Göbeklitepe and Ecological Thinking: Human/Nature Entanglement in Fırat Yasa's Graphic Novel, Tepe (Hill).

Fırat Yaşa's graphic novel "Tepe (The Hill)" is a call for everyone to demand the human and animal rights with an imaginative journey in prehistory!

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Göbeklitepe is an archaeological site in Şanlıurfa, South East of Turkey. The archaeological excavations present a construction of circular-design and T shaped stone pillars built with basic stone tools in Pre-Pottery Neolithic period, between c. 9500 and 8000 BCE. It is the earliest example of such architectural achievements discovered to date and sometimes interpreted as the oldest sanctuary on earth. No wonder this fascinating construction inspires artists such as the graphic novelist Fırat Yaşa from Turkey.

Abstract

This study examines pre-eminent Turkish cartoonist Fırat Yaşa’s graphic novel Tepe (The Hill), first published in 2016. Set in the prehistoric period in what is now the Göbeklitepe archaeological site in Turkey, the graphic novel revolves around a friendship between a man and a deer. This study offers examples of Turkish graphic novel literature and varied illustrated books as frames of reference to better understand the symbols and cultural practices concerning man/animal relationships that influence the story. It also explores the role that Göbeklitepe plays as a place, period, and architectural style in man/animal encounters, illustrating how the pillars/columns and the carving found there are reinterpreted as motifs for death of all life forms. The novel’s illustrations depicting the entanglement of humans and nature emphasise that no one, not man, animals, or animalistic man, is above being vulnerable. The novel disrupts the visually and verbally human-centred perspective, both by portraying various experiences of different species and by emphasising the uncanny ritualistic performances set in one of the oldest sanctuaries ever to be discovered. As such, this graphic novel is an illustrative example of ecological inquiry via cultural heritage with an emphasis on the evolving relations between man and animals.

Please find our article written by Betul Gaye Dinc and Ilgım Veryeri Alaca in Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics here.