Orhan Pamuk on the TurkishModernization Project:

Is It a Farewell to the West?

Uner DaglierUniversity oft-long Kong

The mainstay of the Turkish modernization project in the twen-tieth century has been relegating religion to the private sphere.To this end, traditions associated with Islamic civilization werebarmed from Turkish public life: women gained a degree ofpublic presence and the semblance of equality; Western styleclothing became the only acceptable mode in public life; tradi-tional laws with religious character gave way to modern legalcodes; and, above all, the Arabic script was replaced by itsEuropean counterpart.

With all due respect to modern Turkey's founder KemalPostmodernist Atatürk, especially his vision for a new Turkey and statesman-

TrUiTtmLent ^^^^ ^^^^ " ^^^^^^ ^^^ grounds, the political and intellectualrationalism climate of the 1920s was more suitable for carrying out suchhave undercut ^ radical program of cultural change than that of our time.Turkish The reigrung intellectual climate in Turkey and the West hassecularization, changed drastically since then. The success of postmodernist

critiques of reason and Enlightenment in the West graduallyundercut the intellectual supports of secularization in Turkey,and the westernized Turkish intelligentsia came to be dividedwithin itself.'

ÜNER DAGLIER is a post-doctoral fellow in the School of Modem Languagesand Cultures at the University of Hong Kong.

' There are several other notable factors behind this intellectual

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The Nobel Prize laureate Orhan Pamuk (2006 literature)has been skeptical of Turkey's state-led modernization project Pamuk afrom early in his career. At its current and most mature state self-defined

c I f 1 • t- t 1 .. -ii- ti- 1 f rationalist.

of evolution, his perspective seems to be m tune with that ofcontemporary critics of the Enlightenment in the West whoclaim that there is not a binary opposition between modernityand religion.^ This aspect of Pamuk's art drew internationalacademic attention after the publication of Snow, his self-avowed first and last political novel.^ Leonard Stone interpretsPamuk's artistic views on the rise of political Islam and thefuture of democracy in Turkey as cautious optimism. DavidCoury argues—perhaps erroneously (Pamuk was critical ofsecular republicanism from early on)—that Snow signifiesa shift in Pamuk's political loyalties.^ Having said this, Pa-muk's bitter criticism of state-led modernization in Turkeydoes not necessarily correspond to Islamic ties or sympathies.If anything, Pamuk defines himself as a rationalist,^ andaccording to his former translator Güneli Gun's account, heis a nonbeliever.' Scholarly opinion, however, is divided overtransformation: First, the westernization movement in Turkey, which conflatesmodernization with secularization, failed to develop a strong philosophicalgrounding for the masses. Second, the global wave of Islamic revivalism,which began in the late 1970s due to oil money and a population boom in theMiddle East, spread into Turkey. Third, there is a growing appeal of a looserinterpretation of secularism, as practiced in the Anglo-Saxon world of liberaldemocracies, as opposed to the French model, or laïcité, which frowns onreligious expression in public life.

^ In their view, the European model of secular modernity is an exceptionrather than the rule, and there is not a single path to moderrüty. Therefore,they cite the sway of religion in the United States and the recently emergingeconomies of the lesser-developed world and refer to the multiple modernitiestheory. See, Jose Casanova, Public Religions in the Modern World (Chicago: TheUniversity of Chicago Press, 1994); Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (Cambridge,MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard Urüversity Press, 2009).

^ Orhan Pamuk, Snow, trans. Maureen Freely (New York: Vintage Books,[2002] 2004). The original Turkish version's date of publication in brackets.

" Leonard Stone, "Minarets and Plastic Bags: The Social and GlobalRelations of Orhan Pamuk," Turkish Studies 7, no. 2 (2006): 194; David N.Coury, "'Torn Country': Turkey and the West in Orhan Pamuk's Snow,"Critique 50, no. 4 (2009): 342.

' Dogan Hizlan, "Edebiyatin Megastari Orhan Pamuk: Kendimi de Okuru daSarakaya Aliyorum [Literature's Megastar Orhan Pamuk: I am Making Fun ofMyself and the Readers]," Hürriyel, October 24,1994.

' Cüneli Gun, "The Turks Are Coming: Deciphering Orhan Pamuk's BlackBook," World Literature Today 66, no. 1 (1992): 61.

Orhan Pamuk on the Turkish Modernization Project HUMANITAS • 147

Covertargumentin Snowfor Islamicmodernityunconvincing.

the extent of his commitment to rationalism. The majorityof Pamuk's critics characterize him as a relativist,'' or askeptical postmodernist,^ but Marshall Berman, on the contrary,maintains that Pamuk would probably die for ideas includingmodernity, the Enlightenment, and secular humanism.'

This article seeks to interpret Pamuk's emerging optimismin Snow concerning the rise of political Islam and the future ofdemocracy in Turkey from a culturalist perspective on mod-ernization and development, which holds that some culturesare more suitable for social, political, and economic progressthan others.'" Within this context, this article maintains that,in contradistinction to Pamuk's earlier novels, the lack of areference to religio-cultural obstacles to individuation, moder-nity, and even democracy in Snow is unconvincing. To go astep further, Pamuk's covert argument for Islamic modernityin Snow (which is a variation of the multiple modernitiestheory) at the expense of a westernized secular polity inTurkey is insufficiently grounded. Arguably, Pamuk's earliernovels are based on a more sober understanding of theconnection between culture and progress. For example,in The Black Book, Pamuk is bitterly critical of the state-ledTurkish modernization project and its benevolently despoticmasterminds for seeking to abandon Turkey's traditionalvalues and identity. Paradoxically, however, he does notengage in a concrete attempt to vindicate those traditions oroffer a viable political alternative to state-led westernizationor secular moderrüty." Rather, in My Name is Red Pamuk sug-gests that westernization in the Ottoman Empire and in thelater Turkish Republic is bound to fail because of deep-seatedreligious and cultural traditions that hinder the prospects for

' Stone, "Minarets and Plastic Bags," 197.* Walter G. Andrews, "The Black Book and Black Boxes: Orhan Pamuk s

Kara Kitap," Edebiyal 11, no. 1 (2000): 112; Aylin Bayrakçeken and Don Randall,"Meetings of East and West: Orhan Pamuk's Istanbulite Perspective," Critique 46, no.3 (2005): 202.

