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Papers by Hafis Pandikasala

This paper undertakes a critical scrutiny of contemporary Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk 's Snow (200... more This paper undertakes a critical scrutiny of contemporary Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk 's Snow (2004) and Other Colours (2007), texts that majorly grapple with contemporary Turkey's socio-political issues. I have tried to demonstrate the modes in which Pamuk frames the contestations regarding the public expressions of Islam in Turkey which has largely been about women wearing the headscarf and the State constraints on it with a view to deciphering its implications for our times.

ABSTRACT This dissertation underta... more ABSTRACT

This dissertation undertakes a critical scrutiny of Orhan Pamuk’s Snow (2004) and Other Colours (2007), texts that majorly grapple with contemporary Turkey’s socio-political issues. I have tried to demonstrate the modes in which Pamuk frames the competing political claims of secularism and Islam—key concepts in Turkey as well as our contemporary world—with a view to deciphering its implications for our times.

Literature, as is well-known by now, can no longer be regarded as an apolitical business without any stakes in the world. It is partisan—ideological and committed to power structures, with its particular agendas—and an active participant in hegemonic constructions. Literary and cultural representations are struggles for power and meaning, and texts are sites where these struggles are carried out. Pamuk’s writings are located on a site where Islam and secularism confront each other in particular ways. Moreover, Orhan Pamuk is a writer who addresses a global audience, a fact he himself is quite aware of. The award of the Nobel Prize for literature (2006) is not an insignificant factor in Pamuk’s receptivity throughout the global reading world as a voice of authority interpreting issues involving categories such as Islam, secularism, etc. Given these factors, it important to read his texts for their ideological underpinnings and to comprehend the importance of such understandings for contemporary resonances. I have read Snow and Other Colours in order to lay out the liberal-secular ideology the texts are premised on, especially with regard to Islam, even as they make claims to be dialogic and polyphonic. I largely drew upon some recent scholarship on secularism in order to problematize Pamuk’s valorization of liberal secularism and his take on Islam.

The “Introduction” of this dissertation entitled“Contexualizing Orhan Pamuk: Secularism, Islam, Global Geopolitics” begins by making a case for my contextualized, political reading of the texts in question. It sets the work of Pamuk against the larger secularism-Islam interface so as to pull into perspective the problem in question.

Chapter One, “Turkey: The Making Of A Socio-Political Arena” laid out the socio-political history of Turkey in the twentieth century so as to provide a window to the primary world Pamuk is engaging with. I elaborate on the contours of secularization that has been implemented in Turkey. The chapter dealt with the emergence of “political Islam”/ “Islamism” as an oppositional discourse to the hegemonic secularist discursive practices on Islam. It traced certain significant historical developments in terms of the Islamist-secularist confrontation in Turkey.

Chapter Two, “Secularism(S): Critiques, Disjunctions, And Utopias in Orhan Pamuk,” unpacks Pamuk’s take on secularisms. Drawing on some recent scholarship on secularism, the chapter critiques liberal secularism as a political principle as well as hegemonic discourse / ideology / worldview which permeates multiple discourses and circumscribes understandings of the very category of “the human.” It makes the case that advocacy of pluralism through a championing of liberal secularism defeats its very objective.

Chapter Three, “Muslim Women’s Headscarf, Islamism and the Islamic Other” explores the issues attending liberal-secular readings of politics under the banner of Islam and the polemical question of the Muslim women’s headscarf / hijab in the light of Pamuk’s self-avowed wish to know and engage the Islamic Other.

The “Conclusion” pulls together the various threads explored in the chapters. It examines the implications of the critical analyses done in the chapters for our times, where liberal secularism is a hegemonic ideology / discourse/world view. My close reading of Orhan Pamuk’s select texts underscores the need for a critical distance from and a vigilance against the effects of the naturalization of the liberal-secular in all aspects of being in the world, something which our embattled times cry out for.

The paper draws on celebrated cultural anthropologist Saba Mahmood and seeks to explore how the n... more The paper draws on celebrated cultural anthropologist Saba Mahmood and seeks to explore how the normative liberal understandings of agency, among other things, contribute to the discursive blackout of pious Muslim women in literature.

