Echoes of the Street: Localism and Traditionalism in A Strangeness in My Mind

This paper studies A Strangeness in My Mind by Orhan Pamuk, focusing on the ideas of localism and traditionalism. The novel is about fifty years of the life of a street vendor named Mevlut Karataş in Istanbul who has seen the changes the city has undergone due to a rapidly changing and modernising world. The paper argues that localism the novelist see localism not as something physical but it is about memories, emotional bonds, day to day life of connecting with people around. For the protagonist, Mevult ‘local’ means knowing the city and spaces around through experiences and not ownership of a tangible space. The traditionalism is seen as something which the migrants carry with them from rural areas and small towns. It is something which dwells in villages and help them adjust to city life, even when the city itself is constantly changing and moving away from traditionalism. The focus of the paper is to study how Pamuk showcase a struggle between fast modernization and the slow, human process of holding on to identity and how Mevlut’s traditionalism acts as a bridge between the "Intention of the Heart" and the "Intention of the Tongue," permitting him to remain genuine in an increasingly artificial landscape.