NAN SHEPHERD’S THE LIVING MOUNTAIN (1977): A FORERUNNER OF TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY BRITISH NATURE WRITING

Abstract

Nan Shepherd (1893- 1981), a Scottish author and nature lover, entered the literary scene with her novels Quary Wood (1928), The Weatherhouse (1930) and A Pass in the Grampians (1933) that focused on the effects of modernity on Scottish rural life and contributed to the intellectual movement known as Scottish renaissance. However, it is because of her 1977 memoir, The Living Mountain that she has gained popularity in recent years. In this mountain memoir, Shepherd shares her impressions about the years she spent hiking in the Cairngorms, a national park in Scotland. The Living Mountain can be seen as a pioneering work for its age due to Shepherd’s deep interest in the non-human animals as well as the natural elements in the mountain range, her narrative which is not centred on a human but shaped around the non-human, her sensitivity to anthropogenic ecological problems and the importance she attached to writing about her bodily sensations and emotions as well as objective observations during her hikes. The purpose of this study is to analyse The Living Mountain considering Shepherd’s alleged non-anthropocentrism, ecological sensitivity and amalgamation of subjective response with objective observations. This study claims that Shepherd’s memoir can be read as a forerunner of twenty-first century nature writing, which some ecocritics like Jason Cowley and Alexander J. B. Hampton prefer to call as “new nature writing”. Twenty-first century nature writing in Britain is supposedly marked by writers’ ecological awareness, their efforts to create non-anthropocentric narratives and the importance they attach to their subjective experiences in nature in addition to objective observations. This paper discusses how Shepherd managed to integrate these characteristics into her writing, which can inspire and guide the new generation writers as they tend to show a non-anthropocentric reaction to the current ecological crisis in their own ways.

Keywords

• British nature writing
• Nan Shepherd
• The Living Mountain
• twenty-first century nature writing

NAN SHEPHERD’IN THE LIVING MOUNTAIN (1977) İSİMLİ ESERİ: YİRMİ BİRİNCİ YÜZYIL BRİTANYA DOĞA YAZINININ ÖNCÜSÜ

Abstract

İskoç yazar (1893- 1981) ve doğa aşığı Nan Shepherd, İskoç Rönesansı olarak bilinen entelektüel akıma katkıda bulunan ve modernitenin İskoç kırsal yaşamındaki etkileri üzerine yazdığı The Quary Wood (1928), The Weatherhouse (1930) ve A Pass in the Grampians (1933) isimli romanlarıyla edebiyat sahnesine çıksa da yazarın son yıllarda kazandığı popülaritenin asıl kaynağı 1977’de basılan The Living Mountain isimli eseridir. Yazar, bir hatırat olarak değerlendirebileceğimiz bu eserinde, İskoç milli parkları arasında yer alan The Cairngorms dağlarında geçirdiği yıllara ilişkin izlenimlerini paylaşmaktadır. Yazarın dağda yaşayan insan dışı canlılara ve dağı oluşturan elementlere olan yoğun ilgisi, tek başına insanı odağına almayan ve insan olmayan varlıklar etrafında şekillenen anlatımı, insanın sebep olabileceği ekolojik sorunlara yönelik hassasiyeti ve dağda geçirdiği zaman boyunca objektif gözlemlerinin yanı sıra bedensel ve duygusal olarak neler hissettiğini yazmaya verdiği önem düşünüldüğünde, The Living Mountain kendi çağına göre öncü sayılabilecek bir doğa yazını örneğidir. Bu çalışmanın amacı, The Living Mountain’ı Shepherd’ın insan odaklı olmayan yaklaşımı, ekolojik hassasiyeti ve sübjektif tepkileri özelinde inceleyerek eserin 21. yüzyıl Britanya doğa yazınına yakınlığını ortaya koymaktır. Jason Cowley ve Alexander J. B. Hampton gibi bazı eleştirmenlerce “yeni doğa yazını” olarak da isimlendirilen 21. yüzyıl Britanya doğa yazınının, yazarların çevresel kriz konusunda sahip olduğu farkındalık, insan olmayan varlıklar için bir anlatı yaratma çabası ve bunu yaparken anlatılarına sübjektif deneyimlerini dâhil etmeye verdiği önemle kendi çizgisini yaratmakta olduğu iddia edilebilir. Bu çalışmada, içinde bulunduğumuz ekolojik krize insan merkezli olmayan bir şekilde tepki göstermek isteyen yeni dönem yazarlar için hem bir ilham kaynağı hem de bir rehber olarak görülebilecek bu eserinde Shepherd’ın bu çizgiyi nasıl yakaladığı tartışılmaktadır.

Keywords

• Britanya doğa yazını
• Nan Shepherd
• The Living Mountain
• Yirmi birinci yüzyıl doğa yazını

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