Ferit Orhan Pamuk (born 7 June 1952; ) is a Turkish novelist, screenwriter, academic, and recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature. One of Turkey's most prominent novelists,

Born in Istanbul, Pamuk is the first Turkish Nobel laureate. He has also received many other literary awards. My Name Is Red won the 2002 Prix du Meilleur Livre Étranger, the 2002 Premio Grinzane Cavour, and the 2003 International Dublin Literary Award.

The European Writers' Parliament came about as a result of a joint proposal by Pamuk and José Saramago. Pamuk's willingness to write books about contentious historical and political events put him at risk of censure in his homeland. In 2005, a lawyer sued him over a statement acknowledging the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire. He was educated at Robert College secondary school in Istanbul and studied architecture at the Istanbul Technical University, a subject related to his dream career, painting. He started experimenting with postmodern techniques in his novels, a change from his early works' strict naturalism.

Popular success took a bit longer, but his 1990 novel Kara Kitap (The Black Book) became one of the most controversial and popular books in Turkish literature, due to its complexity and richness. In 1992, he wrote the screenplay for the movie Gizli Yüz (Secret Face), based on Kara Kitap and directed by a prominent Turkish director, Ömer Kavur. Pamuk's fifth novel, Yeni Hayat (New Life), caused a sensation in Turkey upon its 1994 publication and became the fastest-selling book in Turkish history. By this time, Pamuk had also become a high-profile figure in Turkey due to his support for Kurdish political rights. In 1995, he was among a group of authors tried for writing essays that criticized Turkey's treatment of the Kurds. In 1999, Pamuk published his book of essays Öteki Renkler (Other Colors).

In 2019, the 66-year-old Nobel laureate held an exhibition of his photographs of Istanbul taken from his own balcony, "Balkon: Photos by Orhan Pamuk". It captured the "subtle and ever-changing view of Istanbul" photographed by Pamuk from his balcony using a telephoto lens. Curated by Gerhard Steidl, the German publisher of his photo book Balkon, the exhibition ran for three months at the Yapı Kredi Culture and Arts building on Istanbul's Istiklal Street. It featured more than 600 colour photos selected from over 8,500 Pamuk took over a five-month period in late 2012 and early 2013, in what the gallery called "a period of intense creativity".

My Name Is Red

Pamuk's international reputation continued to increase when he published Benim Adım Kırmızı (My Name is Red) in 1998. The novel blends mystery, romance, and philosophical puzzles in a setting of 16th-century Istanbul. It opens a window into the reign of Ottoman Sultan Murat III in nine snowy winter days of 1591, inviting the reader to experience the tension between East and West from a breathlessly urgent perspective. My Name Is Red has been translated into 24 languages and in 2003 won the International Dublin Literary Award, one of the world's most lucrative literary prizes.

Asked what impact winning this last award (currently $127,000) had on his life and work, Pamuk replied:

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Nothing changed in my life since I work all the time. I've spent 30 years writing fiction. For the first 10 years, I worried about money and no one asked how much money I made. The second decade I spent money and no one was asking about that. And I've spent the last 10 years with everyone expecting to hear how I spend the money, which I will not do.

</blockquote>

The Museum of Innocence

In May 2007, Pamuk was among the jury members at the Cannes Film Festival headed by British director Stephen Frears. He completed his next novel, Masumiyet Müzesi (The Museum of Innocence) in the summer of 2008 - the first novel he published after receiving the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature.

Pamuk created an actual Museum of Innocence, consisting of everyday objects tied to the narrative, and housed them at an Istanbul house he purchased. that expanded on his Museum of Innocence. Pamuk stated that "(Museum of Dreams will) tell a different version of the love story set in Istanbul through objects and Grant Gee’s wonderful new film". In both Snow and the Museum of Innocence Pamuk describes tragic love-stories, where men fall in love with beautiful women at first sight. Pamuk's heroes tend to be educated men who fall tragically in love with beauties, but who seem doomed to a decrepit loneliness.

In 2013, Pamuk invited Grazia Toderi, whose work he admired, to design a work for the Museum of Innocence in Istanbul. Their collaboration culminated in the exhibition Words and Stars. Words and Stars opened on 2 April 2017, at the MART (Museo di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto), and which explores "the inclination of man to explore space and innate vocation to question the stars." The show was curated by Gianfranco Maraniello. It also showed from 4 November 2016 to 29 March 2017 from 5–6 November 2016 at the Palazzo Madama, Piazza Castello, Turin, and at Infini-to, the Planetarium of Turin (Infini.to - Planetario di Torino, Museo dell'Astronomia e dello Spazio) by invitation.

In 2026, a series based on the novel The Museum of Innocence was released on Netflix. Pamuk stars as himself, and some scenes were filmed at the Museum of Innocence.

Non-fiction

Pamuk published the memoir/travelogue Istanbul—Hatıralar ve Şehir in 2003 (English version, Istanbul—Memories and the City, 2005). Pamuk's Other Colours—a collection of nonfiction and a story—was published in the UK in September 2007.

Asked how personal his book Istanbul: Memories and the City was, Pamuk replied:

<blockquote>

I thought I would write Memories and the City in six months, but it took me one year to complete. And I was working twelve hours a day, just reading and working. My life, because of so many things, was in a crisis; I don’t want to go into those details: divorce, father dying, professional problems, problems with this, problems with that, everything was bad. I thought if I were to be weak I would have a depression. But every day I would wake up and have a cold shower and sit down and remember and write, always paying attention to the beauty of the book. Honestly, I may have hurt my mother, my family. My father was dead, but my mother is still alive. But I can’t care about that; I must care about the beauty of the book.

