In Istanbul, Orhan Pamuk writes about “huzun” as an emotion specific to Istanbuli residents in a moment in time. Discuss how Pamuk describes this emotion in historical, social and cultural terms. How does it compare to other similar emotions? What is specific about Istanbul’s history and culture that shapes huzun?
ethnographiesofthemediterranean 
Blog Post:
Hüzün in Istanbul is the modern equivalent to huzn/hazen found in the Koran. It is the melancholy that all Istanbuli people share and allows for an acceptance of the presence of this melancholy as well as an honor from doing so. Traditionally, this hüzün is felt from loss of Muslim ideals and a focus on phyisical property or spiritual anguish for distancing from Allah, however contemporarily it is the feeling of communal loss and suffering. It allows for cultural heritage from architecture that has changed throughout centuries to be remembered through a feeling of hüzün, and for the violence that many were around for to be thought of as important to Istanbuli identity. Although similar to a western feeling of tristesse, it differs as tristesse is a communal feeling of melancholy brought forth by trying to retain information differently rather than by remembering it definitively. This feeling of hüzün is special and unique to the people of Istanbul because of their communal bond through many historically significant parts of their past and present. They feel a uniform feeling that allows for them to understand the connection to the area and to their history. Without the honor brought forth by hüzün, the Istanbuli people would not be able to function in the way we see today. They would not have the pride and other positive emotions if they did not have an accepted form of melancholy to elevate them.
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You make some good points. The way I interpret Huzun is a deep sadness the Istanbul people have for their loss or lack of connection to Allah (to their god). They probably are feeling sad because without a connection to their religion or their community they may not feel connected and together with their community.
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I enjoy the points that you have left here. It is interesting to see how these relations change throughout time and how they are still currently changing.
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reply:
Great post! Hüzün is also similar to the Japanese emotion of “noble despair,” as well as tristesse. It’s very interesting how hüzün is similar to different feelings of melancholy throughout the world, such as tristesse and noble despair. I find hüzün to be very interesting because of how it’s communal and uniform. I’d also like to mention the history of the Ottoman Empire in Turkey and its decline that could have helped to create this feeling of hüzün for the people of Istanbul.
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The way you describe hüzün really encapsulates the deep, spiritual feeling that accompanies this word. Though we could probably find other examples and definitions of similar feelings among cultures, hüzün is especially unique to the people of Istanbul. Its significance is deeply tied back to their city, its history, and culture and would almost not be possible without those factors in play. In turn, while this word has been used to define this unique feeling, hüzün has also coincidently defined the people of Istanbul beyond this definition.
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Great post! You make a lot of good points here. Your description of the concept of Huzun was very insightful. Huzun gives people a shared connection to both eachother, but also the land and its history that they live on. Huzun plays an important role of the people of Istanbul, with the city itself playing a huge role in the idea.
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One thing I think is most interesting about Hüzün is that it differs from a lot of other concepts in attempting to mean melancholy because hüzün adds an element of place and time specificity. You broke the meaning down very well, your wording seems to clarify the term a bit better than the reading, at least for me personally. Great post!
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Great post! I liked how you described the the feeling is unique to the people of Istanbul. It is a feeling of loss that is unique to every individual of Istanbul that feel it. Very informative!
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The concept of Huzun is such an interesting an insightful concept. It is an ideal that separates itself from one meaning and gives itself two in consideration of circumstance. This, I feel, is an exemplary way to describe something that the English language has a difficult time in focusing in on, especially in writing, and that is the grief that can be felt by a community as well as oneself. Not only does this feeling translate to the community, but the fact alone that it also translates into their history and past, as well as their religious beliefs, speaks greatly of the importance of the idea of huzun, and as you had pointed out, it has similar concepts in other cultures such as the Korean culture as well.
A great post, and a fantastic take!
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I completely agree with what you said about not being able to describe this feeling in English with a single, specific word. One of my favorite parts about studying and speaking different languages is how different some words are from one to the other and how some concepts do not exist mutually in all languages. I think that there is not an English equivalent to hüzün because there has not been a need for it. It is like how people in colder climates have multiple different words to describe snow – they need to be able to differentiate between them. In English, especially in a white United States, a word like hüzün is hard to describe and feel because the history and contemporary day-to-day life here does not make it a necessary word. It is beautiful to see the weight a single word can carry, which is what I love the most about this one.
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I like how you mentioned that in English and the United States the term Huzun is incomparable and outside of our own cultural understanding. It is hard to truly understand the effects of Huzun from our own perspective, so it is important to be as understanding of other cultures’ experiences as possible.
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One thing I think is most interesting about Hüzün is that it differs from a lot of other concepts in attempting to mean melancholy because hüzün adds an element of place and time specificity. You broke the meaning down very well, your wording seems to clarify the term a bit better than the reading, at least for me personally. Great post!
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Hüzün is a term used in Istanbul and traditionally represents a feeling of melancholy or even despair that stems from a loss, such as a death in the family or the breaking off of a close relationship. The word originates in the Qur’an where it is connected with a feeling of discontinuity with God, where an individual is sorrowful at the thought that they are straying away from faith or have become overly attached to earthly concerns. In contemporary Istanbul, Hüzün has taken on meaning as a communal feeling of a loss shared by all residents of the city, similar to tristesse in Northern Europe. This communal feeling of Hüzün forms ties between citizens and allows them to connect to many historical aspects of their city in a way that would not otherwise be possible.
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Pamuk’s definition of hüzün stems from this feeling of deep melancholy as it relates to a sense of ancientness and decay in the space one occupies. For Pamuk, hüzun comes from the ancientness he feels around Istanbul. The ancient city he never knew and never would know. But the remnants remain as building blocks for the city that stands. Hüzün and nostalgia can be seen as closely related, however I believe that hüzün reflects a more pervasive feeling of time past and time never known. Its ancient quality likely can’t be replicated in the spaces we occupy across campus. Spaces that have a preserved indigenous presence, I can imagine, would be the closes that we can get to true hüzün. But even then, the nostalgic element would be lacking since many of us don’t have that lived experience of in those spaces regularly.
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