Gauging proximities: an inquiry into a possible nexus between Middle Eastern and Western painting

The purpose of this paper is to explore the boundaries between the Middle Eastern Miniature tradition and 20th-century Western philosophy of art. Orhan Pamuk's novel, My Name is Red, provides the initial inspiration for such a project. In order to investigate possible proximities between Middle Eastern and Western forms of painting, we will focus on Pamuk's narrative for the Eastern part of the discussion, and evaluate Merleau-Ponty's and Derrida's ideas on the subject for the Western part. At the end, we will try to reframe traditional ways of thinking about these two art forms. It will emerge that Pamuk's novel suggests possible links between two art forms which appear to be historically as well as philosophically unrelated