Pamuk speaks about "the angel of inspiration" when he discusses his creativity:

<blockquote>

"I am just listening to an inner music, the mystery of which I don't completely know. And I don't want to know." In January 2011, Turkish-Armenian artist Karolin Fişekçi told Hürriyet Daily News that Pamuk had a two-and-a-half-year relationship with her during the same time (2010–12), which Pamuk expressly denied.

Since 2011 he has been in a relationship with Aslı Akyavaş, whom he married in 2022.

Trial

In 2005, after Pamuk made a statement about the Armenian genocide and mass killings of Kurds, a criminal case was opened against him based on a complaint filed by lawyer Kemal Kerinçsiz.

On 1 December, Amnesty International released a statement calling for Article 301 to be repealed and for Pamuk and six other people awaiting trial under the act to be freed.

Charges dropped

On 22 January 2006, Turkey's Justice Ministry refused to issue an approval of the prosecution, saying that they had no authority to open a case against Pamuk under the new penal code.

  • 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)
  • 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

Doctorates, honoris causa

  • 2007 Free University of Berlin, Department of Philosophy and Humanities&nbsp;– 4 May 2007
  • 2018 University of Crete
  • 2023 Paris Nanterre University
  • 2023 Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland

Honours

  • 2005 Honorary Member of American Academy of Arts and Letters (USA)
  • 2008 Honorary Member of Social Sciences of Chinese Academy (China)
  • 2008 Honorary Member of American Academy of Arts and Sciences (USA)

In 2005, Pamuk received the €25,000 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade for his literary work, in which "Europe and Islamic Turkey find a place for one another." The award presentation was held at Paul's Church, Frankfurt.

Bibliography

Novels (English)

All the novels except Cevdet Bey and his Sons have been translated into English.

  • The White Castle, translated by Victoria Holbrook, Manchester (England): Carcanet Press Limited, 1990; 1991; New York: George Braziller, 1991 [original title: Beyaz Kale]. Set in the 17th century with a Preface set in 1985.
  • The Black Book, translated by Güneli Gün, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1994 [original title: Kara Kitap]. (A new translation by Maureen Freely was published in 2006). Set in 1980s.
  • The New Life, translated by Güneli Gün, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1997 [original title: Yeni Hayat]. Set in the early 1990s.
  • My Name Is Red, translated by Erdağ M. Göknar, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001 [original title: Benim Adım Kırmızı]. Set in 1591.
  • Snow, translated by Maureen Freely, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004 [original title: Kar]. Set in the early 1990s.
  • The Museum of Innocence, translated by Maureen Freely, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, was released on 20 October 2009 [original title: Masumiyet Müzesi]. Set in 1975-84.
  • Silent House, translated by Robert Finn, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2012 [original title: Sessiz Ev]. Set in July 1980.
  • A Strangeness in My Mind, translated by Ekin Oklap, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015 [original title: Kafamda Bir Tuhaflık]. Set in 1969-2012.
  • The Red-Haired Woman, translated by Ekin Oklap, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2017 [original title: Kırmızı saçlı kadın]. Set in 1980.
  • Nights of Plague, translated by Ekin Oklap, London: Faber & Faber, 2022 [original title: Veba Geceleri]. Set in 1901 in the fictional island of Mingheria.

Untranslated

  • Cevdet Bey ve Oğulları or Karanlık ve Işık (Cevdet Bey and his Sons or Darkness and Light) Istanbul: Karacan Yayınları (1982). Set in 1905-70.

Short Story

  • "To Look Out the Window" in Other Colours: Essays and a Story, translated by Maureen Freely, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007 [original title: Öteki Renkler]. Set in early 1960s.

Non-fiction (English)

  • Istanbul: Memories and the City, translated by Maureen Freely, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2005 [original title: İstanbul: Hatıralar ve Şehir]
  • My Father’s Suitcase [original title: Babamın Bavulu] Nobel lecture
  • Other Colors: Essays and a Story, translated by Maureen Freely, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007 [original title: Öteki Renkler]
  • Fathers, Mothers and Sons: Cevdet Bey and Sons; The Silent House; The Red-Haired Woman ("Delta" Omnibüs, Novels volume I), Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2018

Other works

  • Gizli Yüz (Secret Face), screenplay, Istanbul: Can Yayınları, 1992
  • Öteki Renkler (Other Colours), essays, Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 1999
  • İstanbul: Hatıralar ve Şehir (Istanbul: Memories and the City), memoirs, Istanbul: Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2003
  • Babamın Bavulu (My Father's Suitcase), Nobel Söylevi, İstanbul, İletişim Yayınları, 2007
  • Manzaradan Parçalar: Hayat, Sokaklar, Edebiyat (Pieces from the View: Life, Streets, Literature), essays, Istanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2010
  • Saf ve Düşünceli Romancı ("Naive and Sentimental Novelist") literary criticism, İstanbul: İletişim Yayınları, 2011
  • Şeylerin Masumiyeti (The Innocence of Objects), Masumiyet Müzesi Kataloğu, İletişim Yayınları 2012
  • Resimli İstanbul - Hatıralar ve Şehir, memoir, Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2015
  • Hatıraların Masumiyeti, scripts and essays, Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2016
  • Balkon, (Introduction and photographs), Yapı Kredi Yayınları, 2018
  • Orange, (Introduction and Photographs), Yapi Kredi Yayınları, 192 pages, 350 images, 2020
  • Uzak Dağlar ve Hatıralar Yapi Kredi Yayınları, selections from personal diary and photographs, 2022

References