Ziba Roshanzamir; Leila Baradaran Jamili; Bahman Zarrinjooee
Abstract
Introduction: This research aims to analyze Virginia Woolf (1882-1942)’s Orlando: A Biography (1928) based on environmental narrative, egalitarian philosophy and ecosophy to criticize anthropocentrism. The theoretical framework is mainly based on Arne Naess’s philosophies of egalitarianism ...
Read More
Introduction: This research aims to analyze Virginia Woolf (1882-1942)’s Orlando: A Biography (1928) based on environmental narrative, egalitarian philosophy and ecosophy to criticize anthropocentrism. The theoretical framework is mainly based on Arne Naess’s philosophies of egalitarianism and ecosophy which show how Woolf, through environmental narratives, clarifies the significance of nature and environment. Naess believes that a systematic discipline in terms of philosophical view is essential to develop interconnectedness between humans and nature or ecological system. He assumes that self-realization is linked with ecological awareness, then knowing ecology or ecologism leads to ecosophy. In the novel, Orlando, as the main character, reaches a kind of ecological self-recognition and egalitarian tendency. When she is among gypsies, she is drawn to the eyecatching beauty of nature and she knows that how humans can be attached to nature without pay attention to their anthropocentric interest. The article finally indicates that how all living beings, including humans are respectful and humans are not unique species and must not spoil lands and nature to satisfy their own desires. Background of the Study: This study focuses on Orlando: A Biography and it is framed to investigate the novel by illustrating the environmental narrative through egalitarian philosophy and ecosophy. It also demonstrates that how humans seek the value of life, and their happiness and satisfaction. Virginia Woolf, as a British novelist, in Orlando ponders the various effects of time, from fifteenth century to the turn of the nineteenth century, on nature and environment. Woolf’s fictional character is subjectively a symbol of highlighting the egalitarian culture via environmental narratives. Woolf has utilized the natural world to portray the significance of its trouble created by humans. Therefore, she puts a lot of stress on nature, environment, and non-humans in her works. She can be regarded as a philosopher who has developed egalitarian culture designating respect for all the living beings and she struggles to show the interaction between humans and the earth that should be modified in a better way.Methodology: The present study applies the egalitarian philosophy and ecosophy which are categorized in the theory of ecocriticism. Ecocriticism is an interdisciplinary study that concentrates on common grounds, relationships and affiliations exit between two different fields of study: ecology and literature. Arne Naess who is an eco-philosopher and ecocritic by turning to ecocriticism announces that the relationships between humans and nature can be possible by increasing ecological wisdom and awareness. Naess relies on biospherical egalitarianism that is to consider the environment as an entity that has its right to be safe. He believes that the rights of the environment are as important as human rights. The species’ equality is proposed by Naess. He comes to conclusions that all living beings must live on the planet earth without spoiling one another’s benefits and rights. As a result, this study illustrates how Naess as an ecocritic attempts to modify the interaction of humans, nature, and environment.Conclusion: Orlando is Woolf’s attempt to reveal how nature and environment have the same rights to be kept alive. Woolf uses environmental narrative to show the right place of humans in nature. She criticizes anthropocentrism and challenges the anthropocentric views through her narrative. She thinks that people need the ecological awareness to reach an egalitarian perspective not to hurt nature and environment any longer.
Peyman Amanolahi Baharvand; Bakhtiar Sadjadi
Abstract
Abstract Introduction: As a prominent American novelist, James A. Michener wrote twenty-six novels and won several literary prizes, including the Pulitzers Prize for Fiction in 1948. Michener was preoccupied with the reflection of the European colonialism of North America and its detrimental environmental ...
