Echoes of the Corporeal: The Relational Ontology of Body and Nature in 'The Return of the Native'

Year 2025, Volume: 42 Issue: 2

Başak Çün

https://doi.org/10.32600/huefd.1614627

Abstract

This paper explores the interaction between affect and corporeality in Thomas Hardy’s (1840-1928) The Return of the Native (1878) with an inclusion of Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of the body. Defined as the dynamic relation between bodies and environments that transcends linguistic structures, affect restructures the borders between corporeal perception and external nature. The Victorian understanding of the body-mind dichotomy is reexamined through positioning Hardy’s characters and nature on a permeable plane where sensory experiences melt distinctions between the subject and the object. The paper discusses the face as the primary sensory gate, while the way Hardy’s depiction of characters like Eustacia Vye and Clym Yeobright reveals an intricate interconnection between the corporeal and the elements of nature is exemplified. Senses such as vision and hearing underscore the fluidity of perception in the novel, and the heath itself emerges to be a living, affective entity intertwined with the human existence. By framing perception as an embodied process, the paper studies Hardy’s narrative as a sphere of affective exchanges that challenge Cartesian dualism. It offers a depiction of materiality and the corporeal existing within a relational ontology.

Keywords

The Return of the Native , Thomas Hardy , affect , Maurice Merleau-Ponty , body

Bedenselin Yankıları: 'The Return of the Native' Romanında Beden ve Doğanın Bağıntılı Ontolojisi

Abstract

Bu makale, Thomas Hardy’nin (1840-1928) The Return of the Native romanında duygulanım ve bedensellik arasındaki etkileşimi, Maurice Merleau-Ponty’nin beden fenomenolojisini de kapsayarak incelemektedir. Dilsel yapıları aşan, bedenler ve çevreler arasındaki dinamik ilişki olarak tanımlanan duygulanım, bedensel algı ve dış çevre arasındaki sınırları yeniden belirler. Viktorya dönemi beden-zihin ikiliği, Hardy’nin karakterlerinin ve doğasının, duyumsal deneyimlerin özne ve nesne arasındaki ayrımları erittiği geçirgen bir düzleme yerleştirilmesiyle yeniden değerlendirilmektedir. Makale, yüzü birincil duyumsal geçit olarak tartışmakta, bunun yanı sıra Hardy’nin Eustacia Vye ve Clym Yeobright gibi karakterleri tasvir etme biçiminin, bedensel olan ve doğa bileşenleri arasındaki girift ara bağlantıyı dışa vurduğunu anlatmaktadır. Görme ve duyma gibi duyum şekilleri, romanda algının akışkanlığını vurgularken, romandaki fundalık, yaşayan, insan varlığıyla dolaşık, duygulanımsal bir varlık olarak ön plana çıkmaktadır. Dolayısıyla makale, algıyı bedenleşmiş bir süreç olarak çerçeveleyerek, Hardy’nin anlatısını, Kartezyen ikiciliğe meydan okuyan duygulanımsal takaslar sahası olarak çalışmaktadır. Maddesellik ve bedensel olanı, bağıntısal bir ontoloji içerisinde betimlemektedir.

Keywords

The Return of the Native , Thomas Hardy , duygulanım , Maurice Merleau-Ponty , beden

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