A Discussion On The Consciousness Of Cultural Identity In Orhan Pamuk's Novels

Orhan Pamuk, the winner of 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature, is a renowned international Turkish author. Literary critics bracket Orhan Pamuk with Marcel Proust, Thomas Mann, Italo Calvino, Jorge Luis Borges, and Umberto Eco together. From his first novel, Cevdet Bey and His Sons to the latest novel, Museum of Innocence, during his toil as a writer fro thirty years, each of Pamuk's novels gained in international reputation and won a lot of awards. The research of Orhan Pamuk and his novels started recently in our country and fell behind the other country. Before he won the Nobel Prize in Literature, the whole domestic academic circle paid little attention to him and his novels. As a result, the research achievements are not abundant at the current stage, furthermore, there are a lot of blind spots need to be filled. For this reason, the study of Orhan Pamuk's novels exists a huge development space and research potential.As the synthetic and comprehensive analysis of Orhan Pamuk's novels, this thesis chooses the "cultural identity" as the breakthrough point, which is paid close attention by the people. This thesis will provide a new research perspective on the studies of Pamuk's novels, and enrich the current research results. Targeted on Pamuk's five novels, My Name is Red, The Black Book, The White Castle, The New Life, Snow as a major research object, this thesis bases on deep reading for the texts and post-colonial cultural theories, cultural conflict theory, and makes the current situation of Turkey's politics, economy, culture and religion as background information; makes every effort to give a systemic and comprehensive treatment of the consciousness of cultural identity in his novels. Besides the Introduction and Conclusion, this thesis is divided into three chapters. Introduction introduces Orhan Pamuk and his novels; summarizes the current situation of this project; explains the meaning of this selected title and the value of research; and gives the definition of some key words.The first chapter is divided into three sections. It mainly gives a general analysis of "travelers" and "identity swapping" in Orhan Pamuk's novels. Through the analysis of these two characters, we get the conclusion that Pamuk's novels exist a widespread demand for the cultural identity, which appears on the individual aspect and national aspect simultaneously.The second chapter is divided into three sections. It focuses on how Orhan Pamk accomplishes the diversified representation on the consciousness of cultural identity in his novels. In the first part of this chapter, the murder-plot is the point of penetration. By analyzing this plot, we are seeking for the conspiracy relationship between cultural identity and murder case. Through the analysis of two murder cases of miniaturists and poet, we can make a conclusion that Orhan Pamuk used murder, death, violence, and blood as a metaphor that indicates the potential crisis of individual and national cultural identity. In the second part of this chapter, two kinds of frequently appearing images, which could be divided into two types:material images (cultural images) and colorful images (cold and warm), in Pamuk's novels are characterized. Pamuk complete the diversified representation through above-mentioned magic images.Based on the first two chapters, the third chapter is divided into two sections. This chapter summarizes the aesthetic significances of the consciousness of cultural identity in Pamuk's novels, and then seeks for the formation reasons of this consciousness. In the first part of this chapter, we discuss the aesthetic significances of cultural identity in Pamuk's novels. Generally speaking, the character of introspection and rebellion are made obviously in Pamuk's works. Pamuk introspects the cultural identity from individual and national aspects, and then, presents a kind of valuable rebellion, which focused on the dark side of the history of Turkey. In addition, Pamuk emphasizes the free choice of cultural identity and uses a nostalgic pattern to reconstruct the identity. He tries to find a new turning point and balance point for the clash and interlacing of cultures between the eastern and the western. In the second part of this chapter, we discuss the formation reasons of the consciousness of cultural identity in Pamuk's novels. In particular, Pamuk's family background and growth environment are the fundamental factor of this consciousness of cultural identity; Istanbul's huzun from a vanished empire is the historical factor of this consciousness; and the communication and clash of culture, life style, values, and ideology during the process of globalization, and the culture conflict theory raised by Huntington are the epoch-factor of this consciousness.Finally, in the Conclusion the summary of the whole thesis will be given. And then, the future development-space of the studies of cultural identity will be discussed. Firstly, the comparative studies between Orhan Pamuk (and his novels) and other writers (and their novels),who both have colonial experience and multi-cultural identity, such as Doris Lessing, E. M. Foster, Conrad Joseph, and John Maxwell Coetzee, is helpful to deepen the cultural identity studies. Secondly, the comparative studies between Orhan Pamuk's novels and Chinese Root-Seeking Literature, which started in the 1980s, are worth meditative.