Private Heterotopia and the Public Space: An Incongruity Explored Through Orhan Pamuk’s My Name Is Red

Abstract

The article studies art, as presented in Orhan Pamuk’s My Name Is Red, as a heterotopia based on Michel Foucault’s six principles. After outlining the six principles of heterotopia as enunciated by Foucault, the study excavates heterotopia of crisis and deviation from the novel. Art as a medium of representation has cathartic potential creating heterotopia in societies dominated by public discourses against art. It provides the artist with a medium for personal and private expression, thus creating a desanctified space. The notion that art that is made public restricts such liberty for the artist is proposed and justified. In My Name Is Red, characters such as Elegant Effendi and Olive can be seen tormented by the conflict between the social and the heterotopic. True expression of their art makes both of them lose their place, albeit in different ways. This implies that if a heterotopia of deviation has to be made public, in most cases, the honesty of expression is tampered with by the artist, even if unconsciously, because of societal pressures. Heterotopia of deviation is not compatible with the public gaze and making it public will create a heterotopia of crisis for the honest artists. This is why the artist hides his real creative inspiration. If art could be accepted as a desanctified medium without any moral or hegemonic judgment, it might attain its desired impact which politicization of the medium restricts in many judgmental societies. Pamuk pens this dilemma down by taking his readers back to the 16th-century Istanbul while drawing a parallel to the present era.