' Marshall Berman, "Orhan Pamuk and Modernist Liberalism," Dissent 56,no. 2 (2009): 114.

'" Lawrence E. Harrison, "Promoting Progressive Cultural Change," inCulture Matters: How Values Shape Human Progress, ed. Lawrence E. Harrisonand Samuel P. Huntington (New York: Basic Books, 2001), 296.

" Orhan Pamuk, The Black Book, trans. Maureen Freely (New York: VintageBooks, [1990] 2006).

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individuation and modernity. For audiences familiar with hisearlier novels. Snow is extraordinary because there Pamuksuggests that the only glimmer of hope for Turkish modern-ization comes from Islamists. This, however, signifies less ashift in Pamuk's political loyalties than a problematic self-rebuttal of his earlier criticism of religio-cultural traditionsin Turkey as obstacles to individuality, modernization, andpolitical development.'^

Ultimately, of course, numerous statements about identity,change, and modernization in Pamuk's novels do not constitutea political theory. The attempt to hold the artist up to thestandards of theoretical rigor, or consistency," is warrantedonly to the extent that it contributes to a wider debate be-tween the proponents of westernization and the multiplemodernities theory in the Near Eastern context. Therefore,this article begins with a brief account of Pamuk's objectionto Turkey's state-led modernist tradition based on The BlackBook. What follows serves as a critical exposition of Pamuk'scontrasting views on characteristic Eastern or Islamic values,most notably the lack of individuality or the prejudice againstit in My Name is Red, and the prospects for its emergence inSnow. At this stage, suffice it to state that Pamuk's focus onindividuality and derivative values is not accidental; as thecontemporary German academic philosopher Habermas onceremarked, individuality is the quintessential modern value."That is, from an epistemological perspective, individualityacts as the fountainhead, and other modern values such asintellectual skepticism, political liberty, and social progressflow from it.

Pamuk's

individuality^^^ incidental

The Black Book and Political CriticismWithin the context of his earlier novels, Pamuk most lucidly

repudiates the state-led Turkish modernization project and itsbenevolently despotic masterminds in The Black Book, whichis considered to be his magnum opus due to its irmovative

' Orhan Pamuk, My Name is Red, trans. Erdag M. Göknar (New York:Vintage Books, [1998] 2002); Orhan Pamuk, Snow, trans. Maureen Freely (NewYork: Vintage Books, [2002] 2004).

" Jürgen Habermas, The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity, trans.Frederick G. Lawrence (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1990), 1-2.

Orhan Pamuk on the Turkish Modernization Project HUMANITAS • 149

Pamuk'snovelsreflectdiverseinfluences.

dimension and artistic impact. The Black Book is the story of thedreamy lawyer Galip in search of his wife and cousin Rüyawho deserted him for another cousin, the elusive columnistCelal. The narrative of Galip's quest for the deserting coupleover and under Istanbul is laden with esoteric and exotericreferences to cultural change and reformist leaders throughoutmodern Turkish history, including Kemal Atatiirk and SultanMahmud the Second. However, Pamuk's critique of mod-ernization in the novel lacks a constructive dimension, as itdoes not offer a viable political response to the circumstances,especially the sense of civilizational decline, which originallyprompted Turkey's reformist statesmen to opt for westerniza-tion.

According to hostile critics, Pamuk's repudiation of thesecular republican project and its principal founder suggeststhat the novelist is in denial of his own privileged background.Pamuk is the grandson of a railway tycoon who had madehis fortune during the early years of the Turkish republicwhen the founding president Afatürk was still in power, andhis family had close ties with the governing elite of the time.However, tracing his paternal roots to the Islamic clergy in theprovincial Aegean town of Gördes in Manisa, Pamuk also par-takes of a traditionalist heritage.'* (In his first novel, the semi-autobiographical Cevdet Bey and His Sons, Pamuk provides adetailed account of his ancestral family traditions.)'^ If any-thing, the maze of personal influences on Pamuk accounts forthe diverse texture and the conflictive elements in his novels,traits that won him international acclaim. .

In The Black Book, Pamuk makes use of esoteric literarydevices in order to rebuke Atatiirk. (In the heyday of theIslamic civilization, before philosophy was banned altogetherin the twelffh century A.D., Islamic philosophers such asAl-Farabi had made use of esoteric literary devices in orderto fend off possible charges of heresy.'^ In contrast, Pamuk's

" Cemal A. Kalyoncu, "Valla Yahudi Degilim [I Swear I'm Not a]ew],"Aksiyon, June 10, 2002. According to Kalyoncu, Pamuk's maternalgrandfather Cevdet Ferit resigned from his professorship at the IstanbulUniversity in 1933 after Atatürk's educational reforms.

'= Orhan Pamuk, Cevdet Bey ve Ogullari [Cevdet Bey and His Sons] (Istanbul:Karacan Yaymlan, 1982).

