The Discord Between the Elements and Human Nature: Ecophobia and Renaissance English Drama

Pointing to the ecophobic psyche prominent in social practices by means of the textual portrayals of selected Renaissance plays, this dissertation aims to examine how the physical environment is taken under human control through discursive formations. Taking the elements as well as the human body as the inseparable constituents of nature, this dissertation mainly focuses on the anthropocentric control of the four main elements (earth, water, fire, air) in Renaissance environmental politics through the study of twelve different early modern plays, namely Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine, Part I and Part II (1587), Doctor Faustus (1604) and The Jew of Malta (1633), Ben Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair (1614) and The Devil is an Ass (1616), John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi (1623), John Fletcher and Philip Massinger’s The Sea Voyage (1647), Thomas Heywood and William Rowley’s Fortune by Land and Sea (1607), George Chapman’s May Day (1611), Thomas Dekker and John Webster’s Westward Ho (1607) and Northward Ho (1607), and George Chapman, Ben Jonson and John Marston’s Eastward Ho (1605). These plays not only express the most pressing environmental concerns of the period but also provide a sturdy base for the analysis of the signs of pollution stemming from human interference. In this vein, these plays expose the ecophobic control of the elemental bodies reverberating both in the daily lives of human beings and in literary presentations. Furthermore, underlining the material formations inside the human body, this study points to the intermeshment of human and nonhuman as the human body is also composed of the natural organisms and elemental bodies just like the physical environment. In this way, epistemology and ontology, long segregated from each other according to human-centred discourses, are interrelated. In the introduction of this dissertation, the theoretical backgrounds of ancient elemental philosophy, Renaissance ideology, elemental ecocriticism, and ecophobia are provided. Moreover, the introduction also presents the portrayals of environmental issues already embedded in Renaissance literature especially with the revival of the pastoral tradition which draws attention to early modern environmental problems and pollution. In this context, dwelling on ancient elemental philosophy, new materialisms, elemental ecocriticism, and ecophobia, this dissertation aims to provide an ecocritical reading of the selected plays, mirroring how cultural and environmental speculations of the ecophobic psyche are captured in Renaissance English drama. As exemplified in the selected plays, environmental degradation resulting from the ecophobic control impulse is most basically observed in the elemental paradigms. Therefore, each elemental agency is examined in three different plays in each chapter, hence shedding light on Renaissance environmental politics and conceptualisations of nature/culture, and human/nonhuman. The four chapters (“Earth,” “Water,” “Fire,” and “Air”) undertake an elemental and ecocritical analyses of the above-mentioned selected plays.KABUL VE ONAY...........................................................................................................i BİLDİRİM.......................................................................................................................ii YAYIMLAMA VE FİKRİ MÜLKİYET HAKLARI BEYANI.................................iii ETİK BEYAN.................................................................................................................iv DEDICATION.................................................................................................................v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...........................................................................................vi ÖZET………………………………………………………………………….……….vii ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………....ix TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………………...xi INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………...…...........1 CHAPTER I. EARTH..................................................................………........