Karamanoğlu Mehmetbey Üniversitesi Uluslararası Filoloji ve Çeviribilim Dergisi

Yazarlar: Kerim Can YAZGÜNOĞLU

Konular:Edebi Teori ve Eleştiri, Edebi İncelemeler, Edebiyat, Kültürel Çalışmalar

Anahtar Kelimeler:Joseph D'Lacey,Garbage Man,Rubbish ecology,Dirty nature,Ecohorror,Ecocriticism

Özet: Expanding on the notions of “rubbish ecology” and “dirty nature” proposed respectively by Patricia Yaeger and Heather Sullivan, this article problematizes nature as rubbish and dirty in Joseph D’Lacey’s Garbage Man (2009). In so doing, this study discloses how every place is now a place of rubbish, and various types of waste that infiltrate into every territory and body radically reconfigure our reality. Addressing the problem of toxic landfill, Garbage Man describes a desperate vision of a totally ruined place and shows how the products of human industry contaminate people and the environments. This ecohorror also exemplifies the reimagining of waste as a dangerous, monstrous garbage man, “Fecalith,” which has killed most of the population in Shreve. So, this article illustrates how the protagonist, Mason, serves to reinforce the suggestion that waste is totally destructive and disruptive. As such, the protagonist attempts to make re-attunement to the dying and changing environment as his encounter in monstrous rubbish ecologies discovers the uncertainty and disorder of the world. The novel thus can be read as a refracted mirror through which we can consider our contemporary preoccupation with garbage, waste, and rubbish. In particular, conjuring up a bleak vision of rubbish ecologies in this ecohorror, D’Lacey illustrates the centrality of waste to consumer society and offers no hope for redemption by punishing the people of Shreve. As a result, as this article concedes, D’Lacey contributes to larger discussions about what nature has become in the twenty-first century, providing insights into our concerns and fears regarding our connection to nature.

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