Literary Istanbul: Urban ecocriticism in Zülfü Livaneli's Novels Bliss, Leyla's House, and The Last Island

Literature appears to us as a field of writing affected by the ecological problems experienced on Earth. In line with the ongoing change and development of ecology from the past to the present, a narrative has been formed for humans to address nature. For nature to find a place in literary works in this context began with the Ecocriticism Theory. What is important in Ecocriticism is focusing on nature and its related elements in literary texts through authors, enabling the reader to see the connection between man and nature in a literary environment. Zulfu Livaneli, as one of the writers of contemporary Turkish literature, has written about this topic in his society-oriented works based on the decaying ties between nature and man. In this study, Zülfü Livaneli's novels Leyla's House, Bliss, and Last Island were examined per the theory of Ecocriticism. Livaneli, in these aforementioned novels, addressed ecological issues such as slumming, distorted urbanization, climate change, destruction of forest areas, animal slaughter and cyanide poisoning, etc, alongside societal issues such as women's rights and cultural differences between generations. In addition to the universal nature of the subjects, the fact that he deals with them through the city of Istanbul without going too far also formed the spatial context of this study. Istanbul, which the author deals with both the past and the urban changes it has been through until present, has made it possible to study the concept of bioregionalism presented in the study. Conveying the socio-cultural unity formed by nature and humans throughout time via characters, the author states that an anthropocentric understanding harms the ecological order. Moreover, he never hesitated to reveal the events that caused the degradation of the ecosystem with a nature-human and space-oriented narrative. Stating that the biggest reason for the damage to nature is the human urge to dominate it, the author reveals that the ecological order is damaged by this desire for power along with its stages. As a result of the research, it is concluded that Livaneli's works, analyzed through ecocriticism and its subfields such as urban ecocriticism, ecofeminism, deep ecology, blue humanities, ecophobia, companion species, eco-grief and bioregionalism, have been regarded as crucial in significantly revealing the ecological imbalance caused by the disconnection between society and the environment.