İklim Değişikliği: Kentsel Mekan İçin Bir Kıyamet mi? “Venedik Boğuldu”nun Ekolojik Eleştirel Okuması ve "Ilgın Avcısı"

Çevre bilinçli yazar MargaretAtwood’un da özetlediği gibi iklim değişikliğinin insan hayatı üzerinde eşi benzeri görülmemiş bir etkisi vardır. Tarih boyunca, insanoğlu mevcut yiyecek, barınma, su ve ısınma kaynaklarını uyumlu hale getirerek birçok iklim değişikliğine adapte olmuştur. Ancak bugün, iklim değişikliği ekosistemin ve insanların baş edebileceğinden daha hızlı ve daha yıkıcı sonuçlar doğurabilir. Bu tehdit öyle devasa boyutlara ulaşır ki birçok yazar bilimsel verileri ve grafikleri kendi yazınlarında duygu ve yaşanmış olaylara dökmek için bir zorunluluk hissederler. Bu noktada, çoğunlukla “cli-fi” olarak bilinen “iklim yazını” ısınmanın küresel ve yerel etkilerini edebiyatta ön plana çıkararak yeni bir kategori haline dönüşür. 2000’lerin sonuna kadar iklim yazını resmi olarak bir kategori şeklinde kabul edilmese de birçok yazar bu konu hakkında metinler üretmektedir. Bu anlamda, “Venice Drowned” (1981) ve bundan 25 yıl sonra yazılan “The Tamarisk Hunter” iklim değişikliği konusunun ne kadar derin ve uzun süredir var olan bir mesele olduğunu ortaya koymada çok doğru örneklerdir. Kim Stanley Robinson and Paolo Bacigalupi iklim değişikliğinin dünyaya verdiği fiziksel zararın ötesinde meselenin sosyal ve ekonomik uzun vadedeki etkilerini konu alan çok sayıda eser üretmişlerdir. Buna bağlı olarak, ikisi de şehir merkezinde geçen bu hikâyeler iklim değişikliğinin sosyal, politik ve ekonomik etkilerini çok doğru bir şekilde örneklendirir. Şimdiye kadar oldukça fazla iklim yazını metni üretilmiştir ve edebi eleştirmenler bu yoğunluğa ekoeleştiri üzerinden birçok analizle yaparak karşılık vermişlerdir. Bu makalede, Kim Stanley Robinson’un “Venice Drowned” ve Paolo Bacigalupi’nin “The Tamarisk Hunter” adlı hikayeleri iklim yazını metinlerinin bu ekolojik problemle ilgili açık ya da sonradan ortaya çıkan sorunları ortaya koyarak okuyucuya tarafsız bir bakış açısı kazandırması konusundaki işlevliğini ortaya koyma adına ekoeleştirel bakış açısıyla analiz edilecektir.

Climate Change: An Apocalypse for Urban Space? An Ecocritical Reading of “Venice Drowned” and “The Tamarisk Hunter”

As encapsulated by eco-conscious author Margaret Atwood, climate change has an unprecedented effect on human life. Throughout history human beings have adapted to numerous climatic changes by complying with the available sources of food, housing, clothing, water or warmth. Today, however, climate change creates more devastating and instant consequences that populations and the ecosystem cannot cope with. The situation seems to have become too compelling to ignore so many authors feel an urge to warn people by transforming graphs and scientific data into emotion and experience in their narratives. At this point, “climate fiction” commonly known as “cli-fi” emerges as a new category engaging global and local effects of the global warming with literature. Despite the fact that cli-fi was not officially coined until the late 2000’s, many authors have been writing about climate change for years now. In this sense, “Venice Drowned” (1981) and “The Tamarisk Hunter” which was published 25 years later are the best examples to illustrate how deep-rooted and long-standing environmental issue climate change is. Kim Stanley Robinson and Paolo Bacigalupi have produced a great deal of works relating to not only the physical destruction of climate change to the Earth but also its long-term effects on our social and economic structures. Accordingly, the stories both set in urban space skillfully exemplify the social, political and economic effects of climate change. So far, a great amount of cli-fi texts have been produced and literary critics have also responded to this trend with an increased quantity of analyses in the context of eco-criticism. In this paper “Venice Drowned” by Kim Stanley Robinson and “The Tamarisk Hunter” by Paolo Bacigalupi will be studied through the theories of ecocriticism in order to demonstrate how cli-fi texts function in providing the reader with an objective perception by elucidating the explicit and belated challenges posed by the problem of climate change.

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