The hegemony of the liberal–secular master narrative in Orhan Pamuk’s Snow

Abstract

This work will examine the juxtaposition between political and novelistic intentions that distinguish Orhan Pamuk’s treatment of secularism. While Pamuk’s work can be read as a fierce critique of state-imposed secularism in Turkey, he is simultaneously a great champion of a liberal secularist ideology, on which his texts are based even as they claim to be dialogic and polyphonic. This paper will set out the ways in which Pamuk frames the competing political claims of secularism and Islam – key issues on a global scale as well as in Turkish politics – in order to decipher its implications for the contemporary world and the future.

Given Pamuk’s status as a global writer, it is essential that his texts are analysed for their ideological underpinnings, so that any conclusions drawn from them are problematized and seen in a broader context. By analysing Snow, along with a selection of Pamuk’s other novels and writings, this article will explore Pamuk’s view of secularism generally, and specifically its function in Turkish society, and in doing so will draw out the tensions in his case for liberal secularism. In order to do this, it will draw upon some recent critical scholarship on secularism including Ziaudddin Sardar, Talal Asad, Saba Mahmood and T. N. Madan.