Halil Babür’ün “Kasap” Adlı Oyununun Ekofeminist Bakış Açısıyla İncelenmesi
Gamze Güzel90’lı yıllardan itibaren hem kamusal alanda hem de akademik araştırmalarda karşımıza çıkan “ekofeminizm” kavramı, ekoloji ve feminizmi bir araya getirerek feminizme türcülük, ırkçılık ve sınıfsal ayrımcılık karşıtı bir boyut kazandırır. Bu çalışma Halil Babür’ün 2015 yılında yazdığı Kasap adlı oyunu ekofeminizm ve ekofeminist yazar Carol J. Adams’ın yaklaşımı ekseninde incelemeyi hedefler. Adams 1990 yılında yayımlanan kitabı Etin Cinsel Politikası’nda “kayıp gönderge” kavramını kuramsallaştırır ve hayvanların kesim yoluyla bir canlı olmaktan bir nesneye, “et”e dönüşmelerini ele alır. Kasap metni, çevresel bir felaketi takip eden yıllarda hayvanların ortadan kaybolduğu, et yemek için tek yol olarak insan eti yemenin tartışmaya açıldığı bir dünyayı karşımıza çıkararak insanları ve hayvancılık sektöründe “kayıp gönderge”ye dönüşmüş hayvanları ortak bir kaderde buluşturur. Bu çalışmada, oyunun anlatısı ve anlatım biçimi ekofeminist eleştirel yaklaşımla ele alınacaktır.
The Analysis of Halil Babür’s Play “Kasap” Using an Ecofeminist Approach
Gamze GüzelThe term “ecofeminism,” which has appeared in both public and academic domains since 1990, contributes a new dimension in feminism by advocating against speciesism, racism, and class distinction by bringing ecology and feminism together. This study analyzes the play Kasap, written in 2015 by Halil Babür, through an ecofeminist lens and drawing upon the work of ecofeminist writer Carol J. Adams. In her book The Sexual Politics of Meat (1990), Adams theorizes the term “absent referent” and deals with the transformation of animals from being living beings to becoming objects, and finally meat via industrialized slaughter. The play transpires in a world where an environmental disaster has occured and subsequent to vanishing of animals, eating human meat has become a possibility. In this way, the text brings the animals, which became an “absent referent” in the livestock industry and human beings together in the same situation. This article analyzes the content and the form of the play using an ecofeminist critical approach.
Although the term “ecofeminism” was first introduced by the French feminist writer Françoise d’Eaubonne in the early 1970s, ecofeminism only emerged as a research subject in academia in the 1990s. Ecofeminism arose firstly from the works of female farmers, animal liberation activists, environmentalists, participants of the anti-nuclear movement, scientists, and abolitionists. Ecofeminist writer Carol J. Adams formulated a feminist vegetarian critical theory by contextualizing the insights of feminism, vegetarianism, animal rights, and literary theory. In her book The Sexual Politics of Meat, she uses the term “absent referent” and mentions the fact that the livestock industry takes a living animal and turns it into “meat” through butchery. Producing meat demands killing. Despite that, the word “meat” reminds us of gastronomy. Thereby, the vitality of the animal becomes an absent referent in the language we use daily.
Kasap is a play written by Halil Babür in 2015 within a project of İkincikat Theater, called “War and Peace Plays.” The play presents a world that has a chaotic and unfamiliar environment. At the beginning of the play, the Minister of Agriculture and Livestock makes a public statement. According to this statement a cataclysmic event occurred nine years ago and in the subsequent years all animals vanished from the country. As such, people have no opportunity to eat meat anymore. Hence, two groups of people emerge: the “herbivores” and the people who want to eat meat. The minister Süha complains about the “weakness” that the people suffer because of their plant-based diet and depreciates the vegan and vegetarian community. For these reasons, he floats eating human meat as a topic for discussion. He calls for a plebiscite, and gives people seven days to think it over. According to him, the poor have the chance to make their life significant and holy by becoming meat for other people. At the end of the play, it turns out that people vote against eating human meat. But the slaughter house that is run by the minister already starts working before the final decision is made and the first human nonetheless is butchered by the end of the play.
Over the years, human beings have only cared about their own benefits and valued themselves above nature. Anthropocentrism also contains an androcentric approach within a patriarchal society. On the one hand, the word “vegetable” is identified with woman and fragility; on the other hand the word “meat” becomes a symbol of power and masculinity. Carol J. Adams mentions that the word “plant” or “vegetable” has gained a different meaning over the years. These words were once closely related to life, whereas now they correspond to passivity and dullness. People “fall into a vegetative state” or “vegetate” by doing nothing and wasting time. The play points out the problematic relationship between language and this distorted view. The Minister of Agriculture and Livestock in the play named Süha represents this view as well. By calling his colleague Karin a “white chick,” the linguistic analysis shows that women and non-human animals are together the targets of patriarchy. The way patriarchy treats women and animals is the same as all other mechanisms of oppression. As a practical movement for social change, ecofeminism opposes all kinds of oppressions such as sexism, speciesism, racism, and class discrimination. Ecofeminism challenges all the relations of these forms of domination. In the play, the oppression of the poor and disadvantaged symbolizes the oppression of animals within contemporary society. However, the piece also tries to establish an analogy and to unmask the “absent referent” by making meat production and meat-eating visible. In the end, we do not find out what has happened to the animals and they remain as an “absent referent” within the play. One important aspect of the play is that the author creates the characters through a dualistic point of view, which is criticized by ecofeminism. This study thus aims to analyze this point of view and the play itself using an ecofeminist critical approach.
