Pamuk - The Black Book

Pamuk - The Black Book

Paradoxical Identity



Orhan Pamuk’s The Black Book is filled with countless inter-textual dialogue, contrast and intercultural relationships.   In chapter 14 (We’re All Waiting for Him), the narrator references a column Celal had written in an effort to illuminate the logic between East and West and introduce the powerful thinking behind “Le grand pacha” to the patriotic officers who had served in the Turkish armed forces.   In chapter 24 (Riddles In Faces), in connection with the dialogue between the unidentified phone caller and Galip (who had been posing as Celal), the phone caller begged for Celal to recall the columns he had written about the Grand Inquisitor that influenced a handful of soldiers.   It is clear that the narrator used innumerable Western references in an Eastern book, especially in Celal’s columns, to combine philosophies of the East and West.  

There are endless ideological concepts contained in The Black Book.   In the chapter "When the Bosphorus Dries Up," Celal had written a satirical column about the Bosphorus drying up and the remnants of history and present, both Eastern and Western, strewn across its bottom.   This chapter was written to invoke an illusionary concept regarding the chaotic fighting in the city of Istanbul and to foreshadow future chapters of the book.   The Bosphorus strait forms the boundary between the European part of Turkey and its Asian part.   In fact, as the Ottoman Turks closed in on Constantinople, they constructed a fortification on each side of the strait, Anadoluhisarı in 1393 and Rumelihisarı in 1451.   They later renamed the city Istanbul.  

In Chapter 20, “The Ghost House,” something existential is given continuity by Galip's absorption of Celal's identity.   As Galip sleuthed through the unlit corners of Celal's life, he returned to the City-of-Hearts Apartments (located in NiÅŸantaÅŸi, a section of Istanbul – today, known for its nightlife, shopping and wealthy inhabitants;...