“I am a dog”: Orhan Pamuk and the mongrelization of fiction

Abstract

The Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Literature for his representation of the interweaving cultures that make up the soul of Istanbul. A vital essence of the cultures that he represents in his novels and nonfiction are stray dogs. Strays not only represent and are part of the melancholic soul of Istanbul; they are often the companions of the characters who inhabit the city. By populating the pages of his writing with strays, Pamuk “mongrelizes” his fiction. Under the pen of Pamuk, fiction, already a motley, polyglot, and variegated genre, becomes mongrelized through the presence of these companion animals. This essay first explores the multiple forms of companionship between the human and canine characters in three of his contemporary novels, Silent House, The Black Book, and The Museum of Innocence. The second section, “I am a dog,” addresses Pamuk’s interest in the real strays who roam the streets of Istanbul, and his own personal relationship with them, past and present. As creatures with whom we have relationships, dogs inhabit our memories as well as our lives, and Pamuk explores this relationship in his nonfiction writing. Mongrelization takes place within the landscape of human memories. Finally, in the third section, this essay considers an important part of mongrelization for Pamuk: it is a form of politics, one that resists the narrow-minded fetishization of purity and singularity represented by the Ottoman clerics as they are portrayed in Pamuk’s Neo-Ottoman novel My Name Is Red.