'* Leo Strauss, Persecution and the Art of Writing (Chicago: The University

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discretion in hiding his intentions is due to the secularTurkish public's sensitivity over Atatürk, particularly againstslurs by religionist circles, as well as to legal limitations onfree expression.) Early in The Black Book, the narrator refersin passing to "the story about the crazy and pervertedsultan who had spent his childhood running amok w ith hissister, chasing crows in a vegetable patch. . . ."' Althoughthe story of an Ottoman sultan chasing crows in a vegetablepatch was unheard of before the publication of The BlackBook (after all, saving the family plot from ravagers is anactivity reserved for the plebian class), the Turkish publicis well aware of Atatürk's history of chasing crows withhis sister during a brief period in his childhood.'* Sevenchapters later, an unnamed prostitute provides a follow-upto Pamuk's perplexing reference to a crazy and pervertedsultan: she refers to "the last testament of that queer, the lastsultan. . . ."" Since Atatürk founded the Turkish republicand thereby abolished the Ottoman sultanate, there cannotbe another sultan after his likeness, or the sultan who chasedcrows. Hence, Pamuk's attentive readers are led to associatethe crazy and perverted sultan who chased crows with thelast sultan who was queer (thus, becoming partners in crime).On this occasion, the unnamed prostitute adds that her car'slicense plate number is, "34 CG 19 Mayis [May] 1919. Thisis the day Atatürk left Istanbul to liberate Anatolia frominvading western powers.^"

Pamuk is equally hostile in his references to SultanMahmud the Second (reign 1808-1839), who spearheadeda westernization movement in the Ottoman Empire, whichultimately culminated in the founding of the modernistTurkish republic in 1923. To this end, an unnamed characterin the novel (the mysterious man on the phone) refers to

Veiledreferences toAtatürk.

of Chicago Press, 1980), 17-8." Pamuk, The Black Book, 92.'* Following the premature death of his father and consequent financial

difficulties, Atatürk's family had temporarily taken refuge in an uncle's farm intoday's Greek Macedonia. The melodramatic episode is part of the standard Atatürknarrative in Turkish schools, and it conveys the sense that personal genius anddetermination can overcome obstacles on the way.

" Ibid., 167.2» Ibid., 147.

Orhan Pamuk on the Turkish Modernization Project HUMANITAS • 151

an "engraving that shows Sultan Mahmut II copulating indisguise in a dark Istanbul street, his legs naked but for hisboots," adding that his favorite wife "appears in the sameengraving, looking as if she hasn't a worry in the worldand wearing a cross made of diamonds and rubies."^' Themysterious man on the phone claims that Sultan Mahmud theSecond secretly met with his wives and concubines who were"disguised as Western whores" in different parts of the city.^

Pamuk's gibes at Atatürk and Sultan Mahmud the Secondin The Black Book are probably motivated by his discontentwith the state-led Turkish modernization project and itsconsequences. In this vein, five disparate characters in thenovel lament unopposed over the personal and politicalconsequences of identity loss and the modernist Turkishstate's role in undermining the heritage of the past, withoutsuggesting a viable political alternative. For example, in hisnewspaper column, Celal (the novel's protagonist Galip'sromantic rival, target of pursuit, and eventual role model)describes a nightmarish existence which comes into beingwith the absence of memory: "a nameless, featureless, odor-less, colorless world where time itself had stopped. . . ." ^This description serves as a metaphor for the modernistTurkish ethos, which seeks to systematically undermine pasttraditions. Subsequently, Galip reiterates similar sentimentswithin a more political context.

Once upon a time, they had all lived together, and their liveshad had meaning, but then, for some unknown reason, theyhad lost that meaning, just as they'd also lost their memories.Every time they tried to recover that meaning, every timethey ventured into that spider-infested labyrinth of memory,they got lost; as they wandered about the blind alleys of theirminds, searching for a way back, the key to their new life fellinto the bottomless well of their memories; knowing it waslost to them forever, they felt the helpless pain known onlyby those who have lost their homes, their countries, their past,their history. The pain they felt at being lost and far from homewas intense, and so hard to bear, that their only hope was tostop trying to remember the secret, the lost meaning they'dcome here to seek... .^

21

22

23

24

Ibid.,Ibid.Ibid.,Ibid.,

358.

134.194.

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Galip's reference to the "helpless pain" of the new peoplewho have lost their memories but are ill at ease at in their newand rootless identities can unmistakably be taken as a critiqueof westernization, or a critique of the quest for a westernizedTurkish identity.

Arguably, Pamuk's most poignant criticism of west-ernization in Turkey comes in the penultimate chapter of TheBlack Book, when Galip comes across the story of an imaginaryOttoman crown prince's (or §ehzade's) quest for his authenticself-identity, but this also does not lead to a political pathway.For crown prince Osman Celalettin Efendi, the fundamentalquestion of his people was, "How to be oneself?"^^ Without aproper solution to its identity problems, his country could notbe saved from "destruction, enslavement, and defeat."^' Thus,"lAJll peoples who are unable to be themselves, all civilizations thatimitate other civilizations, all those nations who flnd happiness inother people's stories were doomed to be crushed, destroyed,and forgotten."^'' However, Osman Celalettin Efendi's attempt,through austere self-isolation, to discover his authentic self-identity before possibly emerging to guide his country out ofits spiritual crisis and impending doom, ends in his literal andfigurative demise. Evidently, then, cultural self-isolation andshutting Turkey off from outside influences is dismissed as anunrealistic alternative to westernization, which first emergedas a practical response to increased western dominance inOttoman Turkey's international relations.^*

Pamuk's answer to identity woes emerges by the endof the novel, but this answer is only of a personal natureand devoid of any political sense. The novel's protagonistGalip goes through a process of comprehensive identity

" Ibid., 419.2' Ibid., 420." Ibid., 429 (emphasis in the original).* The other two characters in The Black Book who lament over the

consequences of identity loss and modernization are Rüya's ex-husband (126-27) and the mysterious man on the phone (362). Note that a crucial referenceto an "authentic self-identity (kendi 'öz' kimliginde)" in Galip's exchange withRüya's ex-husband is omitted in the novel's English translation. Compare,Orhan Pamuk, Kara Kitap {The Black Book] (Istanbul: Can Yaymlari), 120, andOrhan Pamuk, The Black Book, trans. Maureen Freely (New York: VintageBooks, [1990] 2006), 130.

