STONES, SHADOWS, STRANGERS: OBJECT-ORIENTED ONTOLOGY AND THE POSTHUMAN CITY IN DICKENS’ “NIGHT WALKS"

Öz

This article re-reads Charles Dickens’ “Night Walks” (1860) through the lens of object-oriented ontology, arguing that Dickens’s nocturnal dérives through Victorian London anticipate a posthuman sensitivity to objects, environments, and withdrawn forms of being. While traditionally interpreted as a piece of urban social commentary or journalism, “Night Walks” also enacts an encounter with the city as a nonhuman agent, one that exerts affective, ethical, and ontological pressure on the wandering subject. Dickens' attention to streets, urban architecture, and bodily dispossession destabilizes anthropocentric hierarchies, presenting both people and things as part of a flat ontology in which no entity is ontologically privileged. This article explores how inanimate urban elements acquire narrative agency and how marginalized human figures are rendered as withdrawn objects, blurring the distinction between the sentient and the material. By foregrounding Dickens’ epistemic humility, that is his repeated acknowledgment of what he cannot know or fully perceive, the paper positions “Night Walks” as an early experiment in literary object-oriented thinking. In doing so, it reveals how the essay foreshadows contemporary debates around subjectivity, visibility, and the ethical stakes of living among withdrawn and unknowable others

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Charles Dickens
• Night Walks
• Victorian London
• Object Oriented Ontology

TAŞLAR, GÖLGELER, YABANCILAR: DİCKENS’IN “GECE YÜRÜYÜŞLERİ” İSİMLİ YAZISINDA NESNE YÖNEMLİ ONTOLOJİ VE POSTHÜMAN ŞEHİR

Öz

Bu makale, Charles Dickens’ın “Gece Yürüyüşleri” (1860) adlı yazısını nesne yönelimli ontoloji merceğinden yeniden okumakta ve Dickens’ın Viktorya dönemi Londra’sında yaptığı gece yürüyüşlerinin, nesnelere, çevrelere ve geri çekilmiş varlık biçimlerine yönelik posthüman bir duyarlılığı önceden sezinlediğini savunmaktadır. Geleneksel olarak kentsel toplumsal bir yorum ya da gazetecilik olarak değerlendirilen “Gece Yürüyüşleri”, aynı zamanda kenti insan-dışı bir fail olarak deneyimleyen, gezgin özne üzerinde duygulanımsal, etik ve ontolojik bir baskı oluşturan bir karşılaşmayı da sahneler. Dickens’ın sokaklara, kentsel mimariye ve bedenin çözülmesine dikkat kesilmesi, antropomerkezci hiyerarşileri sarsar; insanları ve şeyleri ontolojik açıdan ayrıcalıklı olmayan, düz bir ontolojinin parçası olarak sunar. Bu makale, cansız kentsel unsurların nasıl anlatısal bir fail haline geldiğini ve marjinalleşmiş insan figürlerinin geri çekilmiş, kendi gizini açmayan nesneler halinde tasvir edilerek canlı ile maddi olan arasındaki ayrımın nasıl bulanıklaştığını inceler. Dickens’ın epistemik alçakgönüllülüğünü, yani bilmediğini ya da tam olarak kavrayamadığını defaatle kabul edişini, öne çıkaran bu çalışma, “Gece Yürüyüşleri”ni edebi anlamda nesne-odaklı düşüncenin erken bir deneyimlenmesi olarak konumlandırır. Böylece, metnin öznellik, görünürlük ve geri çekilmiş, bilinemez ötekiler arasında yaşamanın etik boyutlarına dair güncel tartışmalara nasıl öncülük ettiğini ortaya koyar.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• Charles Dickens
• Gece Yürüyüşleri
• Viktorya Dönemi Londra'sı
• Nesne Yönelimli Ontoloji

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