Political Power during Epidemics: State of Exception and Hegemony in Nights of Plague
Articles > Article · 2025
Authors: Fatıma ERTÜRK
Yeni Türk Edebiyatı Araştırmaları, Refereed Journals of Other Institutions, International, MLA International Bibliography, 2025, vol 17, pp 139-158
DOI: 10.26517/ytea.607
Summary
<p class="ql-align-justify">In times of crisis such as epidemics, political power suspends the rule of law to reestablish its dominance, transforms mechanisms of oppression into techniques of governance and reinforces its legitimacy through mechanisms based on consent. Orhan Pamuk’s novel Nights of Plague deals with these political and social processes that emerge in times of epidemic. Studies conducted on the novel to date have focused on topics such as nation building, historiography, narrative techniques, the transition from utopia to dystopia, the fear of death and East-West debates. However no analysis has yet been conducted that simultaneously addresses the interaction between the state of exception and hegemony at the center of the novel. This article aims to fill this gap by examining the novel through a qualitative content analysis method within the framework of Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben’s concepts of the state of exception and Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony. The section “State of Exception and Sovereignty” shows how the suspension of the legal order in the novel shapes power relations. The section titled “Violence and Coercion in the State of Exception” examines the processes of normalization of executions, isolation and military interventions. The section titled “Hegemony and the Production of Consent” evaluates the mechanisms of legitimization carried out through economic regulations and language and history policies. The findings reveal that in the novel, the rulers suspend the law in pursuit of their own political goals, normalize violence and sustain this order through hegemony based on consent.</p>