NOBEL PRIZE-WINNER PAMUK RECEIVES INAUGURAL HUMANIST MEDAL
By Liam Otten
Washington University Record, Washington
Nov 16 2006
The Turkish novelist will speak at ‘Celebrating Our Books’ colloquium
Nov. 27
Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, winner of the 2006 Nobel Prize in
Literature, will receive the University’s inaugural Distinguished
Humanist Medal.
The award – which includes a cash prize of $15,000 – is supported by
the Center for the Humanities and International and Area Studies, both
in Arts & Sciences. It will be given biannually to a distinguished
scholar, writer or artist whose career merits special recognition
for excellence and courage.
Orhan Pamuk Pamuk will receive the medal and make a formal address
during the fifth annual faculty book colloquium at 4 p.m. Nov. 27 in
Graham Chapel. Titled "Celebrating Our Books, Recognizing Our Authors,"
the colloquium honors the work of scholars from across the arts and
sciences disciplines.
Pamuk’s speech will be published in the University’s literary
journal, Belles Lettres. Pamuk also will conduct a question-and-answer
session before a select audience at Hurst Lounge the afternoon of his
visit. Text from the session is scheduled to be published in 2007 in
the new graduate student online publication, Arch.
"Pamuk was chosen for the award late last spring in consultation
with other faculty, well before he won the Nobel Prize," said Gerald
Early, Ph.D., the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters in the
Department of English in Arts & Sciences and director of the Center
for the Humanities.
"James Wertsch (the Marshall S. Snow Professor in Arts & Sciences and
director of International and Area Studies) and David Lawton (professor
and chair of English in Arts & Sciences) were especially helpful,
as they both know Pamuk’s books very well," Early noted. "It was felt
that Pamuk was not only a brilliant writer whose works provide us with
fresh, important perspectives on the divide between East and West,
but that his support of free speech in Turkey was a notable act. He
was an ideal selection for the prize, and he was happy to accept."
In addition to Pamuk’s talk, "Celebrating Our Books" will include
presentations by John R. Bowen, Ph.D., the Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor
in Arts & Sciences and author of Why the French Don’t Like Headscarves:
Islam, the State and Public Space (2006), and Lingchei Letty Chen,
Ph.D., assistant professor of modern Chinese language & literature
in Arts & Sciences and author of Writing Chinese: Reshaping Chinese
Cultural Identity (2006).
"We bring Orhan Pamuk here not only to honor him for his achievements,
but to show how much regard we have for Washington University
faculty authors by having them share the stage with a writer of such
international eminence," Early said. "We very much want to showcase
our writers and scholars."
Born in 1952, Pamuk graduated from American Robert College in Istanbul
and studied architecture at Istanbul Technical University before
earning a degree in journalism from Istanbul University.
At 23, he decided to become a novelist and published his first book,
Cevdet Bey and His Sons, seven years later. Now one of Turkey’s most
prominent writers, his books have been translated into more than
40 languages.
Pamuk made international headlines in 2005 when criminal charges were
brought against him in Istanbul following his statement that Turkey
killed a million people in the Armenian Genocide of 1915-17 and
massacred 30,000 Kurds in the late 20th century. Pamuk was indicted
on charges the remark amounted to a "public denigration" of Turkish
identity, a crime in Turkey. Authors from around the world, including
Salman Rushdie and John Updike, spoke out on Pamuk’s behalf. Charges
were dropped in January 2006.
In addition to Cevdet Bey, Pamuk wrote The Silent House (1983), The
White Castle (1985) and The Black Book (1990). The New Life (1994),
about university students influenced by a mysterious book, is one of
the most widely read novels in Turkish literature.
His most recent books include My Name Is Red (1998) – his most popular
work in English – about Ottoman and Persian artists, the political
novel Snow (2002) and the memoir Istanbul (2005).
Bowen’s research focuses on the role of cultural forms in processes
of social change. His first three books – Muslims Through Discourse:
Religion and Ritual in Gayo Society (1993), Critical Comparisons in
Politics and Culture (1999) and Islam, Law and Equality in Indonesia:
An Anthropology of Public Reasoning (2003) – examine issues of
religion, culture and politics in Indonesia. In Why the French Don’t
Like Headscarves, he explores the French government’s 2004 decision to
ban Islamic headscarves and other religious signs from public schools.
Chen’s Writing Chinese addresses complex issues surrounding the claim
of "Chinese-ness" in our increasingly borderless world. Cutting across
geographical boundaries, the work challenges current discussions
of hybridity and nationalism by examining the politics of Chinese
cultural identity facing writers in China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and
the United States. In the end, Writing Chinese proposes that the
aesthetics of hybridization are key to developing a more open,
creative and individualized notion of Chinese cultural identity.
The event is free and open to the public, but seating is limited
and RSVPs are strongly encouraged. A reception and book-signing
will follow in Holmes Lounge. The reception will include a display
of all faculty books published in the past five years. In addition,
the Campus Store will display books by all three speakers, all of
which will be available for purchase.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