Orhan Pamuk on the Turkish Modernization Project HUMANITAS • 153

transformation. Unable to reach his target of pursuit, Galipgradually internalizes Celal's identity by moving into hishouse, using his furniture, wearing his clothes, writing hiscolunms, and acting as if he is Celal in interviews and phoneconversations. (He may even have had a role in the romanticcouple's unresolved murder.) However, Galip's choice to beby becoming someone else is not paradoxical in the contextof The Black Book, which is partly a criticism of westernizationin Turkey. By assuming the identity of a defunct coluirmist,Galip becomes a writer; that is, far from forgoing his originalself-identity, he authenticates it through continual artistic self-expression.

Deep-seatedreligious andculturalobstaclesto elitistmodernizationmovementsdescribed.

My Name is RedIf a political reading of The Black Book points out the alleged

costs of westernization in Turkey without suggesting a concretepolitical response to Western dominance, then, from a politicalpoint of view, Pamuk's sense of helplessness or pessimismgoes a step further in his international big hit My Name isRed. There, Pamuk dwells on the lack of individuality and itsnegative connotations in the East, and clearly suggests thatelitist modernization movements in the Ottoman Empire andthe Turkish republic are bound to fail in attaining their endsbecause of deep-seated religious and cultural values. Thereare, however, slight references to an undercurrent of Westerninfluence, cultural-valuational change, and modernization inthe novel. These changes are arguably due to globalization, andby and large develop outside the reformist elite's grasp or evenawareness. They can barely be interpreted as the forerunnersof Pamuk's emerging optimism regarding the prospects ofIslamic modernity and political Islam in Snow.

My Name is Red's plot is built on a murder in the sixteenth-century Ottoman miniature (small painting) and calligraphycommunity in the imperial capital city of Istanbul. The gradualunraveling of the mystery behind the crime serves to showcasean imaginary attempt at Western-minded artistic innovation,slightly past the zenith of the Ottoman era. Throughout thenovel Pamuk contrasts Eastern and Western artistic character-istics, and the irreconcilable religious and cultural differencesthat lie beneath them. From a politico-cultural perspective.

154 • VolumeXXV,Nos.land2,2012 Üner Daglier

My Name is Red draws a pessimistic conclusion. Contrary toexpectations, the murderous conflict between the reformistand traditionalist Ottoman miniaturists does not lead to anartistic synthesis; instead, the art of painting is altogetherabandoned.^'

In My Name is Red, Pamuk by and large equates the wither-ing away of traditional values and practices, or modernization,with westernization. Enishte Effendi, the instigator of artisticreform in the novel, had in youth visited Venice on officialduty, in order to dehver a letter of diplomatic threat demand-ing the Mediterranean island of Cyprus from the Venetians.Although Effendi's impudent mission had infuriated his hostsand he was barely able to escape death in their hands, Effendiwas deeply moved by his impression of European culture andcivilization. Consequentiy, he convinced the Ottoman sultanto sponsor a series of Occidental style paintings by royalIslamic calligraphers. These paintings were to be placed inan Oriental style book of calligraphies and be gifted to theVenetian Doge (chief magistrate). In this, Effendi had twoobjectives, and Pamuk's delineation of these objectives servesas a glimpse into the modernizing Turkish elites' emotionaland psychological state in their dealings with the West. First,"[S]o that the Venetian Doge might say to himself, 'Just as theOttoman miniaturists have come to see the world like us, sohave the Ottomans themselves comes to resemble us,' in turnaccepting Our Sultan's power and friendship."^^ Second, bydelivering his book of eclecfic art, he would have occasionto visit Venice once more in his lifetime. Now an old man,Enishte Effendi's long-standing yearning for Venice was sopowerful that he had begun to identify himself with Westernpatrons of the arts. As his daughter Shekure muses in thenovel: "Was Black [her suitor] as surprised as I was that myfather referred to those infidel gentlemen who had their pic-

' Pamuk, My Name is Red, 411. According to Michael McGaha, Pamukplays with historical facts for increased dramatic impact. In reality, the era ofminiature painting in Istanbul was significantly longer than claimed in MyName is Red. See Michael McGaha, Autobiographies of Orhan Pamuk: The Writer inHis Novels. (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2008), 148. The abrupt endto artistic synthesis and western-oriented reform in the novel might possiblybe an allusion to the expected life span of the secular Turkish republic.

^ Pamuk, My Name is Red, 266.

Orhan Pamuk on the Turkish Modernization Project HUMANITAS • 155

tures made as 'we'?"^'Interestingly, Enishte Effendi is not the only oriental mod-

ernist in Pamuk's novels who partly or completely rejects hisEastern identity due to an implicit sense of inferiority or astrong yearning for the Western civilization. However, all ofthese fictional characters share similar fates. In Cevdet Bey andHis Sons, Omer, who returns to Istanbul with a youthful senseof enthusiasm after completing his engineering studies in Lon-don, and, in The House of Silence, Selahattin, the Enlighterunentera throwback encyclopedist, both eventually fall into despairand choose to lead reclusive lives.'^ In The White Castle, thereclusive pseudo-scientist Hoja goes through an identity trans-formation, completely sheds his Eastern identity, and eventu-ally flees to Venice claiming to be one of them." In My Nameis Red, the westernizing modernizer Enishte Effendi suffersviolent death at the hands of a guilt-ridden Islamic disciple,and his reformist project withers away. Thus, Pamuk mimicsa prevalent conservative criticism against full-fledged secularmodernization, or westernization, in the Ottoman Empire andthe Turkish Republic: that the rootless project, along with isauthors, is bound to be rejected by the people of the land.

