Cualquier cosa que digamos sobre las características generales de una ciudad, sobre su alma o su esencia, acaba convirtiéndose de forma indirecta en una confesión sobre nuestra vida y, especialmente, sobre nuestro estado espiritual. La ciudad no tiene otro centro sino nosotros mismos.

Todos los problemas del ser humano en su relación en sociedad, pueden analizarse, entenderse e incluso solucionarse a través del estudio de la ciudad. El presente texto toma esta afirmación, encontrada de una u otra forma en numerosos textos arquitectónicos de carácter teórico y académico, como punto de partida para realizar un fugaz recorrido por las ciudades de diferentes (e inmortales) obras literarias. Busca entonces evidenciar cómo la ciudad es parte vital del desarrollo tanto de la trama como de la vida, y afecta directamente tanto a sus personajes y habitantes, como a su autor.Abstract: All of the human being’s problems as part of his relations within society, can be analyzed, understood and even solved through the study of the city. The following text takes this affirmation, found one way or another in numerous architecture texts both theoretical and academic, as a starting point for a quick journey through the cities in different (and immortal) literary pieces. It then aims to show how the city is a vital part of the development of both plot and life, and directly affects its characters and inhabitants, as well as its author

The City of Collective Melancholy: Revisiting Pamuk’s Istanbul

This essay looks back upon Orhan Pamuk’s non-fiction book, Istanbul: Memories of a City (2003), and unpacks its multi-layered representation of the city as landscape. It is here that Pamuk pursues most overtly “the quest for the melancholic soul of his native city” which won him the 2006 Nobel Prize for Literature. Weaving personal memoir and historical essay into a unique narrative tapestry, Pamuk’s book explores a series of tensions that define the city’s image and identity; insider/outsider and East/West polarities, in particular, are tirelessly deconstructed. The essay examines Pamuk’s poetics and politics of memory in relation to works by other authors, notably Walter Benjamin. In conclusion, the new edition of Istanbul (2015) is discussed against the background of the social and spatial changes that have beset Turkey’s cultural capital in the interim

Orhan Pamuk'un İstanbul'u

Taha Toros Arşivi, Dosya Adı: İstanbul Genel Dokümanlarıİstanbul Kalkınma Ajansı (TR10/14/YEN/0033) İstanbul Development Agency (TR10/14/YEN/0033