Sonic Traces: Museum of Innocence | Ari Kozanoğlu & Deniz

What does a novel sound like?

In this special one-hour broadcast, Ari and Deniz explore the universe of The Museum of Innocence by Nobel Prize-winning author Orhan Pamuk. Moving between literature, music, memory, and cultural history, the show imagines the sonic world of the novel and the songs that might have shaped its emotional and social landscape.

More than a love story, The Museum of Innocence is an exploration of memory, obsession, class, and the emotional life of objects. Set in Istanbul from the mid-1970s onwards, it follows the intertwined lives of Kemal and Füsun against the backdrop of a rapidly transforming city. The story extends beyond the novel into a physical museum in Istanbul, where fictional memories become material objects and personal longing becomes an archive. It has recently been adapted into a Netflix series (2026), introducing the story to a new global audience and expanding its cultural afterlife across literature and screen.

Drawing on Ari’s background in literature and cultural studies and Deniz’s background in sociology, the conversation explores the worlds surrounding the novel: Istanbul’s transformation, questions of class, gender, modernity, and the ways music shapes both individual and collective memory.

Expect a journey through Turkish popular music, literary references, archival fragments, and sonic traces of an Istanbul suspended between nostalgia and change.

A radio show for readers, listeners, and anyone interested in the connections between fiction, memory, and sound.