Savaş, Kadın ve Çevre: Natalie Haynes’in A Thousand Ships [Bin Gemi] Romanının Ekofeminist Bir Okuması

Year 2025, Issue: 53, 103 - 118, 20.06.2025

Merve Altın

https://doi.org/10.21497/sefad.1550420

Abstract

Bu çalışma, Natalie Haynes’in A Thousand Ships [Bin Gemi] (2019) romanının ekofeminist bir okumasını yapmayı ve romanın militarizm, cinsiyete dayalı şiddet ve çevresel tahribat gibi konuların kesişimlerini nasıl yansıttığını ve eleştirdiğini analiz etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Ekofeminizm, eleştirel ve disiplinlerarası bir yaklaşım olarak, kadınların boyunduruk altına alınması ile doğanın tahribatı arasındaki bağlantıları, her ikisinin de ataerkil ve kapitalist sistemlerin bir sonucu olduğunu ileri sürerek ortaya koyar. Roman, savaş, kahramanlık ve cinsiyet gibi temaları ekolojik çerçeveler içinde açıkça incelemeyi amaçlamasa da bu temaların birbirleriyle bağlantılı doğasını kaçınılmaz olarak vurgulamaktadır. Troya Savaşı’na bir şekilde dahil olmuş kadınların ve Toprak Ana Gaia’nın anlatıları aracılığıyla roman, ataerkil ve kapitalist sistemlerin hem kadınları hem de çevreyi nasıl sömürdüğünü yansıtır. Çalışma ayrıca, romandaki kadın karakterlerin anlatıları ve deneyimleri ile günümüzde hâlen devam eden Gazze ve Ukrayna’daki savaşların kadınlar, çocuklar ve çevre üzerindeki etkilerini, adı geçen bölgeler için ilgili konularda hazırlanan resmi raporlar üzerinden benzerlikler kurarak ele almaktadır. Böylece, A Thousand Ships romanının ekofeminist bir okumasını yaparak bu çalışma, edebiyatın cinsiyete dayalı şiddet ve çevresel tahribatın sürekli ve evrensel doğasını nasıl yansıtıp eleştirdiğini ve bu sorunların ataerkil ve kapitalist uygulamaların yaygın etkisi nedeniyle birbirleriyle bağlantılı olduğunu vurgular. Böyle bir yaklaşım yalnızca mevcut akademik çalışmaları genişletmekle kalmaz, aynı zamanda bu birbirleriyle bağlantılı sorunları hem tarihsel hem de çağdaş bağlamlarda anlamanın ve ele almanın önemini vurgular.

Keywords

Ekofeminizm , çevre , kadın , savaş , Bin Gemi

War, Woman, and Environment: An Ecofeminist Reading of A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

Abstract

This study aims to offer an ecofeminist reading of Natalie Haynes’ novel A Thousand Ships (2019) to analyse how the text reflects and critiques the intersections of militarism, gendered violence, and environmental destruction. Ecofeminism, as a critical and interdisciplinary approach, reveals the relationships between the oppression of women and the degradation of nature, both of which are argued to stem from patriarchal and capitalist structures. While the novel does not explicitly aim to explore such themes as war, heroism, and gender within ecological frameworks, it inevitably highlights the interconnected nature of these themes. Through women’s narratives and the narrative of Gaia, the Earth Goddess, the novel reflects how patriarchal and capitalist systems exploit both women and the environment. The study also draws parallels between the Trojan women’s experiences and contemporary conflicts, such as those in Gaza and Ukraine, where women, children, and nature are disproportionately affected by war, as reflected in official reports prepared on these issues for the respective regions. By situating A Thousand Ships within an ecofeminist context, therefore, this study demonstrates how literature can reflect and critique the ongoing and universal nature of women’s suffering and environmental degradation and highlights their interconnectedness due to the pervasive influence of patriarchal and capitalist practices. Such an approach not only expands the existing scholarship but also emphasises the importance of understanding and addressing these issues in both historical and contemporary contexts.

