| Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk has created a series of works with ethnic themes,substantial content and plots of ups and downs.By describing different kinds of special articles,scenes and spaces in Turkish history and culture,the novelist demonstrates the great changes for society and people between tradition and modernity as well as east and west,to display the cultural contraction and integration for Turkey,the country with a long history and a significant geographical location.In these works,Pamuk shows the mysterious charm of Islamic culture and his thoughts about the great changes of national culture and whether to inherit it.Under the consequence of mysterious Islamic culture,the activities of characters and the development of plots are hard to understand and forecast,which makes reading as a journey to find the concrete results of stories.According to the frequent-appearing Turkish elements in novels,from the perspective of game,the characters’ activities can be divided into three kinds: object trigger,metropolitan adventures and obscure identities.Pamuk creates a world full of games for his characters as himself holds the opinion that writing is also a kind of game for writers.Based on these activities of game,characters gradually become aware of themselves and the nation.In his novels,three different kinds of games respectively appear in three different kinds of spaces—geographic space,public space of time and space and alternative space.The roles in novels stay in geographic space,viewing and collecting lots of articles,which remind them of old memories about themselves and the country.They keep walking and walking on the street day and night to find their love and observe the whole city,trying to figure out the truth behind the mystery and finding a lots of problems caused by the popularity of western culture in many areas.Beyond the limits of time and space,characters abandon themselves to some kinds of alternative spaces,finding similarities between themselves and other people.During this kind of game,they begin to think about a philosophical question that who am I and get some clues,gradually getting vague identities to change their boring and meaningless life.There are distinguishing features of Turkish culture in almost all Pamuk’s novels,making his works very different from other novelists.According to the country’s social reality and problems,the novelist makes culture communication and the choices of self-identity as eternal themes.In order to make Turkish people regard their native culture and identity as positive,the novelist structures and explores several kinds of spaces and game activities of characters,hoping the Turkish nation can retain their culture and identity in the continuous communication between east and west. |
