Nicosia/Istanbul: Ruins, Memory and Photography
Journal
Kunapipi: Journal of Postcolonial Writing and Culture
Date Issued
2011
Author(s)
Abstract
When Orhan Pamuk was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 2006, the Swedish Academy chose to
announce the award by concentrating on Pamuk’s memories of Istanbul in his autobiography, Istanbul:
Memories of a City (2005).1 The book, a melange of Pamuk’s autobiography and the history of Istanbul
during the author’s childhood combined with flashbacks to the Ottoman past of the city, concentrates on
the author’s and the city’s melancholy, or to be more precise it focuses on the Turkish equivalent of the
Western idea of melancholy, huzun. There are around two hundred photographs and illustrations in the
text, from Orientalist images of the city to photographs by Turkish photographers and a collection of
family photographs.
announce the award by concentrating on Pamuk’s memories of Istanbul in his autobiography, Istanbul:
Memories of a City (2005).1 The book, a melange of Pamuk’s autobiography and the history of Istanbul
during the author’s childhood combined with flashbacks to the Ottoman past of the city, concentrates on
the author’s and the city’s melancholy, or to be more precise it focuses on the Turkish equivalent of the
Western idea of melancholy, huzun. There are around two hundred photographs and illustrations in the
text, from Orientalist images of the city to photographs by Turkish photographers and a collection of
family photographs.
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Nicosia_Istanbul_ Ruins Memory and Photography.pdf
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