From the immortal regulator to the wanna-be dictator: the specters of the father in Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü and kar

Abstract

This study brings two texts of modern Turkish literature together, Saatleri Ayarlama Enstitüsü [The Clock-Setting Institute] and Kar (Snow) in order to show their dialogue with each other through the issues of modernization/westernization, the father complex, East-West division. Close textual analysis shows that the former is a model for the latter, which Orhan Pamuk develops in accordance with the changes in narrative techniques, developments in literary movements and unfolding of events in the historical arena (''stage'' in Sunay Zaim's words) in the approximately five decades separating the two novels. The study's main aim is to uncover the close relationship between the two novels through the father figure, carefully hidden in the former and overtly obvious in the latter, and to bring to light what the basic concerns behind their works are, what the conclusions or suggestions they propose are, if there are any.