LITERATURE AND SUSTAINABILITY IN BUKET UZUNER’S NATURE TETRALOGY: AN ECOCRITICAL ANALYSIS
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18623/rvd.v23.n4.4861Keywords:
Ecocriticism, Ecofeminism, Climate Fiction, Sustainability, Sustainable Development Goals, Buket Uzuner, Defne KamanAbstract
This study examines Buket Uzuner’s novels, Su (Water), Toprak (Earth), Hava (Air), and Ateş (Fire), which are fictionalised under the title, ‘Uyumsuz Defne Kaman’ın Maceraları (The Adventures of Incompatible Defne Kaman)’, within the framework of sustainability and ecocriticism. The manuscript aims to demonstrate that the four novels do not simply use the environmental crisis as a background element; rather, they transform it into a field of conflict and debate with ethical, political, and pedagogical dimensions. The study employs a combination of text-centred close reading, thematic content analysis, and critical discourse analysis within the qualitative research paradigm. Themes related to sustainability were identified under the headings of water management, energy regimes, ecological justice, cultural heritage, migration, and risk society. These themes were systematically coded throughout the four novels and evaluated through inter-novel comparison. The findings show that the tetralogy operates on three fundamental levels. First, the text establishes narrative strategies that treat nature as a value domain and an active entity, thereby critically questioning the anthropocentric perspective. Second, the tetralogy connects ecofeminist sensibility with intergenerational transmission, cultural memory, and everyday life practices, thus creating a functional ground for ethical learning and awareness. Third, the novels explicitly articulate the political and economic determinants of environmental problems by employing institutional critique and dystopian or ironic narrative elements. The study also exhibits that the portrayal of sustainability in the novel enables readers to internalize environmental issues beyond the level of knowledge, through their emotional involvement and ethical awareness.
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