Pamuk later returned to Istanbul, a city to which he maintains a strong attachment and which frequently features in his works. In 1991, he and Aylin had a daughter named Rüya, a Turkish word meaning "dream," to whom his acclaimed novel *My Name Is Red* is dedicated. The couple divorced in 2002.

In 2006, Pamuk returned to the U.S. as a visiting professor at Columbia University, where he was a Fellow with Columbia's Committee on Global Thought and held appointments in the Middle East and Asian Languages and Cultures department and the School of the Arts. During the 2007-08 academic year, Pamuk returned to Columbia to jointly teach comparative literature classes with Andreas Huyssen and David Damrosch. He also served as a writer-in-residence at Bard College. In 2009, he was Harvard's Charles Eliot Norton Lecturer, delivering a series of lectures titled "The Naive and Sentimental Novelist."

Pamuk publicly acknowledged his relationship with the writer Kiran Desai. In January 2011, Turkish-Armenian artist Karolin Fişekçi claimed to have had a two-and-a-half-year relationship with Pamuk between 2010 and 2012, a claim Pamuk expressly denied. Since 2011, he has been in a relationship with Aslı Akyavaş, whom he married in 2022.

Pamuk's elder brother, Şevket Pamuk, who sometimes appears as a fictionalized character in his novels, is an internationally recognized professor of economics specializing in the economic history of the Ottoman Empire, working at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul. Pamuk also has a younger half-sister, Hümeyra Pamuk, who works as a journalist.

2.1. Beginnings and early works

Pamuk began writing regularly in 1974. His first novel, *Karanlık ve Işık* (Darkness and Light^English), was a co-winner of the 1979 Milliyet Press Novel Contest. This novel was later published in 1982 under the title *Cevdet Bey ve Oğulları* (Mr. Cevdet and His Sons^English) and won the Orhan Kemal Novel Prize in 1983. It tells the story of three generations of a wealthy Istanbul family residing in Nişantaşı, the district where Pamuk himself grew up.

His early works garnered critical acclaim, including the 1984 Madarali Novel Prize for his second novel, *Sessiz Ev* (Silent House^English), and the 1991 Prix de la Découverte Européenne for its French translation, *La Maison de Silence*. His historical novel *Beyaz Kale* (The White Castle^English), published in Turkish in 1985, won the 1990 Independent Award for Foreign Fiction and significantly expanded his international reputation. On 19 May 1991, *The New York Times Book Review* heralded his emergence, stating, "A new star has risen in the east-Orhan Pamuk." Around this time, Pamuk began experimenting with postmodern techniques in his novels, marking a significant departure from the strict naturalism of his initial writings.

Popular success in Turkey followed with his 1990 novel *Kara Kitap* (The Black Book^English), which became one of the most controversial and widely read books in Turkish literature due to its complexity and richness. In 1992, he penned the screenplay for the film *Gizli Yüz* (Secret Face^English), based on *Kara Kitap* and directed by prominent Turkish filmmaker Ömer Kavur. Pamuk's fifth novel, *Yeni Hayat* (New Life^English), published in 1994, caused a sensation in Turkey and became the fastest-selling book in Turkish history. By this period, Pamuk had also become a high-profile public figure in Turkey due to his outspoken support for Kurdish political rights. In 1995, he was among a group of authors who faced trial for writing essays that criticized Turkey's treatment of the Kurds. In 1999, Pamuk published his collection of essays, *Öteki Renkler* (Other Colors^English).

In 2019, Pamuk, then 66, held an exhibition titled "Balkon: Photos by Orhan Pamuk," featuring photographs of Istanbul taken from his own balcony. The exhibition, curated by Gerhard Steidl (the German publisher of his photo book *Balkon*), ran for three months at the Yapı Kredi Culture and Arts building on Istanbul's Istiklal Street. It showcased over 600 color photos selected from more than 8,500 that Pamuk took over a five-month period in late 2012 and early 2013, described by the gallery as "a period of intense creativity."

2.2. Major Novels

Orhan Pamuk's major novels are celebrated for their intricate narratives, deep exploration of identity, and engagement with historical and cultural tensions.

