Knitting the Past and the Present : A Study of Myth in Orhan Pamuk's My Name Is Red

Abstract

Orhan Pamuk, the world renowned Turkish novelist and the Nobel Laureate (2006) is the author of much acclaimed novels like My Name Red, The Museum of Innocence and so on. As a Post modernist writer who was born in the second half of the twentieth century (1952) and a leading figure of the twenty first century world literature has blurred the boundaries of cultural forms and literature by adopting popular cultural forms as literary techniques. Myth which can be regarded as a cultural reservoir of the past is reworked into the present by making itself tangible in various human endeavors and aspirations. My Name is Redmakes use of many a myth from Persian mythology which are presented as a basis for the cultural and ideological life of the characters reflected in their behavior and in their very thought process. Myth here guides the people‘s life in the present.