In spite of what human beings can do, or is capable of, the truth of existence that ends in death is something that is inevitable: Behind the veil, behind the veil. (Choudhury, 2014: 98). In previous lessons we have looked at Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud” through various critical lenses. New York: OUP, 1993. The traditional mind-body problem, the view that man is his mind, that man is his thoughts and wishes, still predominates. What, in view of nature, is the status of human beings, its “last” creation? Several scholars have divided Ecocriticism into two waves (Buell)(Glotfelty), recognizing the first as taking place throughout the eighties and nineties. Finch, Robert and John Elder. By drawing on approaches from within and outside of literary studies, the authors provide new readings, examine new theoretical perspectives and truly cultivate new grounds in the practice of ecocriticism. The concluding lines which introduce the metaphor of the veil, through which the possibility of “redress” is brought into purview, can be the entrance to a world which is not yet manifested. Ecocriticism as a literary and cultural theory significantly expanded in the 1990s—paralleling other forms of literary and cultural theory, such as postcolonialism and critical race studies—largely due to the publication of Glotfelty and Fromm 1996 (cited under Collections of Essays), the first edited collection of essays and anthology to introduce a comprehensive critical outline of ecocriticism. x��]ۏ�u���֞1�7;��u�I�̤Y�K��E_�ݧ P����@H��~$��G�ζ�_��<<�?�Γ��s�? New York: Norton, 1990. Sumi Bora is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English, LOKD College, Dhekiajuli (Assam). No doubt, such a crucial response has not gained the needed momentum in academics, in spite of the works of scholars and researchers. This may appear to hinge on a paradox as Pope is here appealing to impose order for the sake of appearing natural, but the context in which he locates the theme enables him to explicate the subject matter plausibly. In recent years, however, ecocritics have broadened this scope to include the study of earlier literary works, such as Shakespeare's plays and texts produced outside of the Anglo-American world.22Early ecocritical works include Lawrence Buell's The Environmental Imaginationand Jonathan Bate's Romantic Ecology. “…Nature, red in tooth and claw…” is how Tennyson, the representative Victorian poet of nineteenth century sought to understand nature. The four sine qua non of literature are the writer, the world, the text, and the reader, where criticism synonymizes “the world” with society – the social sphere. Green Glades – Writings on Nature. Wordsworth with consummate skill recreates a visually vibrant scene, highlighting the relevance of the surroundings and how it can serve to inspire and draw out the connections between what is felt and what is believed. No doubt spring is personified but this act does not devalue the season, rather it adds an added dimension/aura to its stature in the cycle of season because it is awaited by nature: The hills tell each other, and the list’ning, Valleys hear; all our longing eyes are turned, And let thy holy feet visit our clime. The first wave is characterized by its emphasis on nature writing as an object of study and as a meaningful practice (Buell). 5 Howick Place | London | SW1P 1WG. Whereas contemporary fiction has traditionally received little ecocritical attention, the articles in this issue all discuss contemporary novels, ranging from Lindsey Collen's novel There Is a Tide (1990), Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake (2003) and The Year of the Flood (2009), to Cormac McCarthy's The Road (2006), Liz Jensen's The Rapture (2009) and Kim Stanley Robinson's science fiction Science in the Capital trilogy (1993–6).4 All these texts express the ambivalence of the contemporary situation in which nature is either idealized or lamented; present or irretrievably lost. Blake marks the season in terms of physicality and desire as the perception of nature is understood through the use of the sense organs and its receptive processes: O deck her forth with thy fair fingers; pour, The golden crown upon her languished head, Whose modest tresses are bound up for thee! While interpreting texts and analyzing them in our classrooms as the present study has modestly attempted to do, we should bring the ecological perspective and highlight how the environmental crisis has been exacerbated by our fragmented, compartmentalized, and overly specialized way of knowing the world. Central to this wave and to the majority of ecocritics still today is the environmental crisis of our age, seeing it as the duty of both the humanities and the natural sciences to raise awareness and invent solutions for a problem that is both … Structured in the form of an ardent address the note of submission is an interesting dimension to the poem. Hannes Bergthaller's reading of Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood is equally informed by an approach outside of literary studies, namely the discourse of sustainability. Together, the five articles in this special issue explore new ways of engaging with a traditionally ecocritical theme: apocalypse. Jones and Palladio to themselves restore, And whate’er Vitruvius was before (Choudhury, 2014: 13). I despised myself and the voices of my accursed human. Such an appraisal will be merely indicative in orientation where similar perspective can be applied to other literary texts. Waage, Fredrick O. 3099067 Not only does she hereby suggest means by which ecocriticism can productively engage with genre theory, Johns-Putra also discusses how Robinson himself challenges and subverts science fiction while simultaneously drawing on it. (Choudhury, 2014: 29). Selected from some of the representative poets of English literature, they showcase the different facets of nature. There are no discrete entities. 