Beyond the generalities about cultural self-alienation andNegative failure, in My Name is Red Pamuk delves into a discussion ofconnotations ^^e Western notion of individuality and its negative cormota-7 ,. .j* ' ?., tions in the Islamic Near East. Pamuk's focus on individualityindividuality ^individualityin Near East ^^^ its derivatives is not accidental given the scholarly argu-place limits ment that individuality is the quintessential modern value.on modernist Hence, Pamuk's treatment of the negative cormotations of indi-reform. viduality in Islamic civilization helps to underscore the limits

of modernist reform in the Near East.In Islamic civilization, individuality is a source of shame

and embarrassment. Eor both the miniaturist and the beholderof his paintings, any trace of a personal style is an artistic defectand a sign of religious infidelity. Miniaturists abide by the styleof their academy but otherwise abstain from personalized ele-ments in their works and absolutely do not sign them. "Where

3' Ibid., 137.2 Orhan Pamuk, Cevdet Bey ve Ogullari [Cevdet Bey and His Sons]; Orhan

Pamuk, Sessiz Ev [The House c^ Silence], (Istanbul: Can Yaymlari, 1983).33 Orhan Pamuk, The White Castle, trans. Victoria Holbrook (New York:

Braziller Publishing, [1985] 1991).

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there is true art and genuine virtuosity the artist can paint anincomparable masterpiece without even leaving a trace of hisidentity."^ In this context, portraits are shunned, faces andbodies are drawn identically, distinctions of age, rank, andstatus are solely marked by costume and equipment. Hence,Master Stork praises another miniaturist specifically for show-ing a total lack of a personality in his works. "Tall Mehmetdrew everything as everyone else did, in the style of the greatmasters of the old, but even more so, and for this reason, hewas the greatest of all masters."^^

Pamuk's characters posit a religious reason why individu-ality is considered to be a moral and an artistic defect in theEast. The conservative Master Olive, who in the end turns outto be the rambling murderer, states that, "It was Satan whofirst said 'F! It was Satan who adopted a style. It was Satanwho separated East from West."'*

Miniaturists who seek perfection in the indistinguishableappearance of their works believe that, by doing so, theyaspire to see the world as God does. As God sees things inonly one way, perfect miniatures are bound to resemble eachother. A miniaturist attains the height of his art when struckby blindness because only at that point can he start to drawnot as the eye sees things but as the eye of the mind sees them(that is, merely by relying on memory).'^

In parallel, the Western use of perspective contradictsdivine wisdom. According to the conservative miniaturistElegant Effendi, in paintings sponsored by Enishte Effendi,"objects weren't depicted according to their importance in Al-lah's mind, but as they appeared to the naked eye—the waythe Franks painted."^^ Elsewhere, Enishte Effendi himself de-scribes the use of perspective as "a sin of desire/ like growingarrogant before God, like considering oneself of utmost im-portance, like situating oneself at the center of the world."^'

The use of perspective, the distinct and all too real appear-

Individualityconsidered amoral andartistic defect.

^ Pamuk, My Name is Red, 18.55 Ibid., 72.3' Ibid., 286.3' Ibid., 80.^ Ibid., 391.3' Ibid., 109.

Orhan Pamuk on the Turkish Modernization Project HUMANITAS • 157

anee of a Western portrait (as a challenge to God's creativeUse of monopoly), and the immortality achieved by being painted inperspective .j jg ^^y causes several of the characters in My Name is Red,portraiture including the reformists Enishte and Elegant, to associate theviewed as Western art of portraittire with "idolaters", "paganism", andhubristic or "pagan worship.""" In the same vein. Master Olive interpretsidolatrous, the emergence of Western style painting in the Islamic East as

"an affront to our religion" whereas the moderate Master Storksees in it a challenge to the hold of traditional or "old moral-ity" in the workshop."'

For Pamuk's conflicting miniaturists, what is at stake is"If you begin more than the future of an artistic tradition. As Enishte Effendito draw succinctly summarizes, 'if you begin to draw a horse differ-differentl ^^^^Y' you begin to see the world differently.""^ Yet, growingyou begin to Western influence on the Orient emerges as an inevitablesee the world undercurrent in My Name is Red. The cultural purist-Islamicdifferently." reactionary Master Olive aspired to "remain pure" and im-

mune from Western methods and influences,"^ but this waseasier said than done. Therefore, in a fit of self-remorse, hemurdered his patron Enishte Effendi for tempting him throughthe lure of gold money."" When his crimes were revealed.Master Olive sought to flee Istanbul for Mughal, India, in theEast, which he believed to be culturally pristine. But just beforehis impending escape. Black (who took the lead in unveilingOlive's criminal identity) said to him that Western methods arespreading everywhere. "Did you know that Akhbar Khan en-couraged all his artists to sign their work? The Jesuit priests ofPortugal long ago introduced European painting and methods

« Ibid., 391,127, 446."' Ibid., 101, 94.« Ibid., 266." Ibid., 401.'*'' Apart from the lure of gold money. Master Olive may have been

subconsciously swayed by Western culture in another way. Once the list ofsuspected murderers was narrowed down to Enishte Effendi's hires for hiswesternist art project, his criminal identity was revealed through a vagueelement of personal style in his contribution (which was then matched tothe same element of personal style in his traditionally executed miniatures).However, unless Pamuk intended to portray his prototypical Islamic reactionaryas a hypocrite or as someone thoroughly lacking in self-knowledge, a vagueelement of personal style in Master Olive's classical miniatures should beattributed to an artistic imperfection or an academic attachment.

