Hybridity in Orhan Pamuk’s The White Castle

Abstract

The present study concerns with the relationship between two opposite cultures and tradition. It is about a young Italian scholar and his misfortunes in a first-person narrative. The Venetian scholar and his master Hoja explore not only bases of science and technology, but increasingly also what makes them each what they are. The inter-play between slave and owner, a conflict that is brutal and terrifying, is extremely profound and realistic, showing the effect that each has on the other as time passes. It is also a work of historical and philosophical fiction set in the 17th century where the characters are able to exchange their identities successfully. Pamuk’s seems to address the issue of registering his reaction to the omnipresent question of the identity of man. Thus, his journey through the complex tangle of east-west identities is the issue of exploration in this thesis. The novel is a captivating work of historical fiction and a sinuous treatise on the enigma of identity and the relations between East and West. It is set in a world of magnificent scholarship and terrifying savagery, with a colorful and intricately patterned triumph of the imagination.