2.2.6. The Museum of Innocence

Pamuk completed his novel *Masumiyet Müzesi* (The Museum of Innocence^English) in the summer of 2008, making it his first novel published after receiving the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. The novel tells a love story set in Istanbul between 1975 and 1984, intertwining it with the city's urban life. Pamuk uniquely conceived the novel in conjunction with an actual physical museum, also called The Museum of Innocence, which he established in an Istanbul house he purchased. The museum houses everyday objects meticulously tied to the novel's narrative, serving as a tangible extension of the fictional world and a recreation of Istanbul's citizen life from the 1950s onwards. Pamuk reportedly used his Nobel Prize money to help fund the museum's establishment. He collaborated on a documentary titled "The Innocence of Memories," which further expanded on the museum's concept, stating that it would "tell a different version of the love story set in Istanbul through objects and Grant Gee's wonderful new film." The novel, like *Snow*, features tragic love stories where men fall for beauties but are often doomed to loneliness. In 2013, Pamuk invited artist Grazia Toderi to design a work for the Museum of Innocence. Their collaboration culminated in the exhibition "Words and Stars," which opened in 2017 at the MART (Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto) and explored "the inclination of man to explore space and innate vocation to question the stars." The exhibition was also shown at the Palazzo Madama and the Planetarium of Turin in 2016-17.

2.3. Non-fiction works

Pamuk's non-fiction works offer profound insights into his personal life, his relationship with Istanbul, and his literary reflections.

He published a memoir and travelogue, *İstanbul-Hatıralar ve Şehir* (Istanbul-Memories and the City^English), in 2003, with the English version following in 2005. Pamuk described the writing process as intense, taking him a year of twelve-hour workdays, undertaken during a period of personal crisis involving his divorce, his father's death, and professional challenges. Despite the difficulties, he focused on the "beauty of the book," acknowledging that it might have caused pain to his mother and family, but prioritizing his artistic vision.

His collection of non-fiction and a short story, *Öteki Renkler* (Other Colors^English), was published in 1999 (UK edition in September 2007). The collection includes the short story "To Look Out the Window," set in the early 1960s.

Other notable non-fiction works include *Babamın Bavulu* (My Father's Suitcase^English), which is his Nobel lecture delivered in 2006; *Şeylerin Masumiyeti* (The Innocence of Objects^English), which serves as a catalog for his Museum of Innocence; and *Saf ve Düşünceli Romancı* (The Naive and Sentimental Novelist^English), a work of literary criticism based on his 2009 Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University. He has also published collections of essays such as *Manzaradan Parçalar: Hayat, Sokaklar, Edebiyat* (Pieces from the View: Life, Streets, Literature^English, 2010), and additional memoirs like *Resimli İstanbul - Hatıralar ve Şehir* (Illustrated Istanbul - Memories and the City^English, 2015) and *Hatıraların Masumiyeti* (The Innocence of Memories^English, 2016). Pamuk has also produced photo books, including *Balkon* (2018) and *Orange* (2020), featuring his Istanbul photographs, and *Uzak Dağlar ve Hatıralar* (Distant Mountains and Memories^English, 2022), a selection from his personal diary and photographs.

2.4. Literary Style and Themes

Pamuk's literary style is characterized by a deep engagement with postmodern techniques, often leading to narratives marked by a confusion or loss of identity. This thematic concern is frequently attributed to the inherent conflict between Western and Eastern values that permeates Turkish society. His novels are often described as disturbing or unsettling, featuring complex plots and deeply psychological characters. A recurring element in his works is a profound discussion of and fascination with creative arts, particularly literature and painting. Pamuk consistently explores the deep-rooted tensions between East and West, and between tradition and modernism or secularism.

Regarding his creative process, Pamuk speaks of "the angel of inspiration," stating, "I am just listening to an inner music, the mystery of which I don't completely know. And I don't want to know." He further elaborates, "I am most surprised by those moments when I have felt as if the sentences, dreams, and pages that have made me so ecstatically happy have not come from my own imagination - that another power has found them and generously presented them to me."

Pamuk has faced accusations of plagiarism and being heavily influenced by the works of other writers, with some critics asserting that certain chapters or paragraphs in his novels are almost directly quoted from other books. For instance, nationalist popular historian Murat Bardakçı accused him of counterfeiting and plagiarism in the Turkish newspaper *Hurriyet*. Another specific accusation claims that Pamuk's novel *The White Castle* contains exact paragraphs from Fuad Carim's *Kanuni Devrinde İstanbul* (Istanbul in the Time of the Kanuni^English) novel. When questioned about these accusations at the 2009 Boston Book Festival, Pamuk responded, "No I do not. Next question?" However, many literary scholars and critics have attributed such accusations to a lack of understanding of postmodern literature and the literary technique of intertextuality, which Pamuk frequently employs with full disclosure.

