Oe, Pamuk: World needs imagination

The Yomiuri Shimbun

Kenzaburo Oe, right, and Orhan Pamuk speak at a Nobel forum session at Doho University in Nagoya on Saturday.

Kenzaburo Oe, right, and Orhan Pamuk speak at a Nobel forum session at Doho University in Nagoya on Saturday.NAGOYA--Two Nobel Prize-winning novelists--Kenzaburo Oe and Turkey's Orhan Pamuk--stressed the importance of cultivating the imagination in understanding others and dealing with different cultures at a Nobel laureates workshop held Saturday at Doho University in Nagoya.

The literature workshop was held to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the annual forum "Creativity in the 21st Century with Nobel Laureates," which is coorganized by The Yomiuri Shimbun and NHK. The theme of the session was "How to Meet with the West--Dialogue between Novelists from the East."

In his keynote speech, Pamuk cited Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Japanese author Junichiro Tanizaki, whom he said were among the greatest influences on his writing. Both accepted Western culture when they were young, Pamuk said, but the former later questioned it and the latter became absorbed by the Japanese classics, and produced work in a similar spirit. Pamuk argued that Dostoyevsky and Tanizaki became anti-Western politically and culturally, respectively.

Oe praised Pamuk's works, commending him for the subtle way he addressed political themes.

In a panel discussion, Pamuk said novels have the potential to cultivate the imagination and foster understanding of others.

Oe concurred, saying novelists have always worked to spur the imagination of their readers.

Oe was awarded the 1994 Nobel Prize for Literature for creating "an imagined world, where life and myth condense to form a disconcerting picture of the human predicament today," as the awards committee described it. Pamuk won the literature prize in 2006 for "discovering new symbols for the clash and interlacing of cultures.