Abstract The Museum of Innocence is a postmodern novel written by Orhan Pamuk in 2008, which deals with love, loneliness, object-human-society relationship, museums, Istanbul's socio-cultural and historical life, joy, sexuality and many other issues. The events in the novel take place in Istanbul between 1975-2007. Kemal Basmacı, the protagonist of the novel, is thirty years old, the younger of two brothers belonging to a wealthy family in Istanbul. He received Western culture and studied in America. Although Kemal is preparing for his engagement with a young girl named Sibel, who was educated in Europa, he is in love with his distant relative, eighteen years old Füsun Keskin. Füsun, is the daughter of a retired teacher father and a mother who works as a seamstress. Kemal and Füsun, who is preparing for the university exam, meet from time to time at their house in Merhamet Apartment, where they lived in the past but now contains old furniture, under the pretext of giving a mathematics lesson. After Kemal's engagement, Füsun disappears. Kemal, who begins to experience the pain of love and separation, finds solace in objects and belongings that remind him of Füsun. Later, Kemal meets Füsun again who is married to a person named Feridun. Feridun, is a screenwriter who lives with the Keskin family in their house. Despite this fact, Kemal spends time with his Keskin family some evenings for eight years because of his love. In this process, he establishes a museum with the items he stole from the Keskin family so that the events of the past will not be forgotten after Füsun’s death. In our study, we will try to address the effects of the objects that play a role in the activation of all these experiences on the individual and society.
Novel, Object, Subject, Place, Time.