Pamuk is known to read Japanese authors extensively through English translations, particularly resonating with Jun'ichirō Tanizaki's journey from Westernization to a return to his own country's classics. He has built a strong relationship with his Japanese publisher, Fujiwara Shoten, and reportedly enjoys informal gatherings with them at small yakitori restaurants during his visits to Japan.

2.5. Screenwriting

In addition to his prolific novel writing, Orhan Pamuk has also ventured into screenwriting. In 1992, he wrote the screenplay for the film *Gizli Yüz* (Secret Face^English), which was based on his novel *The Black Book*. The film was directed by the prominent Turkish director Ömer Kavur. Pamuk's work on the screenplay earned him the Best Original Screenplay award at the 1991 Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival in Turkey.

4.1. Statements on Historical Events

In February 2005, Pamuk made controversial remarks during an interview with the Swiss publication *Das Magazin*, a weekly supplement to several Swiss daily newspapers. In the interview, he stated, "Thirty thousand Kurds have been killed here, and a million Armenians. And almost nobody dares to mention that. So I do." This statement ignited a significant controversy within Turkey, where the events of 1915 concerning Ottoman Armenians are a highly sensitive and often taboo subject. Turkish historians were divided over his remarks.

Pamuk subsequently stated that he was subjected to a hate campaign that compelled him to leave the country temporarily. However, he returned later in 2005 to face the charges against him, asserting his intention to highlight issues of freedom of speech in Turkey. In an interview with *BBC News*, he explained, "What happened to the Ottoman Armenians in 1915 was a major thing that was hidden from the Turkish nation; it was a taboo. But we have to be able to talk about the past." When questioned by CNN TURK, Pamuk clarified that he indeed said "Armenians were killed" but denied stating "Turks killed Armenians," while estimating the number of deaths as one million in that speech. He reiterated his views in a speech given during an award ceremony in Germany in October 2005, declaring, "I repeat, I said loud and clear that one million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds were killed in Turkey."

Some of his Turkish colleagues criticized him for focusing his critiques solely on "Turkey and Turks" without being equally critical of other governments. There were also suspicions among some observers regarding Pamuk's true intentions behind these statements, with claims that he was merely seeking to gain international attention or win the Nobel Prize, which was later awarded to Harold Pinter that year. Critics pointed out that Pamuk had not previously demonstrated significant concern for Kurdish or Armenian issues, unlike other Turkish writers such as Yaşar Kemal, who had consistently faced charges throughout their careers for defending the rights of Kurds and other minorities. The timing of Pamuk's statements, coinciding with crucial negotiations for Turkey's entry into the European Union, also fueled controversy within Turkey. Some commentators argued that Pamuk's case was more akin to defamation, as seen in Western democracies, rather than a matter of freedom of expression.

4.2. Trial and Prosecution

The criminal charges against Orhan Pamuk stemmed from a complaint filed by lawyer Kemal Kerinçsiz following Pamuk's statements on the Armenian genocide and the mass killings of Kurds. The case was initiated under Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which at the time stipulated that "A person who publicly insults the Republic or Turkish Grand National Assembly, shall be punishable by imprisonment of between six months to three years."

Pamuk's trial commenced on 16 December 2005. However, minutes after it began, the judge suspended the proceedings, citing that the required approval from the Ministry of Justice for prosecution under Article 301 had not yet been received. The then-Justice Minister, Cemil Çiçek, stated on the same day that he would thoroughly examine Pamuk's file once it reached him. On 29 December 2005, Turkish state prosecutors dropped the charge that Pamuk had insulted Turkey's armed forces, although the more general charge of "insulting Turkishness" remained.

On 22 January 2006, Turkey's Justice Ministry officially refused to issue approval for the prosecution, stating they lacked authority to open a case against Pamuk under the new penal code. The local court subsequently ruled the next day that the case could not proceed without the Ministry's approval, effectively dropping the charges. However, Kemal Kerinçsiz, the lawyer who initiated the complaint, appealed this decision to the Supreme Court of Appeal, which ordered the court in Şişli to reopen the case. Ultimately, on 27 March 2011, Pamuk was found guilty and ordered to pay 6.00 K TRY in compensation to five individuals for having insulted their honor, among other things. In Bilecik, some of Pamuk's books were publicly burned in a nationalist rally.

