SDLC 111 - Culture Post 4 S19

[Christopher Carl Rein]

Orhan Pamuk is one of the most prominent Turkish authors, and my personal favorite (in particular the White Castle, Beyaz Kale).  He is most notable for winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006 amidst a trial for insulting Turkishness.  In 2005, Pamuk talked about the Armenian Genocide and Kurdish mass killings, and he was then sued by ultra-nationalists for insulting Turkishness and the Turkish army.  The charges were dropped in January 2006, but were appealed and he was ordered to pay 6000 liras in 2011 for his “crimes.”  Since the early 2000s, he has been a literatuer professor at Columbia.  He is one of the most prominent writers and intellectuals on the “East-West” divide which informs and influences many of his novels.