Perceptions of Modernism-Tradition in Masumiyet Müzesi (The Museum of Innocence)

The novel of Masumiyet Müzesi published by Orhan Pamuk in 2008 is shaped around a love theme. Besides the love theme, the themes of family, ethics, marriage, sexuality, rich-poor, east-west, modernisation are explained in relation to social, political, cultural properties of the period in the novel in which events took place between 1975 and 2008. In that novel which was written from the point of view of a protagonist (I) narrator, the events are explained through the interpretations of Kemal Basmacı, the protagonist of the novel. The themes handled in the novel are evaluated within the framework of modernism and tradition perceptions of Kemal Basmacı, a modern rich man representing west and his family and “elite” neighbourhood and perceptions of Füsun, who has been brought up in Çukurcuma district, representing east and who is the daughter of a family dependent on their traditions. In this study, the perceptions of modernism and tradition will be investigated taking Füsun and Kemal’s love as the central point and in line with the points of view of the characters of the novel.

Keywords

The Museum of Innocence, modernism, tradition, east, west, Europe, sexuality