Author’s Background
The major focus of the current report is the analysis of the famous novel The Flea House by the worldwide known Turkish novelist of the French origin Elif Shafak. This novel is a complex account on racial, religious, sexual, and other stereotypes, prejudice, and controversial points that characterize the development of the mankind (Russoff, 2009). To better understand the essence of the novel and the factors that shaped the points of views that Elif Shafak expresses in her wok, the author’s background information should be considered.
Thus, the author of the considered novel, Elif Shafak was born in Strasburg, France in 1971 (Russoff, 2009). The life interests and employment needs made this writer change numerous cities and countries of residence. Elif Shafak lived in the USA, Turkey, France, Germany, Spain, and even Jordan. This fact explains the cosmopolitan and multicultural character of her book. Currently, Elif Shafak has nine books published among which there are seven novels including The Sufi, Mirrors of the City, The Gaze, and of course The Flea Palace (Russoff, 2009). In the majority of Shafak’s works, religion, culture, and relations between human beings are put in the context of nationalism, racial and cultural controversy, and overall understanding between the people from various countries. Although severely censored in Turkey, Efil Shafak tries to describe the complexity of intercultural relations and in this way to facilitate the progress in this aspect of the human life (Russoff, 2009).
East and West in the Novel
Every reader of the novel, thus, cannot but agree with the numerous reviewers and specialists speaking on the novel titled The Flea Palace as the work in which “the old and the new; Orthodox Christianity, secularism and Islam; the rich and the poor; the East and West; the ancient and the postmodern – all co-exist in an urban kaleidoscope” (Adil, 2004). The opening pages of the novel introduce this whole complexity of human relations to the reader, and the further developed plot consisting of numerous intertwined stories supports it (Shafak, 2004, pp. 19 – 20).
The old and the new, the Christianity and Islam, the East and the West are shown closely interconnected for example in the description of the two ancient cemeteries in Istanbul and in the development of the situation with them (Shafak, 2004, pp. 19 – 20). The two cemeteries, one of them being the Muslim cemetery and the other being the Armenian, i. e. Orthodox Christian place of burial, coexist rather closely in Istanbul. Although religious stereotyping and rivalry still exists and is expressed in the size of both cemeteries, the emerging interreligious correctness and understanding allow these spiritual sites for both Christians and Muslims to coexist peacefully (Shafak, 2004, pp. 19 – 20).
Further on, Elif Shafak describes the relations between the residents of the apartment house nearby the discussed cemetery and here she also considers the multinational character of life as these residents represent Russia, Turkey, and other countries and cultures (Shafak, 2004, pp. 59 – 60). Often, problems in their relations arise from the lack of multicultural awareness and understanding.
New and Old; Orthodox Christianity
As well, the novel The Flea Palace focuses on the interrelation of the new and the old, the Orthodox Christianity and the Islam as embraced within a single society, i. e. the Turkish society of the one of the most difficult periods in its history, the breaking point when the Ottoman Empire did not have any substantial power any more but there were not yet any other power to replace the Empire (Meridians, 2003, pp. 66 – 67). The old and the new are proportionately correlated in the discussed novel, as the author argues with her 2004 interview with the Meridians Journal, with the domination of the Islam and the emerging opportunities for peaceful existence of Orthodox Christianity in this, predominantly Muslim, society (Meridians, 2003, pp. 66 – 67).
The examples of the correlation of the old and new include the above discussed situation with the two, Orthodox Christian and Muslim, cemeteries as well as some of the stories from the Bonbon Palace. The very cemeteries, that are called ancient in the novel (Shafak, 2004, p. 19), symbolize the old in this correlation, and the recent authority decisions to reorganize the city of Istanbul and develop new roads after the cemeteries are closed and prepared for it is the manifestation of the new that came to the society (Shafak, 2004, p. 19). Here the eternal controversy of the good and the bad can also be observed as it is a difficult question whether the new that allows Orthodox Christianity coexist with the Islam is better that the old as the old did not demand re-burials of the tombs of people relatives, parents, friends.
Muslim Sufism
However, an interesting point about the implicit meanings expressed in the novel by Elif Shafak is the author’s support of the Sufism movement in Islam and apart from this religion. On the whole, Sufism is considered to be one of the most mystical and still least studied movements observed within the Islam (Berry, 2009). The essence of Sufism, either it is considered as an integral part of the Islam or discussed as the separate religious and mystical movement, is in the fact that Sufis acknowledge the right of any religion for existence and respect based on the consideration that there is only one God. Thus, even if different religions worship different names of Gods, the essence of this God is similar, and thus all religions worship the same God but only refer to him differently (Berry, 2009).
