ABSTRACT
The Introduction outlines the principal areas with which this book is concerned. One, the ways in which communal and literary identity is formed within and around nation-building narratives and is determined by capitalism and modernization. Two, the ways in which Istanbul’s city spaces serve as a source of inspiration and a marker of loss in cultural and literary production. Three, how Pamuk’s work functions as a lens to view Istanbul and its spaces, and facilitates a refashioning of its inhabitants. Four, that his fiction sets out to bridge the gap between modernism and postmodernism through his representation of a city hovering architecturally between modernity and postmodernity. Finally, that the book opens up the discussion to how Pamuk uses the postmodern city to move beyond its postmodern confines. In its juxtaposition of the writer and the city, the book brings out the conceptual objectives of the work and postulates that Pamuk utilizes certain theories and their universes not only to open up his fiction but also in part to reshape it.