4.3. International Reaction

The charges against Orhan Pamuk provoked a significant international outcry and raised questions in various circles regarding Turkey's proposed entry into the European Union. On 30 November, the European Parliament announced its decision to send a delegation of five Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), led by Camiel Eurlings, to observe the trial. Olli Rehn, the EU Enlargement Commissioner, subsequently declared that the Pamuk case would serve as a "litmus test" of Turkey's commitment to the EU's membership criteria, particularly concerning freedom of expression.

International human rights organizations swiftly condemned the legal proceedings. On 1 December, Amnesty International issued a statement calling for the repeal of Article 301 and the immediate release of Pamuk and six other individuals awaiting trial under the same act. The PEN American Center also denounced the charges, emphasizing that it was "extraordinary that a state that has ratified both the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the European Convention on Human Rights, both of which see freedom of expression as central, should have a Penal Code that includes a clause that is so clearly contrary to these very same principles."

On 13 December, eight world-renowned authors-José Saramago, Gabriel García Márquez, Günter Grass, Umberto Eco, Carlos Fuentes, Juan Goytisolo, John Updike, and Mario Vargas Llosa-issued a joint statement in support of Pamuk, decrying the charges against him as a violation of human rights.

In 2006, *Time* magazine included Pamuk in its cover article "TIME 100: The People Who Shape Our World," in the "Heroes & Pioneers" category, recognizing his courage in speaking out. In April 2006, during an interview on the BBC's *HARDtalk* program, Pamuk reiterated that his remarks regarding the Armenian genocide were primarily intended to draw attention to freedom of expression issues in Turkey rather than to the massacres themselves. In January 2008, Turkish authorities arrested 13 ultranationalists, including Kemal Kerinçsiz, for their alleged involvement in Ergenekon, a Turkish nationalist underground organization suspected of plotting to assassinate political figures, including Christian missionaries and Armenian intellectual Hrant Dink. Several reports suggested that Orhan Pamuk was among the figures targeted by this group, and police had informed him of the assassination plans eight months prior to the Ergenekon investigation.

In an open online poll conducted in 2008 by *Prospect Magazine* (United Kingdom) and *Foreign Policy* (United States), Pamuk was voted as the fourth most intellectual person in the world on the list of Top 100 Public Intellectuals.

5.1. Major Literary Awards

• 1979: Milliyet Press Novel Contest Award (Turkey) for his novel *Karanlık ve Işık* (co-winner)
• 1983: Orhan Kemal Novel Prize (Turkey) for his novel *Cevdet Bey ve Oğulları*
• 1984: Madarali Novel Prize (Turkey) for his novel *Sessiz Ev*
• 1990: Independent Foreign Fiction Prize (United Kingdom) for his novel *Beyaz Kale*
• 1991: Prix de la Découverte Européenne (France) for the French edition of *Sessiz Ev*: *La Maison de Silence*
• 1991: Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival (Turkey) Best Original Screenplay for *Gizli Yüz*
• 1995: Prix France Culture (France) for his novel *Kara Kitap*: *Le Livre Noir*
• 2002: Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger (France) for his novel *My Name Is Red*: *Mon Nom est Rouge*
• 2002: Premio Grinzane Cavour (Italy) for his novel *My Name Is Red*
• 2003: International Dublin Literary Award (Ireland) for his novel *My Name Is Red* (awarded jointly with translator Erdağ M. Göknar)
• 2005: Peace Prize of the German Book Trade (Germany), valued at 25.00 K EUR, for his literary work in which "Europe and Islamic Turkey find a place for one another."
• 2005: Prix Médicis étranger (France) for his novel *Snow*: *La Neige*
• 2006: 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature (Sweden), for "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures."
• 2008: Ovidius Prize (Romania)
• 2010: Norman Mailer Prize, Lifetime Achievement (USA)
• 2012: Sonning Prize (Denmark)
• 2014: The Mary Lynn Kotz Award (USA) for his book *The Innocence of Objects*
• 2014: Tabernakul Prize (Macedonia)
• 2014: European Museum of the Year Award (Estonia) for The Museum of Innocence
• 2014: Helena Vaz da Silva European Award for Public Awareness on Cultural Heritage (Portugal)
• 2015: Erdal Öz Prize (Turkey), for his novel *A Strangeness in My Mind*
• 2015: Aydın Doğan Foundation Award (Turkey), for his novel *A Strangeness in My Mind*
• 2016: The Yasnaya Polyana Literary Award ("Foreign Literature" category, Russia) for his novel *A Strangeness in My Mind*
• 2016: Milovan Vidaković Prize in Novi Sad (Serbia)
• 2017: Budapest Grand Prize (Hungary)
• 2017: Literary Flame Prize (Montenegro)
• 2019: Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement

