Lecture about Fyodor Dostoevsky at the solemn ceremony of awarding the mantle and diploma of the SPbU Honorary Doctor

Abstract

The lecture of the most famous Turkish writer of our time, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2006, was delivered at St. Petersburg State University on February 20, 2017 and was dedicated to the literary works of Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, whose has always been appreciated by the Turkish prose writer. In his speeches and interviews Orhan Pamuk often says that he was influenced primarily by Russian writers: Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and Vladimir Nabokov. The lecture is devoted to the analysis of two works by Dostoevsky — The Brothers Karamazov and Demons. It is based on the author’s personal impressions and perception of the novels in the context of Turkish culture, social and political life, and everyday life. In this case, a look at the work of Dostoevsky “from the outside” is especially interesting since Pamuk represents a country that is largely oriented towards Western culture, but at the same time preserves Eastern traditions, including religious ones. Pamuk reflects on Dostoevsky’s novels and notes they are politically significant novels, even though in the Russian literary tradition they are interpreted differently. Parallels drawn between the events that unfold in The Brothers Karamazov and Demons and the events in the public life of Turkey allow Pamuk to draw a conclusion about the deep mental kinship of Russian and Turkish societies with their ambiguous attitude towards the West.