Ecocriticism and Turkey - (Environmental Cultures) by Meliz Ergin (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Ecocriticism and Turkey is the first in-depth study to explore Turkish literary and cultural engagements with the environment. It examines a wide range of ecocritical issues across four thematically organized chapters: "Sea," "Climate," "Routes," and "Animals." Each chapter addresses the literary and cultural dimensions of anthropogenic environmental change and highlights the role of literature in inspiring hope and action"--

Book Synopsis

Situated between Europe and Asia, and surrounded by three seas, Turkey comprises a diverse environmental and cultural tapestry. Ecocriticism and Turkey is the first in-depth study to explore Turkish literary and cultural engagements with the environment. Ergin examines a wide range of ecocritical issues across four thematically organized chapters: "Sea," "Climate," "Routes," and "Animals." Each chapter addresses various dimensions of anthropogenic ecological change and highlights the role of literature in inspiring hope and action.
The book takes readers on various journeys from the coasts of the Aegean Sea to the mountains of Eastern Anatolia. Ergin converses withboth twentieth-century writers to shed new light on familiar texts and contemporary writers to capture emerging perspectives, including Rum, Laz, Kurdish, and Armenian voices in her discussion. The study is further enriched by an interdisciplinary inquiry that brings literature into dialogue with climate science, political history, underwater photography, folk music, and bio-art.

Review Quotes

Taking Turkish literature, arts, music, underwater photography, and climate science as connective threads to weave afresh the tapestry of Turkey's diverse terraqueous environments, Meliz Ergin takes us on an exciting journey. We travel discursively through the Aegean and Mediterranean seas, the Sea of Marmara, the Black Sea, and the mainland of Anatolia, and finally fold into Anatolian ecologies in multiple forms of wonder and curiosity. Gathering the rhythms of Anatolia's eco-cultures and multispecies, Ergin's book illuminates the region's unique terraqueous geography, now haunted by socio-ecological troubles
Serpil Opperman, Professor of Environmental Humanities, Cappadocia University, Turkey

About the Author

Meliz Ergin is Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature at Koç University, Turkey. She is the author of The Ecopoetics of Engtanglement in Contemporary Turkish and American Literature (2017).