This paper undertakes a critical scrutiny of contemporary Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk 's Snow (200... more This paper undertakes a critical scrutiny of contemporary Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk 's Snow (2004) and Other Colours (2007), texts that majorly grapple with contemporary Turkey's socio-political issues. I have tried to demonstrate the modes in which Pamuk frames the contestations regarding the public expressions of Islam in Turkey which has largely been about women wearing the headscarf and the State constraints on it with a view to deciphering its implications for our times.

ABSTRACT This dissertation underta... more ABSTRACT

This dissertation undertakes a critical scrutiny of Orhan Pamuk’s Snow (2004) and Other Colours (2007), texts that majorly grapple with contemporary Turkey’s socio-political issues. I have tried to demonstrate the modes in which Pamuk frames the competing political claims of secularism and Islam—key concepts in Turkey as well as our contemporary world—with a view to deciphering its implications for our times.

Literature, as is well-known by now, can no longer be regarded as an apolitical business without any stakes in the world. It is partisan—ideological and committed to power structures, with its particular agendas—and an active participant in hegemonic constructions. Literary and cultural representations are struggles for power and meaning, and texts are sites where these struggles are carried out. Pamuk’s writings are located on a site where Islam and secularism confront each other in particular ways. Moreover, Orhan Pamuk is a writer who addresses a global audience, a fact he himself is quite aware of. The award of the Nobel Prize for literature (2006) is not an insignificant factor in Pamuk’s receptivity throughout the global reading world as a voice of authority interpreting issues involving categories such as Islam, secularism, etc. Given these factors, it important to read his texts for their ideological underpinnings and to comprehend the importance of such understandings for contemporary resonances. I have read Snow and Other Colours in order to lay out the liberal-secular ideology the texts are premised on, especially with regard to Islam, even as they make claims to be dialogic and polyphonic. I largely drew upon some recent scholarship on secularism in order to problematize Pamuk’s valorization of liberal secularism and his take on Islam.

The “Introduction” of this dissertation entitled“Contexualizing Orhan Pamuk: Secularism, Islam, Global Geopolitics” begins by making a case for my contextualized, political reading of the texts in question. It sets the work of Pamuk against the larger secularism-Islam interface so as to pull into perspective the problem in question.

Chapter One, “Turkey: The Making Of A Socio-Political Arena” laid out the socio-political history of Turkey in the twentieth century so as to provide a window to the primary world Pamuk is engaging with. I elaborate on the contours of secularization that has been implemented in Turkey. The chapter dealt with the emergence of “political Islam”/ “Islamism” as an oppositional discourse to the hegemonic secularist discursive practices on Islam. It traced certain significant historical developments in terms of the Islamist-secularist confrontation in Turkey.

Chapter Two, “Secularism(S): Critiques, Disjunctions, And Utopias in Orhan Pamuk,” unpacks Pamuk’s take on secularisms. Drawing on some recent scholarship on secularism, the chapter critiques liberal secularism as a political principle as well as hegemonic discourse / ideology / worldview which permeates multiple discourses and circumscribes understandings of the very category of “the human.” It makes the case that advocacy of pluralism through a championing of liberal secularism defeats its very objective.

Chapter Three, “Muslim Women’s Headscarf, Islamism and the Islamic Other” explores the issues attending liberal-secular readings of politics under the banner of Islam and the polemical question of the Muslim women’s headscarf / hijab in the light of Pamuk’s self-avowed wish to know and engage the Islamic Other.

The “Conclusion” pulls together the various threads explored in the chapters. It examines the implications of the critical analyses done in the chapters for our times, where liberal secularism is a hegemonic ideology / discourse/world view. My close reading of Orhan Pamuk’s select texts underscores the need for a critical distance from and a vigilance against the effects of the naturalization of the liberal-secular in all aspects of being in the world, something which our embattled times cry out for.

The paper draws on celebrated cultural anthropologist Saba Mahmood and seeks to explore how the n... more The paper draws on celebrated cultural anthropologist Saba Mahmood and seeks to explore how the normative liberal understandings of agency, among other things, contribute to the discursive blackout of pious Muslim women in literature.