Turk Pamuk wins Literature Nobel
12 October, 2006
Bangkok Post
[NOTE: Pamuk profile below]
Stockholm (dpa) - The Turkish author Orhan Pamuk won the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday, the Swedish Academy announced.
In its citation, the academy said Pamuk, who lives and works in Istanbul, "in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures."
The 54-year-old Pamuk was born in Istanbul, the son of a well-off middle class family. After studies at Robert College in his native city where he planned to become an artist, he studied architecture and journalism.
During 1985-1988 he was at Columbia University in New York and also briefly at the University of Iowa.
Pamuk's literary debut was in 1982 with a novel Cevdet Bey and His Sons which chronicles three generations, similar to German laureate Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks, the academy said.
However, Pamuk's international breakthrough came a decade later with the English translation of The White Castle, set in 16th century Istanbul.
The academy also noted that Pamuk became well-known for condemning the fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie, his defence of fellow author Yasr Kemal in the mid-1990s and most recently for mentioning the charged subject of the massacres of a million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds by Ottoman forces during the First World War.
Pamuk's interview on the massacre with a Swiss newspaper led to prosecution but the case was later dropped after international protests.
Swedish Academy Permanent Secretary Horace Engdahl told reporters that among Pamuk's works he recommended was The Black Book, published in Turkish as Kara Kitap in 1990.
The book describes how the protagonist searches for his wife and her half-brother who have vanished, and triggered a debate in Turkey since the book also discussed Sufism, a spiritual movement in Islam.
Another book, recently out in Swedish and English, mentioned by Engdahl was Istanbul: Memories and the City - published in Turkish in 2003, it describes various locations and people in Istanbul.
Pamuk's works have also been translated into French and German.
The literature prize is one of the Nobel Prizes endowed by Swedish industrialist and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel. The prizes worth 10 million kronor ($1.37 million) are presented on December 10, the anniversary of his death.
Last week, Americans Andrew Fire and Craig Mello were awarded the medicine prize, John Mather and George Smoot shared the physics prize and Roger Kornberg was awarded the chemistry prize.
New York-based professor Edmund Phelps of Columbia University on Monday improved the US record when he was awarded the economics prize, a prize that was not mentioned in Nobel's will.
Last year the literature prize went to British playwright Harold Pinter.
The winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize was to be announced Friday in Oslo, Norway.
xxx
Stockholm (dpa) - Orhan Pamuk, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday, is today Turkey's leading novelist, by far its most famous both within Turkey and in the wider world.
Born into a wealthy family in Istanbul on June 7, 1952, Pamuk has never been far from controversy inside Turkey where he has critics both from the religious conservative camp and the secular establishment.
Last December a controversial trial against Pamuk for "insulting Turkishness" was dropped by the Turkish Justice Ministry following international criticism.
The writer had talked about the massacre of Armenians in Turkey during World War I, which Turkey denies, and had spoken of "one million murdered Armenians." If convicted he faced three years in prison.
Pamuk's seven published novels explore the way Turkey is torn between East and West and how it is split between conservative religious folk and modern western-looking secularists.
The writer sees the splits clearly but also looks into how the two actually make Turkey what it is. His main argument is that to look at upholding one's own history and traditions is not incompatible in a modern secular state that seeks to join the European Union.
Educated at the prestigious American high school Robert College in Istanbul, Pamuk went on to study architecture at Istanbul Technical University but dropped out after three years. He later went on to complete in journalism at the University of Istanbul.
While never actually going into journalism, Pamuk wrote his first book Darkness and Light in 1974, but it wasn't published until 1982 under the title Cevdet Bey and His Sons.
In 1983, Pamuk was already regarded as a leading Turkish novelist when he published The Silent House, but it was his 1985 novel The White Castle that brought real international attention winning numerous awards including the Independent Award for Foreign Fiction.
At this stage Pamuk left Istanbul to take up a visiting fellow position at the University of Iowa where he wrote "The Black Book."
Returning home to Istanbul his first daughter Ruya, whose name translates as dream, was born in 1991, the same year that the film "Hidden Face", based on a single page from the "The Black Book", was released in Turkey.
His next novel, 1994's The New Life focused on university life in Turkey and became the fastest selling novel in Turkish history.
In 1998, My Name is Red was published to wide international acclaim. The story of Ottoman and Persian artists portraying the Ottoman Empire won the French Prix Du Meilleur Livre Etranger, the Italian Grinzane Cavour and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
Snow, his latest novel, was published in 2002 and is Pamuk's most political novel that tells the story of the struggle between Islamists, Kurds, secularists and the all-imposing state in the small town of Kars near the Turkish border with Armenia.
Snow was a clear continuation of Pamuk's foray into political commentary that he began in the 1990s when he began publishing articles extremely critical of the heavy-handed way the authorities were trying to suppress a Kurdish rebellion in south-east Turkey.
In its citation Thursday, the Nobel academy said Pamuk, who lives and works in Istanbul, "in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures."
Last year he won the annual Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, Germany's top literary honour.
