Speaker
Description
In an era increasingly characterised by environmental degradation and the escalating climate crisis, literature serves as an important medium for exploring humanity’s interaction with the natural world. Contemporary ecological fiction not only reflects the concerns of a threatened world but also invites readers to reconsider humanity’s interventions in natural landscapes and ecosystems. Within this background, Sarah Hall’s Haweswater (2002) provides a moving exploration of ecological loss and transformation in the face of industrial modernity. Set in England’s Lake District during the 1930s, the novel recounts how the Mardale valley was flooded to create a reservoir for urban consumption, a process that eventually erased both the landscape and the community that inhabited it. Through its depiction of environmental displacement and the irreversible alteration of natural habitats, Haweswater portrays the conflicts between technological advancement and ecological preservation. In addition, the narrative calls attention to the moral implications of human intervention in nature, exposing the cost of prioritizing economic and industrial progress over environmental continuity. Based on key ecocritical perspectives, particularly those concerned with environmental justice and the interconnection of human and nonhuman worlds, as discussed by critics such as Ursula K. Heise, Rob Nixon, and Lawrence Buell, this study points out how Haweswater exposes the social and ecological costs of modernization. By analyzing the tensions between industrial progress and the experiences of both human communities and the broader ecosystem, the discussion reveals how the novel prompts readers to question the possibility of a sustainable vision of nature. In this context, the aim of this study is to discuss Hall’s Haweswater from an ecocritical perspective, emphasizing the ecological and ethical effects of large-scale environmental interventions on both human and nonhuman worlds.
| Keywords | Sarah Hall, Haweswater, ecocriticism, climate crisis, sustainability, environmental ethics, anthropocene |
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| selinyurdakul@odu.edu.tr |