Sunday Reading: Eco-criticism

 

10 November 2020

What is Ecocriticism? 

Ecocriticism is the study of literature and environment from an interdisciplinary point of view where all sciences come together to analyze the environment and brainstorm possible solutions for the correction of the contemporary environmental situation. Ecocriticism was officially heralded by the publication of two seminal works, both published in the mid-1990s: 

• "The Ecocriticism Reader" edited by Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm

• "The Environmental Imagination" by Lawrence Buell.

Ecocritics ask questions such as:

(1) How is nature represented in the poem ?

(2) What role does the physical geographical structure of nature have relations with humans?

(3) How do our metaphors of the land influence the way we treat it? That is, what is the link between pedagogic or creative practice and actual political, sociocultural and ethical behaviour towards the land and other non-human life forms?

(4) How does poetry open to critical scrutiny in terms of the effects of science upon the land?

"TREE ONCE AGAIN"

BY

SITANSHU YASHASCHANDRA 

Devang Nanavati delivered an interesting online talk on ecocritical reading of Sitanshu Yashaschandra's poem 'Tree Once Again'. This Gujarati poem he talked about poet and his poem from the perspective of Ecocriticism like "Fari Pachhu Vruksh". He talked about poets and his poems from the perspective of Ecocriticism. As given below 

Sitanshu Yashaschandra is among contemporary Gujarati literature’s most eminent representatives. A poet, playwright, translator and academic, he has received several awards over the years from the Sahitya Akademi Award (1987) for his significant opus, Jatayu, to the Padma Shri (2006) from the Government of India. He has authored three books of poetry.

1. Odysseusnu-n Halesu (1974)

2. Jatayu (1986)

3. Vakhar

What is the right time to understand the importance of nature? As lots of trees cut down because of industrialisation and the expansion of the land. The poet who tries to say this in this poem. The stillness under the tree after returning home exhausted having had a full meal. While reading the latest issue of genitalia generally translates it. It is the welfare of the people. At  times of restive moments the poet imagines that if the tree hadn't been cut what would have been the picture of the tree as well as earth? Picture of the tree today? Or infect what I have destroyed from the arm of the chair on which the poet is sitting lying near this door blows himself violet coloured flowers. 

You see the color image? You must be learning in your style. How the poet is using the colours of the names of the magazines. He manages the rhythm between one and the other stand so that you know the appeal to preserve the tree in our mind. 

Ecocriticism and Human Relations 

Ecocriticism investigates the relation between humans and the natural world in literature. It deals with how environmental issues, cultural issues concerning the environment and attitudes towards nature are presented and analyzed. One of the main goals in 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 during recent years due to higher social emphasis on environmental destruction and increased technology.

Postcolonial-Ecocriticism 

Jack Nelson  defines  postcolonial ecocriticism as, 

Postcolonial  ecocriticism  (…)  is  a  way  of  thinking  that  seeks  to understand how top-level, elite driven processes like (neo) colonialism, capitalism,  international  development,  interstate  alliances  or  the centralization  or  devolution  of  power  are  connected  to  the  spaces  in which people live and act, while at the same time recognizing that the reclamation of space, land, and resources is a key part of the process of people’s liberation. “Humanity in Action”. 

Nelson also points out that postcolonial ecocriticism puts into consideration “spaces” and their physical and metaphysical ramifications and what they hold for the humans as they interact in them.

The essential assumptions, ideas and methods of ecocritics may be summed up as follows.

(1) Ecocritics believe that human culture is related to the physical world.

(2) Ecocriticism assumes that all life forms are interlinked. Ecocriticism expands the notion of “the world” to include the entire ecosphere.

(3) Moreover, there is a definite link between nature and culture, where the literary treatment, representation and “thematization” of land and nature influence actions on the land.

Thank you....