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there. They are everywhereUltimately, then, Pamuk makes his readers realize that

there is not an easy solution to the prevalent dilemma of thelesser-developed world. On the one hand, modernizationis the quest for human dignity in the face of competitionfrom a rival civilization. The choice of holding on to sacredtraditions despite hostile challenges may in all likelihood leadto political subjugation and indignity. On the other hand, thesuccess of a cultural change program is at best piecemeal, andthe adoption of the ways and means of another civilization, inorder to counter its dominance, is undignified and possiblyredundant. In this vein. Master Olive forewarns Black andother moderates who are prone to encounter a growingdemand for stylistic change and cultural adaptation that, "Forthe rest of your lives you'll do nothing but emulate the Franksfor the sake of an individual style . . . . But precisely becauseyou emulate the Franks you'll never attain an individualstyle.""^

SnowPamuk's commurütarian conservatives in My Name is Red

stand in sharp contrast to his individualized modern Islamistsin Snow. From a culturalist perspective primarily focused onmodernization. Snow is Pamuk's only optimistic work. TherePamuk overtly takes on the perennial and temporal fault linesof Turkish politics and society, and suggests that the glimmerof hope for Turkish modernization comes from Islamists. Hedoes not explain why and how the religio-cultural obstaclesto individuality and modernization disappeared from onenovel to the other, but conjecture leads to the influence ofglobalization and the inevitability of changing times. As such,Pamuk's covert argument for Islamic modernity in Snow

"^ Ibid. Although this is a clear reference to the transformative influenceof globalization and the dispersion of Western ideas, it cannot readily beassociated with their natural ease or subconscious workings because India'sIslamic Mughal Emperor Akhbar Khan is widely considered to be amonghistory's greatest benevolent despots. See John Stuart Mill, The Collected Worksof]ohn Stuart Mill, Vol. XVIII - Essays on Politics and Society Part I (On Liberty),ed. John M. Robson (Toronto: University of Toronto Press; London: Routledgeand Kegan Paul, 1963-1991), 224.

•" Pamuk, My Name is Red, 401.

Orhan Pamuk on the Turkish Modernization Project HUMANITAS • 159

seems insufficiently grounded.Snow narrates a political, social, and psychological confron-

tation between members of the secular republican establish-ment and a burgeoning Islamist movement in Kars, a poorand remote provincial town in northeastern Turkey. Its plotrevolves around a makeshift military coup d'état attemptahead of an impending electoral victory by the Islamic partyin Kars. Contrary to stereotypical expectations, Pamuk's hard-line secularists are neither sufficiently modern and progressivenor self-assured. They have a superficial understanding of andcommitment to Enlightenment ideals but are willing to takerecourse to arms when their arguments fail to convince oth-ers. They look back at the past accomplishments of the secularrepublican founders in the 1920s and 1930s and are, therefore,always on the defensive. That is, they are out of touch withthe current social and political realities of Turkey and contem-porary patterns of change in the West. In contrast, turbanedwomen, terrorists, and other Islamists in Snow are curiousabout the West and are going through a process of individua-tion and change, or modernization.

The novel's protagonist Ka, who arrives in Kars in order towrite an investigative newspaper report on a series of suicidesby turbaned Islamic women, is fatally bogged down in a con-frontation between secular republicans and political Islamists.Just hke Pamuk the novelist, his creation Ka the poet is bornand raised in the wealthy bourgeois district of Niçantaçi in Is-tanbul, and, although Ka conceives of himself as a mediator, heis received with distrust and skepticism in both camps. A secu-lar nationalist refers to him as a "porridge-hearted liberal" anda "bird-brained fantasist."^^ "As for the people like you, youlove to trash the army even while you depend on it to keep theIslamists from cutting you up into little pieces."*^ The Islamistperception of Ka is equally disparaging: "You're a Westernagent. You're the slave of the ruthless Europeans . . . . Accord-ing to your kind, the road to a good moral life is not throughGod or rehgion, or through taking part in the hfe of the com-mon people—no, it's just a matter of imitating the West."*'

Pamuk, Snoiu, 218.Ibid., 385.Ibid., 350.

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The suicides by turbaned Islamic women which broughtKa to Kars are motivated by a variety of reasons, including a Traditionalismreaction against the nationwide ban on displaying rehgious " individual

'^ , . , . . . f J expression.

symbols and costumes m educational mstitutions, torced mar-riages, and—in one case—a rumor questioning a turbaneddamsel's chastity. Their choice of suicide as a form of protestagainst political authority and familial or social pressuressuggests that even zealously Islamic women in Snow are indi-viduated moderns; the Islamic tradition shuns disobedienceand suicide is a very grave sin. Pamuk provides additionalinformation that suggests that these turbaned Islamic womenare not suppressed vestiges of traditionalism. Their decisionsto wear the Islamic turban are presented as individual choices;hence, as a modern or postmodern protest against Turkey'sstate-led modernization project rather than a result of tradi-tional influences such as social pressures or domestic violence.In referring to one of the girls who committed suicide, Kastates that, "despite her parents' express wish that she removeher head scarf, the girl refused, thus ensuring that she herselfwould be removed, by the pohce and on many occasions, fromthe halls of the Institute of Education."™ Eurthermore, althoughthe turbaned women in Snow come from traditional Islamicfamilies, there is the exception of Kadife whose father is anatheist. She had originally joined the throngs of turbanedIslamic women, who are excluded from schools and univer-sities due to secular dress codes, solely to express her senseof sympathy and soUdarity. At the same time, Kadife is themistress of the Islamic terrorist Blue, and her premarital affairis at odds with the idea of a traditional Islamic damsel. Shedisplays individual independence.

