The Metamorphosis of Identity: Artistic Expression and Cultural Transformation in Orhan Pamuk’s My Name is Red and The White Castle

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Ph.D Student of English Language and Literature, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Tehran, Tehran. Iran

2 Associate Professor of English Literature, Department of English Language and Literature, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran(Corresponding Author)

Abstract

This article explores the complicated interaction of artistic expression with cultural identity through two novels by Orhan Pamuk: My Name is Red and The White Castle. The analysis will lean upon an interdisciplinary theoretical framework that brings together Stuart Hall’s view on cultural identity as a fluid entity, Homi Bhabha’s theory of cultural hybridity, and Arjun Appadurai’s work on global cultural flows. This research demonstrates how Pamuk’s narratives contest given binary oppositions between East and West, and also tradition and modernity, through close textual investigation, reflecting upon questions regarding cultural change within the Ottoman framework. The study shall show how Pamuk’s characters negotiate the multiplicities of cultural influence through artistic utterance and personal metamorphosis with a view to creating new identities beyond borders. While tension in My Name is Red between Ottoman miniature traditions and Western portraiture is in itself a vehicle toward cultural adaptation, The White Castle presents an identity exchange between an Italian scholar and his Ottoman captor, which shows, through time and interaction, the permeable nature of such a boundary. This study focuses on how globalization equally amplifies traditional binaries and creates opportunities for their transcendence, enriching our understanding of Turkish literary modernism. It holds the view that cultural identity can be jointly created not simply by negating or fully accepting foreign influxes but by being in creative interaction with both the traditional and the new, and thus provides an important insight into the understanding of cultural change in societies experiencing rapid globalization and modernization.

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History

  • Receive Date: 26 December 2024
  • Revise Date: 21 March 2025
  • Accept Date: 07 May 2025

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