FRS 001R — Sec. 001 — (1 unit) — CRN 55884 — W 4:10-5:00pm — 1128 Bainer
Reading a Political Novel: Orhan Pamuk’s Snow

Instructor: Ahmet Palazoglu, Department of Chemical Engineering & Materials Science, College of Engineering

Description: When The Economist and The New York Times announced their "best books of the year" lists in 2004, one of the books they had in common was Snow by Orhan Pamuk. Pamuk is a Turkish novelist who has won the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award in 2003 for his book My Name is Red. He is considered to be a premier storyteller of our times and his name is often circulated among the Nobel candidates. His latest book Snow is a story of a poet named Ka caught in the political drama of contemporary Turkey that is reflected in the divide between fundamental Islam and secularism. The story takes place in the town of Kars in northeastern Turkey where there has been a rash of suicides among female students forbidden to wear headscarves in school. As the snow cuts off all communications and blocks all roads to and from the town, the story takes on a surreal atmosphere, creating the backdrop for discussing and challenging the current political discourse in Turkey. Pamuk himself points out that this is a deliberate attempt to write a political novel. In this Seminar, we will study his assertion as we read and discuss his novel. A key element of this discussion will be the term “political novel.” What is Pamuk’s understanding of the political novel and how is it reflected in Snow? How does this book compare with the works of Dosteyevski, Borges and Garcia-Marquez in their expression of the political novel? What is the common thread among all these books and how does one begin to define the political novel?

Format: The seminar will meet for one hour each week. The time will be primarily devoted to the reading and discussion of the novel. Around the fifth week, the students will decide on topics of interest on which they will write their essay. The remaining meetings will focus on the discussion of specific topics and may include guests to explore some topics in depth. The written essay will be 2500 words in length. The novel is the main text for the course. Grading: Students will be graded by their contributions to the discussions (50%) and by their essay (50%).

About the Instructor: Professor Palazoglu is a faculty member in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science. His research focuses on modeling and analysis of nonlinear dynamic systems and process control. He is the co-author of Introduction to Process Control to be published by CRC Press in 2005. In 1998, he has published Devrimci Petunyalar (Revolutionary Petunias), a collection of Alice Walker’s poems in Turkish.