The Islamic terrorist Blue is also untraditional in that hepossesses individuated and modern traits. He is an electronicsengineer by training and has lived in Europe. The rebel son ofa conservative Muslim, at first he became "a godless leftist," 'but later rediscovered Islam on his own. "I was an electronicsengineer. Because of the hatred I felt for the West, I admiredthe revolution in Iran. I returned to Islam."'^ A similar in-

s» Ibid.,5' Ibid.,52 Ibid.,

18.347.348.

Orhan Pamuk on the Turkish Modernization Project HUMANITAS • 161

dividuated born-again Muslim trait appears in the mayoralcandidate of the Islamic party in Kars. Muhtar was formerly anatheist and a leftist. The son of a provincial bourgeois, Muhtarwent to university in Istanbul and aspired to become a "west-ernized, modern, self-possessed individual."^' Years later, hereturned to Kars as a washed-up pseudo-intellectual and feltthat he did not fit into Kars anymore. Gradually, he becamea disciple of the underground religious community leaderSheikh Saadettin Efendi. "Something was happening that I hadsecretly dreaded for a long time and that in my atheist years Iwould have denounced as weakness and backwardness: I wasreturning to Islam."" The untraditional source of Muhtar'snewfound religiosity is attested by the fact that he had to buy"a how-to-pray manual at the bookseller's."'^

Even those Islamists with unqualifiedly traditional back-grounds in the novel are prone to defy stereotypes. For ex-ample, Necip who is a devoutiy religious student of the localimam-preacher high school (imam hatip lisesi) expresses tracesof doubt concerning the existence of God. "There is anothervoice inside me that tells me, 'Don't believe in God.' Becausewhen you devote so much of your heart to believing some-thing exists, you can't help having a littie, a littie voice thatasks, 'What if it doesn't?'"^« Although it becomes clear in thenovel that Necip is far from being a full-blown religious skep-tic, such expressions of doubt run against common stereotypesabout imam-preacher high schools, which are hotbeds of Is-lamic revivalism in Turkey.

In contrast to individuating or modernizing Islamists inSnow who defy popular stereotypes, Pamuk's depiction ofhard-line secularists is caricatural. They are not able to defendtheir grounds on an intellectual plane; consequently, they arepathologically idealistic, exhibit authoritarian tendencies, andare prone to violence when conservative social realities clashwith their enlighterunent utopianism. Thus, for instance, theloose carmon secular nationalist paramilitary Zeki Demirkolsums up his political philosophy in a nutshell: "You have got

Ibid., 58.Ibid., 59.Ibid., 61.Ibid., 145.

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to kill them before they kiUThe other leaders of the secular republican coalition behind

the coup d'état attempt in Kars are a mid-rank soldier and awashed-up theatre actor. Pamuk's portrayal of Sunay Zaimsuggests that the actor is out of touch with current politicalrealities and patterns of social change in Turkey. Zaim hadoriginally arrived in Kars in order to stage a play and wascoincidentally convinced by Demirkol to become the publicleader of the coup d'état. According to his wife, the themeof Zaim's play is that "the scarf, the fez, the turban, and theheaddress were symbols of the reactionary darkness in oursouls, from which we should liberate ourselves and run to jointhe modern nations of the West."^* Snow's narrator definesZaim's play, which represents the Enlightenment idealismor zeal of the early republican generations, as "desperatelyold fashioned" and "primitive."^' Zaim is outdated becausehis secular revolutionary idealism contradicts the liberaldemocratic ethos. Zaim's only reservation against leading acoup d'état in Kars was the risk of ruining the artistic integrityof his play, but he later convinced himself that he would behitting two birds with one stone: imveiling an Islamic womanin a play acted and directed by a revolutionary leader wouldbe an artistic triumph with political consequences.'"

The only dialogue between the director of the Kars Instituteof Education and his Islamic assassin points to a substantialvoid in the theoretical fovmdations of the secular Turkish re-public. The Turkish state and its servants are either unwillingor unable to convince an Islamic populace of the advantagesof secularism. When his assassin asks, "How can you recon-cile God's command with this decision to ban covered girlsfrom the classroom?" the education director responds that"We live in a secular state and the state has banned coveredgirls, from schools as well as classrooms."*' In the same vein,when his assassin asks, "Can a law imposed by the state can-cel out God's law?" the education director responds: "That's

5' Ibid., 176.^ Ibid., 162.5' Ibid., 156.«> Ibid., 361." Ibid., 43.

Orhan Pamuk on the Turkish Modernization Project HUMANITAS • 163

Turkishsecularismlacks effectivephilosophicalgrounding.

a very good question. But in a secular state these matters areseparate."*^ The Islamic terrorist insists on questions related tothe true nature of a secular state but fails to get a satisfactoryreply: "Honestly my son. Arguing about such things will getyou nowhere. They argue about it day and night on Istan-bul television, and where does it get us?"*^ Ultimately, thedirector of education brings forth two arguments at gunpoint.First, although many aspects of Islamic law are abandoned inMuslim communities throughout the modern world, TurkishIslamists are exclusively focused on women's right to wearreligious costumes in school. Second, a liberalization of thedress code in education would inevitably compel secularwomen to conform to conservative social pressure.

