AN ECOCRITICAL ANALYSIS OF PERSPECTIVES AND REPRESENTATIONS IN CHARLOTTE MCCONAGHY'S ONCE THERE WERE WOLVES AND JIANG RONG'S WOLF TOTEM

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Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: İstanbul Yeni Yüzyıl Üniversitesi, Fen-Edebiyat Fakültesi, İngiliz Dili Ve Edebiyatı Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Dili: İngilizce

Öğrenci: Ali Nazar Jabar

Danışman: Ayşe Zeynep Kıvanç

Özet:

Being among the modern theories, ecocriticism traces the interconnection between ecology and its representations in literature. Many writers have been involved in representing the ecological perspectives in their narratives. However, both Charlotte McConaghy and Jiang Rong, who represent two distinct cultures of the West and East, have written many ecological narratives like Once There Were Wolves and Wolf Totem. This study aims to examine the contrastive features of the ecological representations in both Charlotte McConaghy's Once There Were Wolves and Jiang Rong's Wolf Totem, deploying an ecocritical lens. Drawing on the ever celebrated ecological concepts of human-nature interconnection, ecological self, and ecological justice, the study seeks to provide discourse analysis of the two novels in order to enhance the understanding of the modern ecological narratives. The main argument is that human beings have mistreated nature and its wilderness, therefore, recognizing the importance of creating interconnection with nature is the only way to achieve human-nature reconciliation. The findings show that while McConaghy enables Inti to achieve ecological conciliation due to her ecological commitment, Rong prevents Chen Zhen from achieving ecological reconciliation.

Keywords: Ecocriticism, Ecological Interconnection, Ecological Reconciliation, Ecological Self.