Multiculturalism as an Antidote to East-West Despair in The White Castle

Abstract

Ferit Orhan Pamuk’s third novel The White Castle is characterized by a confusion or loss of identity brought on in part by the conflicts between European and Islamic values. The deep-rooted tension between East and West, traditional communalism and modern secularism often get elaborate treatment in Pamukian literature. They are often startling, disturbing and unsettling or even mysteriously exhilarating, as is the novel undertaken in this thesis. The present dissertation has the message that the survival of people from the different cultural and geographical domains is made possible by the ability in accepting differences as given which we need not try to obliterate. In the novel itself, a Turkish scientist successfully settles in Italy whereas a Venetian enjoys his life and post of power as a royal astrologer at the court in Istanbul. Actually the difference of cast, colour and creed are all man-made, therefore not essential to defining human life and existence. This is the liberal and reconciliatory message of the novel studied in this thesis.