Keywords

Ecofeminism , environment , woman , war , A Thousand Ships

References

• Alaimo, S. (2008). Trans-corporeal feminisms and the ethical space of nature. S. Alaimo & S. Hekman (Eds.), In Material feminisms (pp. 237-264). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Alaimo, S. (2009). Insurgent vulnerability and the carbon footprint of gender. Kvinder, Kon & Forskning, 3(4), pp. 22-35.
• Cixous, H. (1996). Sorties: Out and out: Attacks/ways out/forays. H. Cixous & C. Clèment (Eds.), In Newly born woman (B. Wing. Trans.) (pp. 63- 134). Minneapolis: The University of Minnesota Press.
• Conflict and Environment Observatory. (2024). The environmental consequences of the war against Ukraine: Preliminary twelve-month assessment (February 2022-February 2023). Retrieved from: https://ceobs.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/The-environmental-consequences-of-the-war-against-Ukraine-Preliminary-twelve-month-assessment-summary-and-recommendations.pdf.
• Cuomo, C. (2001). On ecofeminist philosophy. Ethics & the Environment, 7(2), 1-11.
• D’aubonne, F. (2022). Feminism or death (R. Hottell Trans.). London and New York: Verso.
• Daly, M. (1990). Gyn/Ecology: The metaethics of radical feminism. Boston: Beacon Press.
• Darly, M. (2023, 16 March). Interview with an author: Natalie Haynes. Los Angeles Public Library. Retrieved from: https://www.lapl.org/collections-resources/blogs/lapl/interview-author-natalie-haynes.
• Derrida, J. (1981). Positions (A. Bass. Trans.). Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
• Gaard, G. & Murphy, P. D. (1998). Introduction. G. Gaard & P. D. Murphy (Eds.), In Ecofeminist literary criticism: Theory, interpretation, pedagogy (pp. 1-14). Urbana and Chicago: University of Illionis Press.
• Gaard, G. (1993). Living interconnections with animals and nature. G. Gaard (Ed.), In Ecofeminism: Women, animals, nature (pp. 1-12). Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
• Gaard, G. (2011). Ecofeminism revisited: Rejecting essentialism and re-placing species in a material feminist environmentalism. Feminist Formations, 23(2), pp. 26-53.
• Gallo-Cruz, S. (2022). Awaiting spring and war: Insights from ecofeminism. Deportate, esuli, profughe, 49, 93-110.
• Garcia-Navarro, L. (2021, January 24). the Trojan women—and many more—speak up in 'A Thousand Ships'. NPR. Retrieved from: https://www.npr.org/2021/01/24/959638472/the-trojan-women-and-many-more-speak-up-in-a-thousand-ships.
• Goff, B. (2022). Do we have a new song yet? The new wave of women’s novels and the Homeric tradition. Humanities, 11(2), pp. 1-15. doi: 10.3390/h11020049.
• Griffin, S. (1980). Woman and nature: The roaring inside her. United States of America: Harper Colophon
• Haynes, N. (2020). A thousand ships. London: Picador.
• King, Y. (1990). Healing the wounds: Feminism, ecology, and the nature/culture dualism. I. Diamond & G. F. Orenstein (Eds.), In Reweaving the world: The emergence of ecofeminism (pp. 106-121). San Francisco: Sierra Club.
• Leach, M. (2007). Earth mother myths and other ecofeminist fables: How a strategic notion rose and fell. Development and Change, 38(1), 67-85. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7660.2007.00403x.
• Lèvi-Strauss, C. (1955). The structural study of myth. The Journal of American Folklore, 68(270), 428-444. doi: 10.2307/536768.
• Linne, L. (2022). Meta-epic reflection in twenty-first-century rewritings of Homer, or: The meta-epic novel. Connotations, 31, pp. 56-84. doi: 10.25623/conn031-linne-1.
• Merchant, C. (1983). The death of nature: Women, ecology and the scientific revolution. San Francisco: Harper & Row.
• Merchant. C. (1990). Radical ecology (2nd ed.). Great Britain: Routledge.
• Mies, M. & Shiva, V. (1994). Introduction: Why we wrote this book together. M. Mies & V. Shiva (Eds.), In Ecofeminism (pp. 1-21). London and New York: Zed Books.
• Moore, N. (2008). The rise and rise of ecofeminism as a development fable: A response to Melissa Leach’s ‘Earth mothers and other ecofeminist fables: How a strategic notion rose and fell’. Development and Change, 39(3), 461-475. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7660.2008.00488x.
• Saussure, F. (1959). Course in general linguistics (W. Baskin, Trans.). New York: Philosophical Library.
• Sturgeon, N. (2016). Ecofeminist natures: Race, gender, feminist theory, and political action. London and New York: Routledge.
• Szatanik, Z. (2023). “That girl Briseïs” and her modern representations. Media i Społeczeństwo, 19(2), pp. 64-77. doi: 10.5604/01.3001.0054.1953.
• Szmigiero, K. (2023). Reflexivity and new metanarratives. contemporary English-language retellings of classical mythology. Discourses on Culture, 20(1), pp. 95-117. doi: 10.2478/doc-2023-0012.
• UN Environment Programme. (2022). The environmental impact of the conflict in Ukraine: A preliminary review. Retrieved from: https://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/40746/environmental_impact_Ukraine_conflict.pdf?sequence=3&isAllowed=y.
• UN Environment Programme. (2024). Environmental impact of the conflict in Gaza: Preliminary assessment of environmental impacts. Retrieved from: https://www.unep.org/resources/report/environmental-impact-conflict-gaza-preliminary-assessment-environmental-impacts.
• UN Women. (2024). Gender alert: The gendered impact of the crisis in Gaza. Retrieved from: https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2024/01/gender-alert-the-gendered-impact-of-the-crisis-in-gaza.
• Warren, J. K. (1998). Introduction. M. E. Zimmerman, J. B. Callicot, G. Sessions, K. J. Warren, J. Clark (Eds.), In Environmental philosophy: From animal rights to radical ecology (2nd edition) (pp. 263-267). New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
• Warren, K. J. (1997). Taking empirical data seriously: An ecofeminist philosophical perspective. K. J. Warren (Ed.), In Ecofeminism: Women, culture, nature (pp. 3-20). Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Warren, K. J. (2000). Ecofeminist philosophy. United States of America: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
• Warren, K. J. (2001). Feminist theory: Ecofeminist and cultural feminist. International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences (5495-5499)
• World Bank, the Government of Ukraine, the European Union, the United Nations. (2024). Ukraine: Third rapid damage and needs assessment (RDNA3): February 2022-December 2023. Retrieved from: https://ukraine.un.org/sites/default/files/202402/UA%20RDNA3%20report%20EN.pdf.