Echoes of ‘Exiled’ Nabokov and Pamuk in Murmures à Beyoğlu: Istanbul as a Border Chronotrope

Abstract

Murmures à Beyoğlu by David Boratav, winner of the Prix Gironde Nouvelles Écritures (2009), is a transcultural and postmodern novel, influenced by the writings of Nabokov and Pamuk, namely The Real Life of Sebastian Knight (1941) and Lolita (1955), and Istanbul (2003). This paper identifies various guises in which the omnipresence of the work and personality of Nabokov and Pamuk manifest themselves in Boratav's first novel, which I interpret as a noteworthy homage to the former. The essay argues, moreover, that thanks to their influence, Boratav's work acquires a unique dimension, via its highly original and complex portrait of Istanbul, that places it on a par with that of the masters. This tribute to both writers results in a book in which the main character's wanderings, characterised by a paradigmatic in-between-ness, portray an Istanbul I define as a ‘border chronotrope’.