Narrating beyond human: econarratology in contemporary Turkish literature

Abstract

This study presents eco-critical readings of ecologically conscious contemporary Turkish novels, based on current narratological approaches. Each chapter investigates the textual traces of the relationships between humans and non-human entities, examining how the texts represent the non-human world through narrative structures. It questions how these narrative representations establish emotional and cognitive connections with readers. The first chapter, which demonstrates the theoretical approach of the thesis, briefly explains the shared developments of eco criticism and narratology, and it provides an overview of ecocritical studies conducted on Turkish literature. The second chapter focuses on the construction of the storyworld and the role of the experimental narrator in Faruk Duman's Sus Barbatus! trilogy. It discusses the role of local experience in environmental texts by establishing a connection between the traditional storytelling practices specific to Turkish local culture and the narrator in the novel. The third chapter analyzes the active roles of the second-person narration and non-human entities in the narrative structure of Sema Kaygusuz's novel Yüzünde Bir Yer (Every Fire You Tend). It examines the use of non-human entities in representing historical traumas. The fourth chapter examines the narrative similarities between Latife Tekin's Zamansız (Timeless) and Deniz Gezgin's YerKuşAğı (EarthBird) together. It establishes a literary kinship between Tekin and Gezgin and discusses how the perceptual processes of the non-human narrators are conveyed in both novels.