The Collapse of Nature’s Boundaries: Psychoanalytic, Philosophical and Ecological Approach to Nastassja Martin’s In the Eye of the Wild

Authors : Dilek Özhan Koçak

Pages : 517-535

Doi:10.22559/folklor.3864

View : 47 | Download : 29

Publication Date : 2025-05-01

Article Type : Research Paper

Abstract :This article discusses French anthropologist and writer Nastassja Martin’s narrative In the Eye of the Wild about her survival of a bear attack during ethnographic research among the Even people of the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia. Martin’s framing of her encounter with the bear as a meeting that represents the moment when the boundaries between wilderness and civilization are erased prompts the work to be reconsidered as an eco-narrative that engages with oppositional themes such as nature and culture, human and animal, dream and reality. The analyses of Martin’s encounter with the bear are interdisciplinary, combining psychoanalytic, philosophical, and ecological perspectives. The psychoanalytic approach is informed by Lacan’s concept of the ‘objet petit a’, exploring how Martin’s encounter with the bear symbolizes a desire for unity with nature. The philosophical perspective uses Plato’s idea of ‘khōra’ from the Timaeus to examine Martin’s post-attack transformation, suggesting a state beyond the traditional nature-culture divide. Ecologically, the article considers the blurring of boundaries between humans, animals, and the natural world, which challenges the humananimal dichotomy and explores the collapse of old boundaries within Martin’s identity and experience. In summary, the analysis is an interdisciplinary exploration of themes of desire, transformation, and the collapse of boundaries framed within the context of an eco-narrative.
Keywords : eko-anlatı, eko eleştiri, khōra, objetpetit a, ayı