5.2. Other Honours and Degrees

• 2005: Honorary Member of American Academy of Arts and Letters (USA)
• 2006: Washington University in St. Louis's Distinguished Humanist Award (United States)
• 2006: Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France)
• 2008: Honorary Member of Social Sciences of Chinese Academy (China)
• 2008: Honorary Member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences (USA)
• 2012: Légion d'honneur Officier (France)

He has received numerous honorary doctorates:

• 2007: Free University of Berlin, Department of Philosophy and Humanities
• 2007: Tilburg University
• 2007: Boğaziçi University, Department of Turkish Language and Literature
• 2007: Georgetown University's Honorary Degree: Doctor of Humane Letters
• 2007: Complutense University of Madrid
• 2008: University of Florence
• 2008: American University of Beirut
• 2009: University of Rouen
• 2010: University of Tirana
• 2010: Yale University
• 2011: Sofia University
• 2017: Brera Academy (Italy)
• 2017: St. Petersburg State University
• 2018: University of Crete
• 2023: Paris Nanterre University
• 2023: Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland

6.1. Novels

All of Pamuk's novels, with the exception of *Cevdet Bey and His Sons*, have been translated into English.

• Cevdet Bey ve Oğulları* (Cevdet Bey and His Sons^English or Darkness and Light^English), 1982. Set in 1905-1970.
• Sessiz Ev* (Silent House^English), 1983. Set in July 1980.
• Beyaz Kale* (The White Castle^English), 1985. Set in the 17th century, with a preface set in 1985.
• Kara Kitap* (The Black Book^English), 1990. Set in the 1980s.
• Yeni Hayat* (The New Life^English), 1994. Set in the early 1990s.
• Benim Adım Kırmızı* (My Name Is Red^English), 1998. Set in 1591.
• Kar* (Snow^English), 2002. Set in the early 1990s.
• Masumiyet Müzesi* (The Museum of Innocence^English), 2008. Set in 1975-1984.
• Kafamda Bir Tuhaflık* (A Strangeness in My Mind^English), 2014. Set in 1969-2012.
• Kırmızı Saçlı Kadın* (The Red-Haired Woman^English), 2016. Set in 1980.
• Veba Geceleri* (Nights of Plague^English), 2021. Set in 1901 in the fictional island of Mingheria.
• Fathers, Mothers and Sons: Cevdet Bey and Sons; The Silent House; The Red-Haired Woman* ("Delta" Omnibus, Novels volume I), 2018.

6.2. Short Stories

• "To Look Out the Window" in *Öteki Renkler* (Other Colors: Essays and a Story^English), 1999. Set in the early 1960s.

6.3. Non-fiction

• Öteki Renkler* (Other Colors: Essays and a Story^English), 1999.
• İstanbul: Hatıralar ve Şehir* (Istanbul: Memories and the City^English), 2003.
• Babamın Bavulu* (My Father's Suitcase^English), Nobel lecture, 2007.
• Manzaradan Parçalar: Hayat, Sokaklar, Edebiyat* (Pieces from the View: Life, Streets, Literature^English), essays, 2010.
• Saf ve Düşünceli Romancı* (The Naive and Sentimental Novelist^English), literary criticism, 2011.
• Şeylerin Masumiyeti* (The Innocence of Objects^English), Museum of Innocence Catalog, 2012.
• Resimli İstanbul - Hatıralar ve Şehir* (Illustrated Istanbul - Memories and the City^English, memoir, 2015.
• Hatıraların Masumiyeti* (The Innocence of Memories^English, scripts and essays, 2016.
• Balkon*, introduction and photographs, 2018.
• Orange*, introduction and photographs, 2020.
• Uzak Dağlar ve Hatıralar* (Distant Mountains and Memories^English, selections from personal diary and photographs, 2022.

6.4. Screenplays

• Gizli Yüz* (Secret Face^English), 1992.