[Marxism] Persian literature has influenced modern Turkish poetry: Orhan Pamuk

[PoliticNow@xxxxxxx]

_http://www.mehrnews.ir/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=579560_ 
(http://www.mehrnews.ir/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=579560)  
Persian literature has  influenced modern Turkish poetry: Orhan Pamuk



TEHRAN -- Orhan Pamukâs interest in  Iranian traditional literature and arts 
is observable not only in his works,  notably in âMy Name Is Redâ, but also 
in the fact that he made a trip to Iran  several years ago. Interviews that 
have been published in the Guardian go  further to prove his keen interest is 
Persian culture. 

In his most famous book, âMy Name Is Redâ it is noticeable that  Pamuk has 
studied Iranian literature and arts, especially traditional paintings,  as well 
as the history of Persian art. He especially honors the school of Tabriz  
paintings in Eastern traditional art. Contrary to some countries whose people  
try to introduce Rumi as a non-Iranian poet, Orhan Pamuk names him as a Persian 
 
poet together with Sadi, Attar etcâ 

Following is an internet interview  between the Mehr News Agency and the 
Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk who won the  2006 Nobel Prize for Literature. 

Q: How can literature help modern,  industrialized people? 

A: We shouldnât look at literature as something  that helps people. 
âHelpâ 
is a strong word. Literature can describe and make us  understand that it is 
others that give us a sense of life and also give us the  pleasure of reading 
and thatâs the only help that we can get from literature.  

Q: How do you see the situation of todayâs world literature? 

A:  Till recently Western civilization was a powerful force in world 
literature.  What everyone called âworld literatureâ was in fact European 
literature. 
But now  things are changing. Asian writers (especially Chinese, Indian and 
Persian) are  slowly entering the world of literature. World literature is no 
longer only  European literature. 

3. According to some critics you have created a new  and modern method of 
novel-writing, for example in âMy Name Is Redâ, if so,  please clarify for 
us 
what inspired you in this respect? 

A: The formula  I use in my writing is a combination of post-modernist 
narrative techniques with  Turkish traditional literature. In âMy Name Is 
Redâ, I 
tried my best to combine  these two to write an experimental, modern, European 
novel. My formula for  writing a novel is this: try to combine two different 
things that have never  been put together before, and do this stylistically. 

Q: You are known as  a political novelist, how can a novel transfer a policy 
successfully, as one  cannot say in politics what is right or wrong? 

A: I am not a political  novelist. I wrote a political novel, âSnowâ, 
which, 
because of the international  situation, because of the sensation about Islam 
in the West, became a  bestseller. But I donât consider myself a political 
novelist. Even âSnowâ, which  besides being about politics, is in fact 
about 
the morality of finding happiness  in unhappy times. 

Q: In your interview with the Guardian you have  mentioned that you have been 
inspired by Persian and Arabic traditional  literature notably in the work â
Black Book.â How much are you familiar with  Persian literature? 

A: Of course Persian literature, starting from Rumi  and Attar has left its 
mark especially on modern Turkish poetry. But I am not  well-versed in classic 
Persian culture. I mostly read the Turkish or English  translations of Rumi, 
Attar, Sadi and others. As for modern Persian literature,  of course, I know 
the âBlind Owlâ by Sadeq Hedayat. 

Q: What is the  effect of traditional literature on modern literature? 

There is no  formula for this. This is a demanding challenge that every 
author faces,  especially in non-Western countries... Classical literature and 
novels are so  interesting and strong that there is a danger of losing oneâs 
own 
local identity  and there is also a danger of not achieving the inner aspects 
of a nationâs  spirit. Most of the time, writers who are well-versed in world 
literature are  worried about tradition, because they love and are interested 
in it. But they  have anxiety over representing and belonging to tradition, the 
past. So we  cannot talk about the general effects of modern literature. Of 
course all the  traditional arts and crafts and ways of production have been 
destroyed by  modernity. A good example, as I wrote in âMy Name Is Redâ, is 
the 
tradition of  Islamic painting. The Persian-Ottoman tradition of painting has 
been destroyed  by Post-Renaissance Western painting. I even wrote a book 
about this, but it is  hard to make a generalization, a formula, to pin down, 
to 
analyze the effect of  tradition on modernity or vice-versa. 




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