"There's something hostile in that soil:" Unruly Ecology as Counter-Memory in A Passage to India

2021-10-22
Despite their emancipatory potential, studies in counter-memory have been predominantly anthropocentric in that they have taken the category of the human as the main frame of reference. Both Foucault’s body of work and contemporary approaches - material ecocriticism and posthumanism- address the field of memory as an entangled mesh of relations between human and nonhuman actors. E. M. Forster’s A Passage to India allows room for a study of memory in this respect as it maps out numerous instances where nonhuman members of the Indian ecosystem mount a counter-memorial resistance against colonialism. The human-centred definition of agency in Western philosophy is re-evaluated in the novel with an emphasis on nonhuman agents as well. Claiming visibility at any time in the functioning of daily life, these agents subvert the anthropocentric thinking that aims to shape the world of objects hierarchically with a firm belief in autonomous and rational subjectivity. The coupling of post-anthropocentric approach with counter-memory opens up space for an authentic mode of reading because in this way, the privileged position of the human can be interrogated not only in the “here and now” but also in the wider memory of the planet. This paper aims to focus on the counter-memorial challenges coming from other-than-human agents in the novel, and inspired by the works of Michel Foucault, Karen Barad and Serenella Iovino, it offers in the concluding part a new term, counter-memorial intra-actions, to the field of counter-memory studies.
The Prof. Süheyla Artemel Lectures: Memory in Literature and Culture

Suggestions

Investigation of thermal characteristics of a series polyoxazolines by direct pyrolysis mass spectrometry
Atılkan, Nurcan; Hacaloğlu, Jale; Toppare, Levent Kamil; Department of Polymer Science and Technology (2011)
In the latest years, many studies especially on characterization and synthesis of polyoxazolines have been made. During these studies, new polyoxazolines such as poly(2-isopropyl-2-oxazoline) (PIPOX), poly(2-(3-butenyl)-2-oxazoline) (PBOX) and modified PBOX were synthesized. However, there has been no investigation on their thermal characteristics such as thermal stability and thermal degradation products. In this study, thermal degradation characteristics, thermal degradation products and thermal stability...
The Use of transitions, frame markers and code glosses in Turkish EFL learners’ opinion paragraphs
Sancak, Diğdem; Gracanın Yüksek, Martına; Department of English Language Teaching (2019)
The aim of this study is threefold: (i) to identify the types, frequencies and functions of the interactive metadiscourse devices such as transitions, frame markers and code glosses employed by Turkish learners of English in their English opinion paragraphs; (ii) to discover the reasons for the employment and avoidance of those markers by the Turkish EFL writers; (iii) to uncover the effect of teaching materials on the use of the scrutinized interactive metadiscourse markers. To fulfill these aims, data fro...
Can We Rely on Self-Assessments of Sense of Coherence? The Effects of Socially Desirable Responding on the Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OLQ) Responses
LAJUNEN, TIMO JUHANI; Gaygısız Lajunen, Esma (2019-01-01)
A large number of studies in health psychology have shown that sense of coherence (SOC) is an essential factor in wellbeing and health. SOC is most commonly measured with the Antonovsky’s Orientation to Life Questionnaire (OLQ), which has been so far translated into at least 48 languages. Despite the vast popularity of the OLQ, the relationships between OLQ and socially desirable responding (impression management and self-deception) have not been studied. The purpose of the present study was to investigate ...
The possibility Of teaching some astrophysics subjects with marbling art
YİĞİT, Nevzat; Bulbul, M. S. (2009-07-01)
In this study, there is a connection between art and science. Some astrophysics subjects were tried to indicate how galaxies formed or black-hole's structure was with marbling art. The study includes process of marbling art and some comments about method from attendants of the 5th International Student Conference of Balkan Physical Union. Ebru art which means C. on the water" was used to decorate papers in the art of the Ottoman. Ebru art is known as cc marbling art" in the European community. Marbling art ...
The Practice of soul-leading by means of rhetoric and myth in Plato’s Phaedrus
Kanıyaş, Ali Nejat; Bağçe, Samet; Department of Philosophy (2018)
This study aims at explaining the fundamental use or the function of mythic imagery that take place within the Phaedrus dialogue by Plato. The Platonic dialogues have utilized myths and poetic language in many instances, yet Phaedrus constitutes a rather strange case, since the mythic imagery is placed within a section that seemingly has no ties with the rest of the dialogue. The curious case of Phaedrus is that the text can be said to have been divided into two distinct parts. In each part, the theme and t...
Citation Formats
R. Çimen, ““There’s something hostile in that soil:” Unruly Ecology as Counter-Memory in A Passage to India,” presented at the The Prof. Süheyla Artemel Lectures: Memory in Literature and Culture, İstanbul, Türkiye, 2021, Accessed: 00, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/97996.