The Tales of Two Eurasian Empires: Modernization, Fall, and Troubled Identities of Russia and Turkey in Pelevin and Pamuk

Lee, Daniel Taehun

doi:https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-1ena-1e04

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The Tales of Two Eurasian Empires: Modernization, Fall, and Troubled Identities of Russia and Turkey in Pelevin and Pamuk

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Russia and Turkey occupy a significant portion of current global news as the rest of the world analyzes the trajectories of these countries. Most scholars focus on the socio-political landscapes of the two while disregarding cultural and literary studies. Such a top-down approach fails to consider the profound identity crises experienced by the Russians and Turks in the past centuries. Examining their literatures becomes essential because it illuminates the psyche of those who live with the scars of forced Westernization and imperial collapses. The findings of this research can contribute to global literary and cultural studies since modernization based on Western paradigms and the rise and fall of empires shook peoples’ sense of identities around the world.This dissertation specifically investigates the works of Viktor Pelevin and Orhan Pamuk – both extremely renowned in their respective homelands. Their novels demonstrate the futility of nation-building or empire-building efforts in their cultures, mangled from centuries of Westernizing reforms and splintering empires. Although these writers find themselves in deeply divided societies, they write for their peoples without catering toward official state ideologies or any dogmatic rhetoric. I analyze Pelevin’s The Life of Insects (1993), Chapaev and the Void (1996), Generation P (1999), iPhuck 10 (2017), Secret Views of Mount Fuji (2018) and Pamuk’s The White Castle (1985), My Name is Red (1998), and A Strangeness in My Mind (2014). These works demonstrate the unsustainability of turning to the nations’ complicated past for constructing a new identity and the impossibility of obtaining any stable selfhood in general. My dissertation represents the first comprehensive study to compare these renowned authors from Russia and Turkey and bridge the two countries under the topic of identity or the lack of it.

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