Name : Vora Kiran Shamaldas. Class : M.A Sem. 2 Roll no. 13 Paper no. 7 Literary theory

and criticism – Indian poetics 2

Topic : Eco – Criticism Email Id :

Kiranvora5196@gmail.com Submitted to : Smt. S.B. Gardi

Department of English M. K. Bhavnagar University.

 

ECO-CRITICISMLet's get green, people…!!!

What is the meaning of Eco-criticism? Eco criticism is the study of representations of nature in

literary works and of the relationship between literature and the environment.

The interdisciplinary study of literature and ecology. Eco criticism is a young literary theory. Eco criticism 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

Eco critics consider the many relations between literature and the natural world.

Man vs. Nature Anthropocentrism says that

man is in the center of everything.

Bible – man is created from the image of god.

Man is most important creature in the nature, man can use everything including woman, let the man rule everything.

Eco criticism says that we all are equal.

we are all part of the nature. Man is not superior or inferior

to nature, but equal. Each and every thing in this

universe works in particular cycle.

Nature is in the center. In eco criticism Nature is in the

center, not the man. It is study of literature and physical

environment. it is an earth centered approach to

the literary study. Ecologists think that man is the

only disturbnce in the univerese. Ecologically man is the ultimate

villain. If there is no man on the earth

then everybody will live peacefully…!!!

Because man has so much greed. humans can be very self-centered.

In Medieval time there was God centered world, but in Renaissance time humanism rises and man started challenging God and nature.

Dr. Faustus’ character, he is scholar and atheist and he challenges God. So according to ecologist is Faustus a villain?

There is another Biblical story about Jacob wrestling with the Angel.

Earth days Earth Days is a 2009

documentary film about the history of the environmental movement in U.S

Directed by Robert Stone. The film reviews the

development of the modern environmental movement from the post-war 1950s and

the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson’s bestseller Silent Spring, to the successful Earth Day celebration in 1970.

Silent Spring Silent Spring is an

environmental science book by Rachel Carson

The book was published on 27 September 1962

It documented the detrimental effects on the environment of the indiscriminate use of pesticides.

In 1996, a follow-up book, Beyond Silent Spring, co-written by H.F. van Emden and David Peakall was published.

In 2006, Silent Spring was named one of the 25 greatest science books of all time by the editors of Discover Magazine

American and British Romantic writers took a particular interest in nature as a subject; Victorian realists wrote about industrialization, which was changing the natural landscape; explorers and natural historians began to write about newly encountered places and wildlife; and pioneers and other travelers wrote of their experiences with an emphasis on setting

Two important books of criticism from the mid‐twentieth century include Henry Nash Smith's Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth (1950) and Leo Marx's The Machine in the Garden (1964).

In literature

Today, we've got this short-list batting for Team Eco criticism:

Lawrence Buell He thinks we lack imagination when we analyze nature. He's on that whole,

Serpil Oppermann stresses the need for this theory to be interdisciplinary. Like, how are we supposed to wrap our little minds around the real meaning of the tree in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn

Dana Phillips This guy thinks we over-romanticize nature, and that contemporary nature writing is basically a crock. He'd really like for us to re-think what we mean when we use the word nature to begin with, actually.

These three proud lit critics don't always get along. But they all agree on one central idea: both our imaginations and understandings of the environment expand when we dissect the relations between the human, the natural world, and the text.

In the process, some have rejected the label “Eco criticism,” as it had become identified with one particular strand of scholarship that is ideologically aligned with Deep Ecology and strongly committed to political activism, and suggested alternative designations.

such as “environmental/ecological literary studies” or “green cultural studies.”

the term Eco criticism has stuck as the name for what is, today, a rather large tent, where work on nature writing can sit comfortably next to animal studies, and postcolonial theory rubs shoulders with ecofeminism.