2006 Nobel Prize in Literature

Orhan Pamuk

The 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk "who in the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city has discovered new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures."

Laureate

Orhan Pamuk, a leading novelist in Turkey, had his international breakthrough in the 1990s with the novel The Black Book. Other prominent novels include My Name is Red (1998) and Snow (2002). His works deals with the conflict and search of identity between Western and Eastern values and traditions.

Reactions

The choice of Pamuk was generally well received. "It would be difficult to conceive of a more perfect winner for our catastrophic times.", said Margaret Atwood, "Pamuk gives us what all novelists give us at their best: the truth. Not the truth of statistics, but the truth of human experience at a particular place, in a particular time. And as with all great literature, you feel at moments not that you are examining him, but that he is examining you." In his native Turkey reactions were mixed. Leading newspapers took a political stance and questioned Pamuk's Turkishness. The best reaction to Pamuk's victory was pride, wrote the editor of the pro-government Daily Sabah, but "we can't quite see Pamuk as 'one of us'... We see him as someone who 'sells us out' and ... can't even stand behind what he says."

Nobel lecture

Orhan Pamuk's Nobel lecture entitled Babamın bavulu (My Father's Suitcase) was delivered at the Swedish Academy on 7 December 2006.


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