Riflessi e ombre del sé in Beyaz Kale di Orhan Pamuk Venezia, l’impero e la nazione tra narcisismo e vergogna

This essay focuses on Beyaz Kale (The White Castle), the first historical novel in Orhan Pamuk’s literary production. Generally considered by Turkish critics as a fictional adaptation of East‑West dichotomies, the work leads to a more accurate reflection on power dynamics and hegemonic hierarchies in the trans‑Mediterranean space of the seventeenth century. Dealing in particular with the peculiar symbology of the mirror exhibited in the text, I will illustrate how Pamuk appeals to the complex dialectics between Venice and the Ottoman Empire to frame identity, history and cultural memory issues in the context of Turkish nation‑building.