EcoCriticism

 EcoCriticism

“Much ecocriticism has taken for granted that its task is to overcome anthropocentrism, just as feminism seeks to overcome androcentrism. The metaphysical argument for biocentrism is meant to sustain moral claims about the intrinsic value of the natural world, which will, in turn, affect our attitudes and behavior towards nature.”

Ecocriticism is a broad way for literary and cultural scholars to investigate the global ecological crisis through the intersection of literature, culture, and the physical environment.

One of the main goals of ecocriticism is to study how individuals in society behave and react in relation to nature and ecological aspects. This form of criticism has gained a lot of attention in recent years due to higher social emphasis on environmental destruction and increased technology. Ecocriticism is a name that implies ecological literacy. ...

1) Ecocritic is "a person who judges the merits and faults of writings that depict 2) The effects of culture upon nature, with a view toward celebrating nature' berating its despoilers, and reversing their harm through political action.”

Ecocriticism was first defined by Cheryll Glotfelty in simple words making it clear to other critics and writers. Considering the definition, it can be called an “increasingly heterogeneous movement” that takes an entirely earth-centered approach. It is mainly about the literature on the environment.

Relatively, Ecocriticism focuses on the literary and artistic expression of human experience primarily in a natural, and consequently in a cultural world. Ecocriticism signifies that literature cannot be approached in a way that in which man and his environment stand against each other.

To read a text ecocritical then is to examine the specific role of nature, environment, and ecology in the text, and from that reading of the text to apply the observations to offer solutions and alternative ways of thinking for environmental and ecological problems that humanity faces.

We live in a world increasingly lost to pollution, contamination, and industry-sponsored bio-disaster. It is now a truism to say that mankind is efficiently committing ecocide, making the planet inhospitable for the life of any kind. In such a context does esoteric and text-oriented theory have any role to play? Does eco-logical disaster require a theory to recognize pollution or to warn students of the dangers of that plastic wrapper or electromagnetic radiation? 

What is the role of the theory in a time and context that demands praxis?  

Ecocriticism originates in a bio-social context of unrestrained capitalism, excessive exploitation of nature, worrying definitions and shapes of 'development', and environmental hazards. While it does not seek to alter the course of any of these very real factors, its task is to see how theoretically informed readings of cultural texts can contribute not only to consciousness-raising but also look into the politics of development and the construction of nature.

Opening Moves 

The Ecocritical turn 

Raymond Williams in his elegantly argued "The country and the city" showed how English literature contributed to specific notions of nature, the countryside, poverty, seasons, and the city. He was not trying to explore the environmental aspects of eighteenth-century literature. Rather he was trying to demonstrate how the age worked with particular notions of "Nature" and "Culture". In a sense, this is the starting point for an ecocritical theory.

Early writers on nature in the twentieth century Aldo leopard, John Muir, and Rachel Carson are the most famous- suggested different ways of looking at the environment. Their texts have become justly the inspirational moments of ecocriticism.

Ecocriticism is a critical mode that looks at the representation of nature and landscape in cultural texts, paying particular attention to attitudes towards nature and the rhetoric employed when speaking about it. It aligns itself with ecological activism and social theory with the assumption that the rhetoric of the cultural text reflects and informs material practices towards the environment while seeking to increase awareness about it and linking itself with the other ecological sciences and approaches. 

A basic definition of ecocriticism was provided by an early anthology, The Ecocriticism Reader which calls it 'the study of the relationship between literature and the environment. With its attempted links with activism, ecocriticism established itself as a more political approach to texts. 

Nature in Western Thought

Thomas Hobbes in the seventeenth century believed that the "State of nature" was a primitive one and that human community - formation constituted comfort and safety. John Locke suggested that humans must treat the land as their private property. He believed that the non-human world was valueless. Later thinkers, however, had a less instrumentalist perception of nature.

Jean Jacques Rousseau argued that the state of nature was the purest and best form of human existence. He was one of the first critics of the Enlightenment, arguing against the established notions of 'progress'. Rousseau believed that natural was innocent and that civilization was Artificial and corrupt.

“My heart leaps up when I behold A rainbow in the sky: So was it when my life began; So, is it now I am a man”

William Wordsworth, in “the Muse of Poetry” is the greatest Poet of Nature of the Romantic Age and thereafter. He is widely known for his Nature poems ‘Tintern Abbey, ’Lucy Gray’, ‘I wandered Lonely As A Cloud’, ‘The Solitary Reaper, and many other remarkable pieces of Romantic poetry. Wordsworth is also considered to be the “Highest Priest of Nature’ for his spiritual admiration of mother Nature. He brought in a new era of poetry where nature was represented, appreciated, and colored with imagination. The poet went against the Neo-Classical style of poetry that stressed kings and princes, Lords and Ladies, and other contemporary topics. Wordsworth began writing about “low and rustic life’ and his poems were ‘incorporated with beautiful and permanent forms of nature.

In his poems, Wordsworth has shown numerous aspects of nature: from refreshing breeze to paddy fields; from floating clouds to twinkling stars; from dancing daffodils to “steep and lofty cliffs”, to pastoral farms, and more. The poet remarked once that he could hear “the still, sad music of humanity” in Nature. He urged his readers to let Nature be a teacher and Nurturer for all mankind. Wordsworth saw divinity in nature and considered it to be “the guardians of … all moral being”. The poet elaborated on the elemental Joys that came from the blooming of a flower and the tranquility of a lake. The poet was writing at a time when industrialization had started overtaking the world and cities had begun to be morphed into concrete jungles. By concluding the beauties of nature in his poems, Wordsworth introduced the masses to a new world of calm and peace.

William Wordsworth’s "Tintern Abbey" opens with the speaker's declaration that five years have passed since he last visited this location, encountered its tranquil, rustic scenery, and heard the murmuring waters of the river. He recites the objects he sees again, and describes their effect upon him: the "steep and lofty cliffs" impress upon him "thoughts of more deep seclusion"; he leans against the dark sycamore tree and looks at the cottage grounds and the orchard trees, whose fruit is still unripe. He sees the "wreaths of smoke" rising up from cottage chimneys between the trees, and imagines that they might rise from "vagrant dwellers in the houseless woods," or from the cave of a hermit in the deep forest.

The speaker then describes how his memory of these "beauteous forms" has worked upon him in his absence from them: when he was alone, or in crowded towns and cities, they provided him with "sensations sweet,  Felt in the blood, and felt along the heart." The memory of the woods and cottages offered "tranquil restoration" to his mind, and even affected him when he was not aware of the memory, influencing his deeds of kindness and love. He further credits the memory of the scene with offering him access to that mental and spiritual state in which the burden of the world is lightened, in which he becomes a "living soul" with a view into "the life of things." 

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