“A PEREMPTORY ADIEU TO BIODIVERSICALS”: ECOLOGICAL DECLINE AND EXPERIMENTATION IN PETER READING’S -273,15

Year 2022, Volume: 62 Issue: 1, 449 - 468, 25.06.2022

Özlem Türe Abacı

https://doi.org/10.33171/dtcfjournal.2022.62.1.17

Abstract

Peter Reading (1946-2011), pronounced as “the unofficial laureate of a decaying nation, Junk Britain” by Tom Paulin, has always been concerned with environmental deterioration, climate change, and decline of the species in many of his work from the 70s onwards. His poems of the new millennium advocate a more robust critique of the neo-liberal economic systems and human beings’ involvement in the current ecological crisis. Reading’s -273,15, [Absolute Zero], revisits his decades-long efforts to experiment with various poetic forms, registers and a grief-stricken tone presiding over most of his previous work with his suspicion of human language to convey the complexities of anthropocenic experience. Reading’s text combines his efforts not only to experiment with various poetic and non-poetic materials, registers, but also look for ways to cope with an approaching catastrophe. The verbal and visual collage pieces as the most frequently employed procedures in Reading’s poetry draw his poetry closer to the ‘entropological register’ Skinner puts forward and bring together the sources to show how Reading’s environmental agenda is conscious of its shortcomings. Drawing on Lynn Keller’s recent work on ecopoetics and the concept of the “self-conscious Anthropocene,” this paper aims to explore how Reading’s ecological agenda and experimental practices in -273,15 might forge an improved understanding of the connections between contemporary poetry and environmental justice.

Keywords

Peter Reading, Self- conscious Anthropocene, Ecological Crisis, Entropological Ecopoetics, Climate Change Poetics

“BİYOLOJİK ÇEŞİTLİLİĞE MUTLAK VEDA”: PETER READING'İN -273,15 ADLI ŞİİR KİTABINDA EKOLOJİK YOK OLUŞ VE DENEYSEL ŞİİR BİÇEMİ

Abstract

Tom Paulin tarafından “yok olan Britanya’nın gayri resmî milli şairi” olarak nitelendirilen Peter Reading (1946-2011), şiir kariyerinin ilk yıllarından itibaren eserlerinde, çevre felaketleri, iklim krizi ve türlerin yok oluşu gibi Antroposen döneme ait temalara yer vermiştir. Reading, 21.yüzyılın başından itibaren yazdığı şiir kitaplarında ise neo-liberal ekonomik sistemlerin ve insan türünün, yaşanan çevre felaketleri üzerindeki olumsuz etkilerini daha güçlü bir sesle eleştirmektedir. Bu çerçevede, Peter Reading’in ölmeden önce yazdığı son iki kitabından biri olan -273,15 [Mutlak Sıfır] başlıklı şiir koleksiyonu, ağıtsal bir ton ve deneysel şiir yöntemlerinin kullanmanın yanı sıra, iklim değişimine bağlı yaşanan çevre felaketleri ve önerilen çözüm önerilerinin ele alınışında hali hazırda kullandığımız dilin ve edebi yöntemlerin yeterliliğini sorgulanmaktadır. Peter Reading’in şiirleri, yaklaşan bir felaketle başa çıkma, kaos ve yok oluş gibi temaları Nuh Tufanı hikayesini yeniden yazarak ele almakla birlikte, farklı şiirsel öğeleri ve dilsel kesitleri harmanlamaktadır. Reading’in kitaplarında sıkça kullandığı sözsel ve görsel kolaj çalışmaları, -273,15 kitabında, Skinner tarafından entropolojik biçem olarak tanımlanan eko-şiir türüne yaklaşmakla birlikte, şair olarak kendi ekolojik duruşunun yetersizliklerini de sorgulamaktadır. Bu çalışma, Lynn Keller’ın eko-şiir alanındaki son çalışmalarında öne sürdüğü “öz bilinçli Antroposen,” (self-conscious Anthropocene) kavramına odaklanarak, Peter Reading’in son dönem şiirlerinde üzerinde durduğu ekolojik tahribatla ilgili kaygılarını, çevre adaleti ve çağdaş şiir biçemleri arasındaki bağı irdelemeyi hedeflemektedir.

Keywords

Peter Reading, Öz-bilinçli Antroposen, Ekolojik Kriz, Entropolojik Biçem, İklim Değişimi Yazını

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