3On ecocriticism and risk theory see Heise; Catriona Sandilands' work in Sandilands, Erickson and Alaimo, eds., explores the link between queer studies and ecocriticism; for postcolonial ecocriticism see Huggan and Tiffin. The present paper will have a dual structure: at first it will briefly analyze the reasons behind the lack of awareness of ecocritical perspective; secondly it will attempt to revisit some poems, covering the span of the 18th century to the 20th century that usually find place in most of the English literature syllabus, and re-appraise the relationship between the human and the natural world as reflected in them. Alexa Weik von Mossner explores the intersections of ecocriticism and postcolonial theory in her discussion of Collen's There Is a Tide which connects colonialism and globalization to the environment and the body. Students of literature cannot be oblivious of the fact that there is an umbilical link between human culture and the physical world where both get affected by each another. He is referring to the utilization of wealth for the harmonious ordering of nature in a location meant for habitation, so that the world that he looks forward to is one where there is a happy conglomeration of nature and architecture as is manifested in his allusions to the noteworthy architects of his time: You too proceed! Tennyson tries to evaluate and understand the position of human beings in the broad kingdom of nature. The link made in Weik von Mossner's article between memory and environment is further explored by Ben De Bruyn in “Borrowed Time, Borrowed World and Borrowed Eyes”. The episode depicts the sublime aspect of nature – the excess which humans cannot comprehend through familiar structures – and adds an aura to nature. The poem veritably points that nature is the other but there is always an attempt to be close to it, not in order to appropriate and reduce it, but always to remain aware about its excesses. �����O�p��)�_������}g�˪�Yp�{�ó��M�����>��JJs�"�"��{����_�)V���ݽ>�™? Ecocriticism expands the notion of “the world” to include the entire ecosphere. stream (ed.) Ecocriticism in Indian Fiction - Kumari Shikha Nature and literature have always shared a close relationship as is evidenced in the works of poets and other writers down the ages in almost all cultures of the world. (Choudhury, 2014: 99). This brings up the question of what we really mean when we speak of man/environment relationship. Call for Papers: Beyond the Literary Canon, Dreams of Desire, Deeds of the Dead: a Review of Anirudh Deshpande’ Dreamt Lives, Crafting the Silence of the Masses into Words: Perspectivizing Kashmir in Akhtar Mohiuddin’s Stories, Not Two Sides of the Same Coin: An Analysis of Mahesh Dattani’s Tara, Gender Hierarchy in Gogu Shyamala’s Father May be an Elephant and Mother Only a Small Basket, But…, The Life and Afterlife: Adaptation of Shakespeare in Bollywood Films, Re-presenting Giacomo Puccini’s ‘Vision of the Orient’ in Madama Butterfly, Spectral Attraction through Ominous Gaze in Henry James’ Turn of the Screw, The Sinking Sublime and Reflections on Wordsworth’s ‘Lycoris’ Poems, Jane Austen and the Paradox of the ‘Sensible’ Body: A Reading of Select Novels, Perilous Books for Girls: Reflections on Readership in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Getting beyond Patriarchy in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones as a Modern Day Elizabeth Bennet: an Intertextual Reading of Jane Austen, Satyajit Ray’s “The Sahara Mystery”: a Case Study of Human-Monster-God Transition, Christina Rossetti’s “Goblin Market”: A Feminist and Psychoanalytical Study. The four sine qua non of literature are the writer, the world, the text, and the reader, where criticism synonymizes “the world” with society – the social sphere. In recent years, however, ecocritics have broadened this scope to include the study of earlier literary works, such as Shakespeare's plays and texts produced outside of the Anglo-American world.2 After two decades, ecocritics are forging new paths by taking interdisciplinary approaches, informed by, for example, risk theory, queer studies and postcolonialism.3 As such, ecocriticism has also come to be at the forefront of current trends in the study of literatures in English. This dialogic relationship is foregrounded when Blake delineates spring as an individual whose arrival is awaited by the land and the natural surroundings who look to the season to rejoice for the circumstances with which it is associated, but more than that there is a sense of participatory anticipation. The impetus is more on the idea that the human being must take responsibility of nature and environment. In “Section 56”, the issue is further extended to investigate the role of nature and its significance in the context of human life. Such visualizations include juxtaposition of opposite standpoints where the speaker sees the creature as a source of peace on the one hand, and on the other, it is configured as one with whom there are associations of aggression and danger. We use cookies to improve your website experience. All rights reserved. �����n����p��Ӽ���yZ�e^���������i=9��������a����w?�����w��IX���O��yY���YxV q�Ү 4Collen; Atwood, Oryx, Flood; McCarthy; Jensen; Robinson, Forty Signs of Rain, Fifty Degrees Below, Sixty Days and Counting. Blake uses the familiar structures to unravel the unfamiliar and divine side of the spring season. As a reader or a student curious about the theory of Ecocriticism, you can also work out to bring out the most exemplary instances. Moreover, it particularly reflects new developments in ecocriticism, both in terms of the texts studied as well as the approaches that the contributors have taken. (ed). As historian Donald Worster explains, We are facing a global crisis today, not because of how the ecosystems function but rather because of how our ethical systems function…Historians, along with literary scholars, anthropologists, and philosophers cannot do the reforming, of course, but they can help with the understanding.