The republican intelligentsia's inability to develop or un-willingness to defend an argument for secularism that can con-vince an Islamic public is at the root of current political crisis inTurkey. In fact, despite their loyalty to the state and the consti-tution, the secular citizens of the republic typically do not havea different philosophical grounding than the rest of the popu-lace. Hence, modernization in Turkey is not so much basedon philosophical conviction or logical argumentation as it ison habituation. If anything, the authoritarian foundations ofthe secular consensus and the persistent (and at times violent)Islamic reactionism render argumentation unnecessary anddangerous for both sides of the political divide. Secularist lead-ers are wary of offending the public conscience by providinga thoroughgoing defense of secularism or a critique of Islamictheology, and religionists have until recently been forced tooperate underground in their struggle against modernity andthe separation between church and state. Thus, everyone inTurkey has to take into account legal and conventional limita-tions against free expression.

On the surface of it. Snow's pessimistic ending reflectsPamuk's disappointment with more of the same: the sublimesecular republican Zaim commits suicide on stage before theunraveling of his coup d'état attempt; his ally the nationalistparamilitary Demirkol murders the Islamic terrorist Bluebefore it is too late but escapes a serious punishment for his

' Ibid., 45." Ibid., 44.

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actions in the newly restored status quo; and radical Islamistsassassinate the liberal democrat Ka for allegedly betrayingBlue's hiding place. However, from a culturalist perspectivefocused on modernization, the emergence of Islamic indi-viduality in Snow reflects a sense of hope and optimism onthe part of its author. Pamuk's atypical Islamists in Snow areindividuated, politically nonconformist, and showing signs ofintellectual skepticism. Thus, they are presented as the poten-tial engines of a progressive Turkish modernity. There is nodoubt that a possible modernization process to be led by theIslamists would be quite different from what the w^esternizedor secular Turkish modernists had envisaged, but from anOrientalist perspective, they have genuine ties to their societyand, therefore, Islamic modernity offers a more tenable alter-native for Turkey than westernization.

Pamuk's critique of Turkish modernity takes a constructiveturn in Snow, but there are sticking points. Above all, Pamukdoes not explain the intellectual grounds of the transformationfrom communitarian Muslim conservatives in one novel to in-dividualized modern Islamists in the next. Hence, in My Nameis Red the devout Muslim reactionary Master Olive rejects twovalues which he thought to be concomitant: westernizationand individuality. In contrast, westernization is rejected inSnow, but not individuality or modernity. The Islamic terroristBlue states: "I'm standing up against the Westerners as an in-dividual; its because I am an individual that I refuse to imitatethem."" Arguably, Pamuk is silent on the theoretical groundsof this pioneering sense of Islamic individuality in the novelbecause there are no such grounds. However, if Islamic indi-viduality in Turkey is simply rooted in a social or historicalcontext, such as the influence of globalization or the adventof modern times, then its claim to modernity is as shaky asthat of the secularists who are exposed to exactly the sameexternal envirorunent and can easily be turned against itself. Ifthe state-led model of secular modernity failed to take root insociety or to re-define itself since its heyday in the early twen-tieth century because it failed to develop a guiding theoreticalframework, then how is it possible to expect a more progres-

" Ibid., 351.

Orhan Pamuk on the Turkish Modernization Project HUMANITAS • 165

sive outcome from an alleged sense of Islamic individuality?Even if Islamic modernity is an inevitable consequence of soci-ological change, isn't there a need for a theoretical response tothe tension between a de facto sense of modern individualityand a religio-cultural sense of communitarianism?

ConclusionThe question remains as to how accurate the novelist's ob-

servations are in Snow concerning individuated Islamists in thecontext of contemporary Turkey. It can be said that these ob-servations- run parallel to those of some notable sociologists ofreligion who mainly focus on Islamic youth in Europe. Eor ex-ample, Olivier Roy extensively argues that contemporary radi-cal Islamists in the West are modern.*^ "Most radicalized youthin Europe are Western educated, often in technical and scien-tific fields. Very few come out of a traditional madrassa, andmost experience a period of fully Westernized life, completewith alcohol and girlfriends."** Similarly, Nilüfer Göle exten-sively argues that veiled Islamic urüversity students in Turkeyand the West are modern.*^ According to Göle, veiled Islamicwomen are not the relics of a tradition that subject womento servitude, but free and independent individuals who areexperimenting with modernity instead of dispiritedly emulat-ing the Western paradigm. Thus, they are contributing to themaking of local or multiple modernities. However, Pamuk'snotion of free and individuated Islamists in the provincialTurkish setting may smack of an idealistic vision rather thanan accurate representation of the current social reality, whichis largely patriarchic and repressive. More importantly, eventhe proponents of the Islamic modernity thesis, including Royand Göle, are aware that modern Islamic individuality doesnot necessarily lead to liberating ends.*^ Islamized youth inEurope and Turkey voluntarily join repressive, or non-individ-

65 Olivier Roy, Globalised Islam (London: Hurst & Company, 2004).** Olivier Roy, "Eurolslam: The Jihad Within?" The National Interest, 73

(Spring 2003): 64.' ' Nilüfer Göle, The Forbidden Modern: Civilization and Veiling (Ann Arbor:

The Urüversity of Michigan Press, 1996).** Roy, Globalised Islam, 232; Nilüfer Göle, "Islam, European Public Space

and Civility," in Religion in the New Europe, ed. Krzysztof Michalski (Budapest:Central European University Press, 2006), 124.

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uating, religious commurüties. There is not an inherent reasonwhy modern Islamic individuality should lead to a free anddemocratic polity. Indeed, ever since the publication of Snowin 2002, Islamists have been undisputedly at the helm of thestate in Turkey, and a staggering number of secularist opinionleaders have been in jail.

Orhan Pamuk on the Turkish Modernization Project HUMANITAS • 167

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