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Pamuk's The Silent House

1429 Words6 Pages

Cevdet Bey and His Sons, his first novel, has been compared with Thomas Mann's 'Buddenbrooks'(1901). His second novel, The Silent House, is a family story told from several perspectives and reminds us of the style of Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner, in their treatment, style and multi- vocality. His other novels have also been compared with western writers such as Calvino, JamesJoyce and Franz Kafka. These comparisons are not born of an inability to recognize the incomparable idiosyncrasies of an individual literary voice; OrhanPamuk really does have an in-depth knowledge of modern novels. His dexterity at using and varying literary forms in a masterly way when tackling issues is commendable.
The style, content and the issues Pamuk has …show more content…

It becomes tougher for the non- Turkish audience. The novel questions the identity and ontology of a human being and is told in a fairy- tale style. The protagonist Hoja, that literally means 'master', is a Turkish scholar wants to make a weapon for the Turkish Sultan's military campaign in Europe. In the 17th century, a young and learned Italian scholar who is sailing from Venice to Naples is captured and imprisoned and taken forcefully to Constantinople. There his custody is given to another scholar who is his 'exact double'- known as Hoja--"master". This name later, in the end becomes a symbol itself of a similarity between two humans. Days, weeks, months and years pass and the story progresses. The slave guides his master 'hoja' in Western science and technology and in subjects ranging from medicine to pyrotechnics. But Hoja wants to know more: why he and his captive are the persons they are and whether, given knowledge of each other's most intimate secrets, they could actually exchange identities. The story takes a twist when the weapon is ready and it is stuck in the swamp and mire in Poland- "Surely a statement against the abuse or knowledge and the forceful taking of other cultures, this defeat also reflects the real failure of the Ottoman Turks to conquer the West in the sixteenth century, when

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