Separating fiction from real life
A review of Elif Shafak's
The
Bastard of Istanbul in the 1/13/07
Economist reports the trial of
Shafak in the Turkish courts for insulting the Turkish identity (a
criminal offence) -- on the basis of what one of her characters says in
the book. From pp. 76-7:
... Ms Shafak's crime was to have drawn
attention to the Armenian genocide.
Setting a bizarre precedent, prosecutors rested their case on the words
of one of the fictional Armenian characters in her book, which was
originally written in English, but which is only now coming out in
America. The offending phrase talked of "genocide survivors, who
lost all their relatives at the hands of Turkish butchers in
1915". That phrase and other unflattering references to Turkish
behaviour were deemed to have violated the penal code under which
insulting "the Turkish identity" is a criminal offence.
Ms Shafak was eventually acquitted after the court agreed that she
could not be convicted on the comments made by a fictional character.
Nobelist Orhan Pamuk got into similar hot water a while back, but for
comments he made in his own voice, in a newspaper interview; the
charges against him were eventually dropped. Shafak actually went
to trial, but she wasn't held accountable for the thoughts and words of
her characters. In many other times and places, the distinction
between author and character would have counted for nothing in such a
case. No doubt Turkey's interest in joining the European Union
and the bad publicity surrounding the Pamuk case worked in Shafak's
favor.
zwicky at-sign csli period stanford period edu
Posted by Arnold Zwicky at January 14, 2007 02:59 PM