Obviously, the novel titled The Flea Palace is the indirect appraisal of Sufism as one of the main ideas Elif Shafak argues about is the necessity for equal rights and opportunities for people of various religious, racial, and cultural backgrounds. Although there are no explicit and direct instances of the words Sufi or Sufism, the very general idea of the book and literary means that the author uses in this novel reveal the author’s support of Sufism as one of the least militarized and the most democratic movements observed in Islam.
Background on the Word Jinni
Another notable point observed in the novel and serving as the manifestation of a partly Sufi and partly scholarly attitude towards religion as such is the role of the word Jinni in the process of making the Orthodox Christianity and Islam closer. In the novel by Shafak, the word jinni is not the most widely used language unit, but the meaning of its use is essential (Shafak, 2004, p. 135). The contexts in which this word is used by Shafak are mainly focused on the daily life of her characters, but it is the word jinni that allows seeing how little intercultural awareness people possess and how much importance this awareness has for making cultures, races, and religions closer.
Another important aspect about the use of the word jinni and its meaning for the two above mentioned religions on the whole is that the presence of the similar concept, referred to as Jinni in the Islam and Spirit in the Orthodox Chrisitianity, makes obvious the actual closeness of the two seemingly distant and formerly rival religions (Ashour, 2009; River of Eden, 2009). Thus, Shafak again tries to bring the two religions closer to reach the Sufism goal of the peaceful coexistence of all people worshipping one God, irrespective of his name and to facilitate the peaceful cooperation between races and cultures in the modern society.
The Word Jinni in Quran and Bible
The role of the word Jinni in the holy scriptures of both Orthodox Chrisitianity and Islam is also crucial for the meaning that the author of The Flea Palace attributes to this word and for the significance of understanding this term by the novel readers. Thus, according to Ashour (2009) and River of Eden (2009), in the Islam the concept of Jin, or Jinni, is used to refer to the half-spiritual half-human creature that has certain supernatural powers but is as accountable for its actions before the God as ordinary human beings are. Jinns are considered to be the intermediary creatures combining powers of angels and features of ordinary humans (Ashour, 2009; River of Eden, 2009).
In the Bible, both Christian versions and ones translated into Arabic, the concept of Jinn is also present with almost the same meaning. The only exception is the Old Testament where the Jinnies are referred to as the demons enslaved by King Solomon (River of Eden, 2009). In the novel by Shafak, jinn is also mentioned predominantly in the negative contexts (Shafak, 2004, pp. 135 – 138, pp. 221 – 224), but it is only the allusion to the similar Orthodox Christian phenomena like the Spirits that allows Shafak’s characters worshipping Islam to explain what Jinni is to their Orthodox Christian neighbors.
Main Point of the Novel
Thus, based on all the above provided discussion and considerations, the major point of the novel The Flea Palace by the famous Turkish writer Elif Shafak is the whole complexity of the human relations within the multicultural community where religion and cultural belonging might often become the reasons for cruelty, misunderstanding, and conflict. The plot of the novel develops around the so-called Bonbon Palace, the house that a Russian immigrant Pavel Antipov built for his wife Agripina. The current residents of the house are all of various religious, cultural, and community backgrounds, and therefore their relations are characterized by the lack of understanding and considerable stereotyping issues. At the same time, black humor is also used by the author to vividly represent the numerous life stories with the highest level of credibility. However, the major focus of the novel under discussion is the already mentioned interrelation of the old and the new; Orthodox Christianity and Islam; the rich and the poor; the East and West; the ancient and the postmodern in an urban kaleidoscope.
Works Cited
Adil, Alev. The Flea Palace by Elif Shafak. Elifshafak.us, 2004. Web.
Ashour, Mustafa. The Jinn. Mission Islam: The Quran, 2009. Web.
Berry, David. What is Suffism? New Humanity Times, 2009. Web.
Meridians. “Interview with Elif Shafak.” Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism 4.1 (2003): 55-85. Print.
River of Eden. Angels, Devils and Jinn. Jinn in the Bible, 2009. Web.
Russoff, Marly. Elif Shafak. Russoff and Associates, 2009. Web.
Shafak, Elif. The Flea Palace. Marion Boyars Publishers Ltd, 2004. Print.