snow: mythological interaction and turkish cultural identity

This article analyses the representation of cultural conflict in orhan pamuk’s snow (2004). this is done through reviewing mythological interactions in the novel. for this, the researcher focuses on the characterization of the protagonist of the novel as the symbolic depiction of modern, turkish cultural sense of identity. in this consideration, joseph campbell’s discussion of the role of hero as someone who responds to a call for fulfilling a mission is regarded. the mission in the novel is symbolically illustrated as travelling back to homeland where the writer brings the eastern and western roots of turkish cultural identity into dialogue, surfacing the conflict rising from giving priority to each of them. the eastern and western aspects are bolded through referring to eastern archetypal pattern of dominant father-figure and western individualistic sense of self. these two are wrapped in a political-aesthetic frame of narration where the writer, developing a metafictional space of narration within narration through focusing on the political performances of a state-supported theatre group, brings to the fore the religious-cultural conflicts rising from dictating apparently western modern values of life, disregarding deep-led historical eastern traditions, along with stubborn commitment to some eastern beliefs resistive before any innovation or different perspective. this investigation focuses on the protagonist’s interaction with these two inclinations to see whether he can be considered as the reflection of what many critiques term as pamuk’s commitment to represent the multicultural turkish sense of identity or not. the conclusion is that in himself the protagonist characterizes failure.