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Pandemi Sonrası Dönemde Beslenme Tabularını Yıkmak: J. M Coetzee’nin Elizabeth Costello Romanında İnsan-Hayvan İlişkisi

Year 2022, Issue: 47, 135 - 148, 15.06.2022
https://doi.org/10.21497/sefad.1128564

Abstract

Covid-19 pandemisi üzerine günümüzde ekolojik artalandan yoksun çok sayıda komplo teorisi ve kötü durum senaryoları üretilmekte ve bu yeni salgının ortaya çıkışı, indirgemeci bir yaklaşımla, insanın sadece vahşi hayvanların viral patojenlerine maruz kalması olarak açıklanabilecek basit bir meseleye indirgenmektedir. Fakat sadece bir hayvan grubunun fizyolojisi ile ilişkilendirilmesinden ziyade, salgının küresel çaptaki nedenleri ve sonuçları tamamıyla insan aktivitesi, eylemi, davranışı, kapitalizm, tüketim kültürü, doğa algısı, yaşam alanlarına müdahale, ticarileştirme ve özellikle yeme alışkanlığından kaynaklı bir hayat biçiminde aranmalıdır. Böylece, pandemiyi sadece insan refahını tehdit eden bir “hastalık” olarak değil, insan ve insan olmayan tüm canlıların geleceğini tehdit eden çok yönlü bir “ekolojik kriz” olarak görmek, pandemi sonrası dönemde hayvan ve insan etkileşiminde radikal bir politika değişikliğine gitmenin yegâne ön şartı olarak ortaya çıkmaktadır. Bu noktadan hareketle, yaratıcısı J. M. Coetzee gibi kendisi de bir vejetaryen yazar olan başkarakter Elizabeth Costello, pandemi sonrası çağda salgınların yinelenmesinin önüne geçebilmenin, büsbütün rasyonalizme dayalı bilimsel üretkenlikten çok insanın hayvanlarla olan münasebetini yeniden gözden geçirmesiyle mümkün olabileceği düşüncesini destekleyen bir ekolojik felsefenin işaretlerini verir. Eserde, Coetzee’nin vejetaryen ve yazar başkarakteri, sahip olduğu çevre etiği anlayışıyla, hayvanların doğal habitatlarına yeni bakış açıları kazandırabilen yol gösterici disiplinlerden birisi olarak edebiyatın yeniden değerlendirilmesine yardımcı olabilecek tartışmalar ortaya koymaktadır. Bu çalışma, pandemi sonrası ivedi bir paradigma değişikliğine ihtiyacı olan geleceğin dünyasında, Coetzee’nin vejetaryenlik ve insan-hayvan etkileşimleri üzerine olan düşüncelerinin nasıl bir model olabileceğini ele almıştır.

References

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Shattering Dietary Taboos in Post-Pandemic Era: Human-Animal Interaction in J. M. Coetzee’s Elizabeth Costello

Year 2022, Issue: 47, 135 - 148, 15.06.2022
https://doi.org/10.21497/sefad.1128564

Abstract

Many conspiracy theories and worst-case scenarios have been produced about the COVID-19 pandemic. With a reductionist approach, this new coronavirus disease outbreak has been regrettably confined to the simple matter that humans are exposed to viral pathogens of certain wild animals. However, the global reasons and outcomes of the present outbreak should not simply be correlated with the physiologies of a group of animals but with human activities subject to wanton consumption, interference with living spaces, intense commercialization and, particularly, dietary habits. Thus, reconceptualizing pandemics as a multidimensional “ecological crisis” posing a threat to the future of human and nonhuman beings rather than a “disease” endangering human welfare seems to become the sole prerequisite for a significant policy shift in the relationship between humans and animals. With this in mind, the eponymous protagonist of the novel, Elizabeth Costello, a vegetarian like her creator, gives the traces of an ecological philosophy which reinforces the notion that it is not the sheer scientific productivity driven by the rationalization but the reconsideration of animal-human interactions that can prevent post-pandemic era from recurring outbreaks. In the novel, through her understanding of environmental ethics, J. M. Coetzee’s vegetarian and writer protagonist provides discussions that help rethinking literature as one of the guiding disciplines that can offer new insights into the natural habitat of animals. This study intends to handle how Coetzee’s thoughts on vegetarianism and human-animal interactions can become an ethical model for the future world in dire need of a post-pandemic paradigm shift.

References

  • Adams, C. J. (2018). Neither man nor beast: Feminism and the defense of animals. London and New York: Bloomsbury.
  • Cheng, V. C., Lau, S. K., Woo, P. C., & Yuen, K. Y. (2007). Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus as an agent of emerging and reemerging infection. Clinical Microbiology Reviews, 20(4), 660–694.
  • Coetzee, J. M. (2003). Elizabeth Costello. London: Vintage.
  • Compassion in World Farming International. (2020, April). Is the next pandemic on our plate? https://www.ciwf.org.uk/research/food-and-human-health/is-the-next-pandemic-on-our-plate/
  • Devall, B. & Sessions, G. (1985). Deep ecology: Living as if nature mattered. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith.
  • Engström, H. (2004). Animals, humans, cruelty and literature: A rare interview with J. M. Coetzee. SATYA. http://www.satyamag.com/may04/coetzee.html.
  • Garrard, G. (2004). Ecocriticism. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Ghebreyesus, T. A. (2020, April 17). WHO Director-General's opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19. https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---17-april-2020
  • Huggan, G. & Tiffin, H. (2015). Postcolonial ecocriticism: Literature, animals, environment. London and Newyork: Routledge.
  • Naess, A. (2005). The basics of deep ecology. The Trumpeter, 21(1), 61-71.
  • Naess, A. (2008). Self-Realization: An ecological approach to being in the world. In A. Drengson & B. Devall (Eds.), The ecology of wisdom: Writings by Arne Naess. Berkeley: Counterpoint.
  • Naess, A. (2012). The deep ecological movement: Some philosophical aspects. In R. Bhaskar, K. G. Høyer & P. Naess (Eds.), Ecophilosophy in a world of crisis: Critical realism and the Nordic contributions. London and New York: Routledge.
  • Nagel, T. (1974). What is it like to be a bat?. The Philosophical Review, 83(4), 435–450.
  • Reddy, B. L. & Saier, M. H. (2020). The causal relationship between eating animals and viral epidemics. Microbial Physiology, 30, 2–8.
  • Singer, P. (2002). Animal liberation. New York: HarperCollinsPublishers.
  • Taylor, P. W. (2011). Respect for nature: A theory of environmental ethics. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.
  • Wood, D. (2005). The step back: Ethics and politics after deconstruction. Albany: State University of New York Press.
  • Zhou, P., Yang, X., Wang, X, Hu, B., Zhang, L., Zhang, W., et al. (2020). A pneumonia outbreak associated with a new coronavirus of probable bat origin. Nature, 579, 270-73
There are 18 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Language Studies, Creative Arts and Writing
Journal Section Articles
Authors

Baturay Erdal

Publication Date June 15, 2022
Submission Date April 21, 2021
Published in Issue Year 2022 Issue: 47

Cite

APA Erdal, B. (2022). Shattering Dietary Taboos in Post-Pandemic Era: Human-Animal Interaction in J. M. Coetzee’s Elizabeth Costello. Selçuk Üniversitesi Edebiyat Fakültesi Dergisi(47), 135-148. https://doi.org/10.21497/sefad.1128564

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