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“Ownership Is the Most Intimate Relationship That One Can Have to Objects”1 Claims Benjamin, Writing About His Passion for Collecting Books

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“Ownership Is the Most Intimate Relationship That One Can Have to Objects”1 Claims Benjamin, Writing About His Passion for Collecting Books THE FANTASY OF THE ARCHIVE: AN ANALYSIS OF ORHAN PAMUK’S THE MUSEUM OF INNOCENCE HANDE GURSES The Museum of Innocence is Orhan Pamuk’s latest work of fiction, published in Turkish in 2008 and in English in 2009. The novel depicts the obsessive love that Kemal, a member of a bourgeois family, feels for a distant relative Füsun who works as a saleslady. The novel spans a 30-year period starting in 1975 and portrays the different directions that the relationship between Kemal and Füsun take. The Museum of Innocence not only focuses on this possessive yet enduring relationship but also offers an exhaustive representation of the social, political and cultural atmosphere of the era. It successfully recreates the various cultural landmarks of the social life, which far from acting as a background to the story, become the very space where the dynamics of the relation between Kemal and Füsun are conceived. As the title of the narrative also indicates, Kemal’s passion for Füsun results in his becoming a devoted collector, which culminates in the idea of creating a museum where these collected objects will be exhibited. In this essay I will analyse the implications of the act of “collecting” mainly focusing on the formation of Füsun as the object of fantasy. I will aim to explore how the collection and the desire to archive affect the formation of Füsun as a space of fantasy in need of domiciliation. Mainly using the writings of Jacques Lacan and Jacques Derrida as my theoretical framework I will try to illustrate le mal d’archive and its implications on the construction of the beloved. I will analyse the intrinsic connection between the desire to preserve and fantasy, using the archive of Kemal and the construction of Füsun as the main focus of this essay. “Ownership is the most intimate relationship that one can have to objects”1 claims Benjamin, writing about his passion for collecting books. Collections are the documentation of how this relationship can develop into various directions, assigning different meanings to objects while also turning their owner into a collector. Once part of a collection, the use value of the objects is altered and the objects acquire new meanings within the collection in which they appear. Similarly the collector acquires a new role in relation to his/her collection, gaining authority over the objects and their significance. 1 Walter Benjamin, Illuminations, London: Pimlico, 1999, 69. 260 Hande Gurses The scope of this transformation that includes both the objects and the collector – and the viewer of the collection in a collateral manner – corresponds to the work of fantasy. The collection creates the fantasy of meaning for the objects and authority for the collector. It would be safe to argue that the fundamental appeal of the act of collecting lies in this sense of authority and control that is granted to the collector through the possession of objects. In The Museum of Innocence Orhan Pamuk explores the process that prompts the act of collecting and its eventual impact through the unfulfilled love affair between Kemal and Füsun. The novel portrays the process of transformation that both the objects and the collector undergo while also changing those that are affiliated with them. Published in 2008 in Turkish and in 2009 in English translation by Maureen Freely, The Museum of Innocence spans a period of over 30 years starting in 1975. Kemal, both the narrator and the protagonist, is the son of the wealthy Basmaci family. His future plans to marry Sibel are interrupted when he initiates a passionate love affair with Füsun, the daughter of a distant middle-class relative. The secret meetings of Kemal and Füsun at his bachelor flat in Merhamet2 apartments come to an end as Kemal proceeds with his engagement to Sibel. Füsun vanishes from Kemal’s life leaving him in a melancholic state. Unable to overcome his longing for Füsun, Kemal breaks off the engagement and leads a secluded life in the apartment where they used to meet in the company of the various objects that have remained of her. It is through these objects that Kemal aims to alleviate the pain caused by Füsun’s absence. Following his father’s death, Kemal reconnects with Füsun only to discover that she has married Feridun, a failed scriptwriter, who promises Füsun a glittering career in the movie industry. Kemal, as a way of remaining close to Füsun, decides to fund the movie that they are going to shoot. He thus not only reconnects with Füsun but also initiates the process of collecting as he starts stealing objects from 2 Merhamet in Turkish means mercy, compassion. In the seventh chapter of the narrative entitled “The Merhamet Apartments”, Pamuk gives extensive information about the name of the building explaining how it was named after the surname of a rich man who made his fortunes by selling sugar in the black market during the First World War. Orhan Pamuk, The Museum of Innocence, London: Faber and Faber, 2010, 20. This information establishes a parallel with the Pamuk apartments that were built by Pamuk’s grandfather who built railroads during the early years of the republic. .
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