…….....39 1.1. Christopher Marlowe’s Tamburlaine the Great...................................50 1.2. Ben Jonson’s Bartholomew Fair............................................................58 1.3. John Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi..................................................65 CHAPTER II. WATER…............................................................................................73 2.1. Thomas Heywood and William Rowley’s Fortune by Land and Sea.......................................................................................................................84 2.2. Ben Jonson’s The Devil is an Ass..........................................................90 2.3. John Fletcher and Philip Massinger’s The Sea Voyage.....................97 CHAPTER III. FIRE ………………………….....…………………........................105 3.1. Christopher Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus.............................................117 3.2. George Chapman’s May Day..............................................................124 3.3. Christopher Marlowe’s The Jew of Malta.........................................131 CHAPTER IV. AIR……............................................................................................139 4.1. Thomas Dekker and John Webster’s Westward Ho..........................151 4.2. George Chapman, Ben Jonson and John Marston’s Eastward Ho..158 4.3. Thomas Dekker and John Webster’s Northward Ho........................165 CONCLUSION……………………………………………………………….….......173 NOTES.........................................................................................................................181 WORKS CITED…………………………………………………………..……........183 APPENDIX 1: ORIGINALITY REPORTS..............................................................208 APPENDIX 2: ETHICS BOARD WAIVER FORMS.............................................210Rönesans dönemi İngilteresi’nde her ne kadar çevreci bilinç gelişmemiş olsa da, birçok oyunda elementlere (Toprak, Su, Ateş, Hava) gönderme yapıldığı görülmektedir. Bu tezin de amacı söz konusu dönemde yazılmış bazı oyunlardaki tasvirler yoluyla sosyal uygulamalarda yaygın olan ekofobik algıya dikkat çeken bu tez, fiziksel çevrenin söylemsel oluşumlarla nasıl insan kontrolü altına alındığını göstermektir. İnsan bedenini olduğu kadar elementleri de doğanın ayrılamaz bileşenleri olarak ele alan bu tez, Christopher Marlowe’dan Tamburlaine, Part I and Part II (1587), Doctor Faustus (1604) ve The Jew of Malta (1633), Ben Jonson’dan Bartholomew Fair (1614) ve The Devil is an Ass (1616), John Webster’dan The Duchess of Malfi (1623), John Fletcher ve Philip Massinger’dan The Sea Voyage (1647), Thomas Heywood ve William Rowley’den Fortune by Land and Sea (1607), George Chapman’dan May Day (1611), Thomas Dekker ve John Webster’dan Westward Ho (1607) ve Northward Ho (1607) ve George Chapman, Ben Jonson ve John Marston’dan Eastward Ho (1605) oyunlarının incelenmesi yoluyla Rönesans çevre politikasında dört ana elementin insan merkezli bir bakış açısıyla kontrol altına alınma çabasına odaklanmaktadır. Bu oyunlar dönemin önde gelen çevresel kaygılarını dile getirmekle kalmayıp, aynı zamanda insan müdahalesinden kaynaklanan kirliliğin izlerinin analiz edilmesi için sağlam bir zemin oluşturmaktadır. Bu doğrultuda, bu oyunlar, hem insanların günlük yaşamlarında hem de edebi betimlemelerde yansımaları görünen elementlerin ekofobik algı sonucu kontrol altına alınmasını açığa çıkarmaktadır. Ayrıca, insan bedeni içindeki maddesel oluşumların altını çizen bu çalışma, insan bedeni tıpkı fiziksel çevre gibi doğal organizmalar ve elementlerden oluştuğundan, insan ve insan olmayan varlıkların birbiri içine geçtiğine işaret etmektedir. Bu yolla, uzun zamandır insan merkezli söylemlere göre birbirinden ayrılmış olan epistemoloji ve ontoloji bir araya getirilmiştir. Bu tezin giriş bölümünde, kadim element felsefesi, Rönesans ideolojisi, element ekoeleştirisi ve ekofobi kuramlarının alt yapısı verilmektedir. Ayrıca giriş bölümü, Rönesans dönemindeki çevresel sorunlara ve kirliliğe dikkat çeken pastoral geleneğinyeniden canlanmasıyla Rönesans edebiyatında hali hazırda var olan doğa betimlemelerini de sunmaktadır. Bu durumda, bu çalışma kadim element felsefesinden, yeni maddeciliklerden, element ekoeleştirisinden ve ekofobiden yararlanarak ve nasıl ekofobik algının kültürel ve çevresel kurgularının Rönesans İngiliz tiyatrosunda resmedildiğini göstererek, seçilen oyunların ekoeleştirel bir okumasını sağlamayı amaçlamaktadır. Seçilen oyunlarda örneklendirildiği üzere, ekofobik kontrol dürtüsünden kaynaklanan çevresel bozulma en temel şekliyle elementsel örneklerle gözlemlenebilmektedir. Bu yüzden elementlerin eyleyiciliği her bir bölümde üç farklı oyunda incelenmektedir, ki böylece Rönesans çevre politikasına ve doğa/kültür ve insan/insan olmayan kavramlaştırmalarına ışık tutulmaktadır. Tezin dört bölümünde (“Toprak,” “Su,” “Ateş” ve “Hava”) seçilmiş oyunların ekoeleştirel analizi adı geçen oyunlar üzerinden gerçekleştirilmektedir

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