THE DYSTOPIAN LOGIC OF THE ANTHROPOCENE IN CATHERINE CHANTER’S THE WELL

Öz

The contemporary genre of climate fiction can be understood as the narratives through which societies imagine ecological breakdown and its consequences. It is therefore crucial to examine how dystopian form utilizes environmental crisis and renders climate instability legible as a social condition. The main aim of this article is to examine Catherine Chanter’s The Well (2015) as a work of climate dystopia shaped by environmental precarity. By focusing on drought as a persistent ecological condition, this article examines how climate instability restructures social hierarchy, communal ethics, and psychological resilience. The article argues that water scarcity operates as a governing force that reconfigures authority and collective life in the Anthropocene. In doing so, the article challenges readings that treat climate catastrophe as apocalyptic spectacle and instead demonstrates how drought functions as a structural condition of social order. Through an analysis of the farm known as the Well, the article demonstrates that environmental collapse functions as the determining logic of dystopian life, shaping social order, authority, and survival.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• ecocriticism
• Dystopia
• Anthropocene
• The Well

CATHERİNE CHANTER’IN THE WELL ROMANINDA ANTROPOSEN’İN DİSTOPİK MANTIĞI

Öz

Çağdaş iklim kurgu türü, toplumların ekolojik çöküşü ve bunun sonuçlarını tahayyül etme biçimleri olarak anlaşılabilir. Bu nedenle, distopik anlatı formunun çevresel krizi nasıl işlediğini ve iklim istikrarsızlığını toplumsal bir durum olarak nasıl görünür kıldığını incelemek önem taşımaktadır. Bu makalenin temel amacı, Catherine Chanter’ın The Well (2015) adlı romanını çevresel kırılganlık tarafından şekillenen bir iklim distopyası olarak ele almaktır. Kuraklığı süreklilik gösteren bir ekolojik koşul olarak merkeze alan çalışma, iklim istikrarsızlığının toplumsal hiyerarşiyi, kolektif etik anlayışı ve psikolojik dayanıklılığı nasıl yeniden yapılandırdığını analiz etmektedir. Makale, romanda çevresel kıtlığın Antroposen çağında otoriteyi ve kolektif yaşamı yeniden düzenleyen bir yönetim gücü olarak işlediğini ileri sürmektedir. Bu doğrultuda, iklim felaketini kıyametvari bir gösteri olarak değerlendiren yorumlara karşı çıkarak, kuraklığın toplumsal düzenin süreklilik gösteren yapısal bir koşulu olarak işlev gördüğünü ortaya koymaktadır. Well olarak adlandırılan çiftliğin çözümlemesi üzerinden, çevresel çöküşün distopik yaşamın belirleyici mantığı haline geldiği; toplumsal düzeni, otorite biçimlerini ve hayatta kalma stratejilerini şekillendirdiği gösterilmektedir.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• ekoeleştiri
• Distopya
• Antroposen
• The Well

Kaynakça

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