Mehmet Aydıntürk, Kubilay Geçikli
This study aims to analyze South African writer Nadine Gordimer’s The Conservationist (1974) through an ecocritical lens. The research focuses on the protagonist Mehring’s attitudes toward nature, animals, indigenous people, and women, highlighting anthropocentrism, speciesism, racism, and patriarchy as fundamental sources of ecological problems. Designed as a qualitative literary text analysis, the study employs theoretical perspectives such as deep ecology, social ecology, and ecofeminism to provide a comprehensive framework. The findings indicate that the capitalist mentality commodifies both nature and human beings, patriarchal structures impose similar forms of domination on women and nature, and colonial racism contributes to the exploitation of people as well as ecosystems. In the novel, Mehring embodies not only an individual character but also the symbolic reflection of capitalism, colonialism, and patriarchy. The analysis also emphasizes literature’s capacity to address environmental problems and to foster ecological awareness. Gordimer’s novel challenges the reduction of nature to a mere economic resource and underlines the necessity of an ethical and holistic perspective in human–nature relations. By demonstrating how literature can function as a cultural response to ecological crises, this study offers an interdisciplinary contribution to ecocriticism while shedding light on contemporary debates about sustainability, environmental justice, and ecological consciousness.