An Insight into Ayla Kutlu's Work Entitled “Huvava: The First Environmental Protector” in The Light of Ecocriticism Theory

The eco-criticism, which is rapidly gaining importance in our world, examines the natural balances that changed, transformed and deteriorated as a result of human activities. This theory, which investigates the relationship between literature and environment in the most general sense, aims to create eco-critical consciousness in an individual by addressing environmental problems from a perspective that does not separate man from nature. Eco-criticism, also known as environmental criticism; while trying to draw attention to many problems in the theoretical framework with different ecological approaches such as Abundance (Cornupoia), Environmentalism, Deep Ecology, Ecofeminism, Ecomarkism, Social Ecology and Heideggerian Ecophilosophy, it contributes greatly to the environmental consciousness. Eco-criticism, which gained a theoretical identity and became a discipline in the 1990s in the West, has also become one of the most important areas with increasing academic studies in our country, in recent years. As being a citizen of the world, the artists who carry environmental problems to fictional works, call in order to create awareness and environmental consciousness in the individual and live in harmony with the planet where they live by discussing ecological problems within the possibilities of the literature. Ayla Kutlu, one of these ecologically sensitive writers, wants to instill this environmental awareness in memories of the people responsible for the world they have been living in regardless of age, in her Huvava designated work. The author describes the struggle of Huvava, the protective spirit of the cedar forest, for the protection of nature, in her work which is a counter-epic from Gilgamesh. In the critical epic, which is a call text according to the author; Huvava lost his life as a result of his struggle with Gilgamesh and Enkidu and became the “first environmental protector”. In this study where document analysis is used, the reasons of nature destruction will be brightened and how the perception of human with an egocentric perspective threatenes environment and future will be told by an eco-critical approach. When approached with ecological sensitivity, it will be seen that demonstration of wildlife as a threat by Gilgamesh epic, urban-nature conflict, the protection need of nature, and mentality that sees man apart from nature for the first time, was handled in the work.

Keywords

environment, literature, eco-criticism, Huvava, Epic of Gilgamesh, Ayla Kutlu