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
Bangkok Post
[NOTE: Pamuk profile below]
Stockholm (dpa) - The Turkish author Orhan Pamuk won the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday, the Swedish Academy announced.
In its citation, the academy said Pamuk, who lives and works in Istanbul, "in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures."
The 54-year-old Pamuk was born in Istanbul, the son of a well-off middle class family. After studies at Robert College in his native city where he planned to become an artist, he studied architecture and journalism.
During 1985-1988 he was at Columbia University in New York and also briefly at the University of Iowa.
Pamuk's literary debut was in 1982 with a novel Cevdet Bey and His Sons which chronicles three generations, similar to German laureate Thomas Mann's Buddenbrooks, the academy said.
However, Pamuk's international breakthrough came a decade later with the English translation of The White Castle, set in 16th century Istanbul.
The academy also noted that Pamuk became well-known for condemning the fatwa issued against Salman Rushdie, his defence of fellow author Yasr Kemal in the mid-1990s and most recently for mentioning the charged subject of the massacres of a million Armenians and 30,000 Kurds by Ottoman forces during the First World War.
Pamuk's interview on the massacre with a Swiss newspaper led to prosecution but the case was later dropped after international protests.
Swedish Academy Permanent Secretary Horace Engdahl told reporters that among Pamuk's works he recommended was The Black Book, published in Turkish as Kara Kitap in 1990.
The book describes how the protagonist searches for his wife and her half-brother who have vanished, and triggered a debate in Turkey since the book also discussed Sufism, a spiritual movement in Islam.
Another book, recently out in Swedish and English, mentioned by Engdahl was Istanbul: Memories and the City - published in Turkish in 2003, it describes various locations and people in Istanbul.
Pamuk's works have also been translated into French and German.
The literature prize is one of the Nobel Prizes endowed by Swedish industrialist and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel. The prizes worth 10 million kronor ($1.37 million) are presented on December 10, the anniversary of his death.
Last week, Americans Andrew Fire and Craig Mello were awarded the medicine prize, John Mather and George Smoot shared the physics prize and Roger Kornberg was awarded the chemistry prize.
New York-based professor Edmund Phelps of Columbia University on Monday improved the US record when he was awarded the economics prize, a prize that was not mentioned in Nobel's will.
Last year the literature prize went to British playwright Harold Pinter.
The winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize was to be announced Friday in Oslo, Norway.
xxx
Stockholm (dpa) - Orhan Pamuk, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature on Thursday, is today Turkey's leading novelist, by far its most famous both within Turkey and in the wider world.
Born into a wealthy family in Istanbul on June 7, 1952, Pamuk has never been far from controversy inside Turkey where he has critics both from the religious conservative camp and the secular establishment.
Last December a controversial trial against Pamuk for "insulting Turkishness" was dropped by the Turkish Justice Ministry following international criticism.
The writer had talked about the massacre of Armenians in Turkey during World War I, which Turkey denies, and had spoken of "one million murdered Armenians." If convicted he faced three years in prison.
Pamuk's seven published novels explore the way Turkey is torn between East and West and how it is split between conservative religious folk and modern western-looking secularists.
The writer sees the splits clearly but also looks into how the two actually make Turkey what it is. His main argument is that to look at upholding one's own history and traditions is not incompatible in a modern secular state that seeks to join the European Union.
Educated at the prestigious American high school Robert College in Istanbul, Pamuk went on to study architecture at Istanbul Technical University but dropped out after three years. He later went on to complete in journalism at the University of Istanbul.
While never actually going into journalism, Pamuk wrote his first book Darkness and Light in 1974, but it wasn't published until 1982 under the title Cevdet Bey and His Sons.
In 1983, Pamuk was already regarded as a leading Turkish novelist when he published The Silent House, but it was his 1985 novel The White Castle that brought real international attention winning numerous awards including the Independent Award for Foreign Fiction.
At this stage Pamuk left Istanbul to take up a visiting fellow position at the University of Iowa where he wrote "The Black Book."
Returning home to Istanbul his first daughter Ruya, whose name translates as dream, was born in 1991, the same year that the film "Hidden Face", based on a single page from the "The Black Book", was released in Turkey.
His next novel, 1994's The New Life focused on university life in Turkey and became the fastest selling novel in Turkish history.
In 1998, My Name is Red was published to wide international acclaim. The story of Ottoman and Persian artists portraying the Ottoman Empire won the French Prix Du Meilleur Livre Etranger, the Italian Grinzane Cavour and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
Snow, his latest novel, was published in 2002 and is Pamuk's most political novel that tells the story of the struggle between Islamists, Kurds, secularists and the all-imposing state in the small town of Kars near the Turkish border with Armenia.
Snow was a clear continuation of Pamuk's foray into political commentary that he began in the 1990s when he began publishing articles extremely critical of the heavy-handed way the authorities were trying to suppress a Kurdish rebellion in south-east Turkey.
In its citation Thursday, the Nobel academy said Pamuk, who lives and works in Istanbul, "in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures."
Last year he won the annual Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, Germany's top literary honour.
Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.
posted by Vahe Balabanian at 12:03 PM
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