CHRONOTOP MIŁOŚĆ ODKRYWANY W MUZEUM NIEWINNOŚCI ORHANA PAMUKA

Through Orhan Pamuk’s novel, The Museum of Innocence, and Mikhail Bakhtin theory on the chronotope, specifically the idyllic chronotope, the article explores the specific chronotope of love which possesses a dual nature, both specific and timeless. Like all lovers, the novel’s protagonists, Füsün and Kemal belong simultaneously to the particu-lar place and time of their circumstances and the intimate world they create which tem-porarily transcends the boundaries of space and time. This private world echoes that of Adam and Eve, one suspended between the innocence and isolation of a private world and the looming threat of the real world’s interference. This dynamic between the place-less and time-less world of two and its existence within a specific place and time is espe-cially palpable in Orhan Pamuk’s novel, the very premise of which rests on the preserva-tion of a specific temporal period through artefacts, here belonging to Füsün, Kemal’s love. The eponymous museum refers to Kemal’s obsessive gathering and conservation of any item that belongs to her. The meetings of the lovers are dated with a historian’s precision and placed in the exact spot of Istanbul, the author’s beloved city. Kemal and Füsün could be Adam and Eve or any other literary couple following in their footsteps, yet their isolated world is interrupted by the noises, light and smells belonging to Istanbul alone. This specific chronotope belonging to love echoes Peter Pan’s island or Alice’s wonderland but the adult version of this private universe cannot be quite as separate from the real world. The latter can only partially escape and remains halfway trapped in its exact coordinates and time zone. My article ventures the thesis that the children’s and adult’s versions represent a similar effort to create a world of innocence and freedom though to a lesser degree in the second case