BEING (OR NOT BEING) ONESELF ON THE BASIS OF INDIVIDUAL-NATURE RELATIONSHIP: ECOCRITICALLY READING THE STORIES OF MUSTAFA KUTLU

BİREY-DOĞA İLİŞKİSİ TEMELİNDE KENDİSİ OL(AMA)MA: MUSTAFA KUTLU ÖYKÜLERİNİ EKOELEŞTİREL OKUMAK

Abstract

Human beings’ intervention to the environment increases with the technological developments brought by The Industrial Revolution. Thus, human beings causes negative effects such as thinning of the ozone layer, the environment, air and water pollution. Also, being involved in the ecological cycle of soil and those grown in the soil leads to irreversible problems. In this regard, some platforms are founded to create environmental awareness. On the other hand, it is started to benefit from literary work for creating awareness. In this context artisans tells the need of nature protection by giving the elements of nature in their works’ background. After 1980, Mustafa Kutlu in Turkish short story tells that in case of being strong of relationship between individual and soil, individual remains oneself but in result of deterioration of the relationship, individual’s alienation is inevitable. According to Kutlu who migrated from countryside to İstanbul, loss values are the result of departing from nature. Kutlu’s thoughts about the soil and nature are consecutive as Nurettin Topçu who is the one of important personalities of the history of Turkish thought. His stories are artisans style expression of this thought. Kutlu’s 23 short stories have been published from 1979 to 2015. In his stories consciousness of nature is seen intensively and individual’s existence is functionally connected to its relationship with nature. In this study nature is semtinized in terms of individual’s being oneself/alienation. It is mentioned what eco criticism is, who studies on it. After refering to it’s historical process, in this regard approach in literature was examined. Then Kutlu’s stories were analyzed under the headings of soil, water, universe’s soul and alienating/remain oneself Science and technology cause irremediable destructions for nature day by day. Some platformes are established to stop this negative externalities. Rachel Carson’s Silent Sprint (1962) is the first study in this field. The damage of technology are mentioned in this study. Through this efforts, DDT (Dikloro Difenil Trikloroethan: Insect Killer) was forbidden in 1971. Furthermore, the notion of deep-echology was mooted by Arne Naess in 1972 in “The Future of Third World Conference-Bucharest”. His article’s name is “The Shallow and The Deep, Long-Range Ecology Movement: A Summary”. Accordingly, human must acknowledge that he is a part of nature and he is not versus of nature. Eco-criticism’s representatives are Aldo Leopold, John Muir, Edward Abbey, Henry David Thoreau and Terry Tempest William. The first representative of Ecocriticism is William Ruekert who uses the notion of eco-criticism. According to eco-criticism, everything in nature is interconnected. Thus everything should be acknowledged as an individual. In order to terminate the destruction of nature, there are studies in literature like the other arts. The narrations creates nature awareness for human beings. After a while literature’s function starts to become widespread. Thereby eco-criticism is referred with literature which reflects the energy of nature to the readers. The studies in which Turkish literature was used as a material, texts were evaluated in the context of eco-crtiticism. The relationship between individual and nature took part in this articles and large nature description therewithal. The highlighted point of this study is: There are some existential sources as water, soil, air in the world. The survival of the human beings depends on subsistence with these sources. If human beings interferes these sources negatively, they will run out of this sources. So that, human beings will become estranged to theirselves, nature and the other people. However, if human beings live in harmony with these sources and not violate the border, they can remain oneselves. This emphasis in this study is described with Mustafa Kutlu’s short stories. Mustafa Kutlu was born in 1947 in Erzincan. He leads his life intertwined with nature. This togetherness reflects on his narrations. Living in the virgin nature enables him to open his painting gallery in the high school years. He graduates from Ataturk University Turkish Language and Literature Department. His thesis was “The Plastic Components in Sait Faik”. After then the writer who immigrates to İstanbul, demonstrates his interest in painting in Hareket Journal’s cap patterns. When he starts storytelling, his addiction of nature is clearly visible. According to Heidegger’s statement “oblivion of the asset”, after modernity human beings forget theirselves and the world, This oblivion can be described “mother-escape agency” as M. Bilgin Saydam’s statement in Deli Dumrul’un Bilinci. In Kutlu’s short stories, modernity for human beings appears itself in the form of moving away from nature and being alienate oneself in mother-escape agency. However if the subliminal that represents nature, is consistent with the conscious that represents psyche, individual will be compatible. Human beings who forget its existential sources appears as alienated characters in short story. Moving away from nature is the reason of the other alienation kinds. Countryside is open-space in Kutlu’s short stories. Human beings are intertwined with nature who is teemful, nourisher and defensor as a mother. It is witnessed that seasons pass, trees fructify and the sound of birds, sheeps and cows here. It is caught a scent of soil and its products. Briefly human beings live and feel nature with its all senses. Memory place for individual to remain oneself and connect to its past, is countryside. According to Kutlu, trying to protect nature for himself is out of the question. Human beings shouldn’t feel theirselves a separate asset from nature and live as a part of nature. Kutlu says; “Five of us are here. Soil, water, air, fire and us” (Kutlu, 2011b: 23). In this regard, ecocriticism has several extent in Kutlu’s short stories. His short stories are examined un

Özet

Sanayi Devrimi'nden sonra her geçen gün gelişen teknoloji, çevre sorunlarını beraberinde getirir. İnsanın çevreye olumsuz müdahalesinin artması ozon tabakasının incelmesi, çevre kirliliği, hava kirliliği ve su kirliliğine sebep olur. Ayrıca toprağa ve dolayısıyla toprakta yetişen şeylerin alanına müdahale edilmesi geri dönüşü olmayan sorunlara yol açar. Söz konusu problem ele alınıp, çevre duyarlılığı oluşturmak üzere bazı platformlar kurulur. Bu bağlamda insanı bilinçlendirmede edebi eserlerden de faydalanmaya başlanılır. Sanatkârlar eserlerinde doğaya ait unsurlara yer vererek, bunların arka planında doğanın korunması gerektiğini anlatır. 1980 sonrası Türk öykücülüğünde Mustafa Kutlu, birey-toprak ilişkisinin sağlam olması halinde bireyin kendisi olarak kaldığını ancak bu ilişkinin bozulması sonucunda bireyin yabancılaşmasının kaçınılmaz olduğunu anlatır. Taşradan İstanbul'a göç etmiş Kutlu'ya göre kaybedilen değerler doğadan uzaklaşmanın sonucudur. Kutlu'nun toprak ve doğa ile ilgili düşünceleri Türk düşünce tarihinin önemli simalarından Nurettin Topçu fikir dünyasının ardılı şeklindedir. Öyküleri ise söz konusu düşüncenin sanatkâr bir üslupla anlatımıdır. Mustafa Kutlu'nun 1979 ile 2015 arası 23 öykü kitabı yayımlanır. Öykülerinde doğa bilinci yoğun bir şekilde görülür ve işlevsel açıdan bireyin varoluşu doğayla olan ilişkisine bağlanır. Bu çalışmada doğa; bireyin kendisi olması/ yabancılaşması açısından irdelendi. Çevreci eleştirinin ne olduğu, kimler tarafından çalışmalar yapıldığı ve eleştirinin tarihsel sürecine değinildikten sonra edebiyattaki yaklaşımları incelendi. Ardından toprak, su, ruh-ı kâinat ve yabancılaşanlar/kendisi kalanlar başlıkları altında Kutlu öyküleri tahlil edildi