Read More
Abstract Introduction: As a prominent American novelist, James A. Michener wrote twenty-six novels and won several literary prizes, including the Pulitzers Prize for Fiction in 1948. Michener was preoccupied with the reflection of the European colonialism of North America and its detrimental environmental and ecological consequences, including deforestation and massive slaughter of wild animals, in his novels. Likewise, he exhibits the deleterious consequences of European settlement on the natural world in Chesapeake (1978). The white explorers and colonists who settle in the New World relentlessly burn forestlands to prepare vast lands for the cultivation of tobacco that was indeed a “cash crop” in North America. Euro-American anthropologists and researchers, including Shepard Krech III, have referred to indigenous North Americans as savage and uncivilized subjects with a cultural background that has always endorsed the devastation of nature and its inhabitants. Distorting the real cause of environmental damages, Krech asserts that Native Americans deliberately burned ancient forests, fell myriads of trees, and slaughtered countless numbers of buffaloes prior to the commencement of European settlement. He contends that the depredations of indigenes had induced the depletion of natural resources. Nevertheless, an examination of several novels of the Native American Renaissance, including Chesapeake, that mirror the adverse environmental and ecological outcomes of the European colonization of the New World, indicates that these allegations debunks these allegations. The present study seeks to challenge the claims raised by certain Euro-Americans concerning the injurious interventions of Native Americans through an ecocritical exegesis of Chesapeake. It shall be indicated that the prevalence of anthropocentrism among the European settlers induces environmental catastrophes in the New World. Moreover, this research shall exhibit that the Native Americans live in harmony with the natural world in that they believe in biocentrism rather than anthropocentrism. Background Studies: Chesapeake has not been sufficiently dealt with in critical articles and books to date. Marilyn S. Severson (1996) focuses on the exploration of human tolerance that he considers an essential value in Chesapeake. She maintains that Michener is critical of various sorts of discriminations imposed on both black and white individuals in his seminal novel. Race and religion are the two significant sources of discrimination in Chesapeake. Racism is a powerful impetus instigating the white colonizers to commit genocide following the dispossession of Native Americans. African slaves are the second group of wretched individuals brutally tortured in Chesapeake. According to Severson, “the black slaves are considered a possession similar to a ship or a wagon” (100). The slightest insubordination among the miserable slaves leads to horrible forms of torture. Nonetheless, discrimination does not affect merely Native Americans and African slaves. Severson remarks that since Michener was preoccupied with the tolerance of different religious groups in most of his novels, he focuses on this issue in one of the chapters of Chesapeake. Stuart G. Leyden (1979) examines, in his article, the depiction of religious tolerance in Chesapeake. Referring to Michener as a “preachy moralistic writer,” Leyden contends that Christian morality was a significant concern for Michener. He compares Pentaquod, a fugitive Native American who abandons his hostile tribe to join a peaceful group of Native Americans, with the Quakers who are persistently persecuted by authorities in Michener’s novel. Pentaquod and the Quakers, Leyden argues, are both outcasts among their people. Ironically, these outcasts are peaceful individuals. They are coerced and beaten due to religious or political dissidence. Apart from religious tolerance, Leyden maintains, the struggle for women’s rights is also highlighted in Chesapeake. He argues that Rosalind Steed and Ruth Brinton exert themselves to end the brutal whipping of women for misconduct in that they firmly believe in human dignity and equality of men and women. Glenn Uminowicz’s article, published in a magazine title Tidewater Times (2008), compares Michener’s concern for animals in Chesapeake with the endeavors of Thornton Waldo Burgess (1874 –1965), a conservationist and an author of children’s stories, to raise the public awareness concerning the necessity of preserving non-human species. Uminowicz contends that Michener was inspired by Burgess who utilized anthropomorphism in his short stories. Similarly, he maintains, Michener uses animal characters in Chesapeake to teach his readers about the life of animals in Maryland. Hence, he argues that Michener plays the role of Burgess for adults. As Burgess wrote about a duck, named Mrs. Quack, which exerted to save her family from the guns of hunters, Michener focuses, in the eighth chapter of Chesapeake, on the perils awaiting ducks in Maryland during autumn when they arrive from Canada. According to Uminowicz, Michener portrays a family of geese headed by Onk-or to depict the complex strategies animals undertake to escape the terrible guns of white hunters. Materials and Method: The present study could be categorized as a qualitative literature-based research whose accomplishment required extensive academic and library research. Since this article is classified as a research project in the humanities, its critical argument rests upon a specific theoretical framework. Rather than statistical analysis, a particular approach to literary criticism was utilized to interpret the selected novel. Likewise, a variety of scholarly writings addressing ecocriticism, anthropocentrism and biocentrism were scheduled to be scrutinized prior to the commencement of writing the manuscript. Moreover, as a research work categorized under the field of applied research, this study sought to present a detailed survey of the sample. Hence, the critical investigation of the selected novel was carried out through the application of the critical concepts of anthropocentrism and biocentrism. As a qualitative research, the present study began with theoretical assumptions and subsequently focused on the representations of the critical concepts in the selected novel. Conclusion: The world portrayed by Michener in Chesapeake drastically undergoes adverse alterations following the onset of European settlement. The prevalence of anthropocentrism among the European settlers induces detrimental environmental consequences in the New World. Comparing and contrasting the treatment of the natural world by the Euro-Americans and Indigenous North Americans, the present study indicates that the Natives do not make any effort to damage the environment. This research reveals that contrary to the false accusations raised by Shepard Krech III and other white researchers against Native Americans, the Indigenes in Michener’s novel prove to be preoccupied by the preservation of natural resources. The benign treatment of animals by the Natives, and their agitation upon the burning of trees by Edmund and Simon, indicates that in contrast with the European immigrants they firmly believe in biocentrism.
Moslem Zolfagharkhani
Abstract
Introduction Ecocriticism in literature concentrates on literature and the environment or the Nature; it means it focuses on literature and the physical environment. Such study calls for collaboration between natural scientists, writers, literary critics, anthropologists, historians, and other disciplines. ...
Read More
Introduction Ecocriticism in literature concentrates on literature and the environment or the Nature; it means it focuses on literature and the physical environment. Such study calls for collaboration between natural scientists, writers, literary critics, anthropologists, historians, and other disciplines. Poets and authors have always been under the influences of the world around and the environment so that nature changed to be a source of inspiration to them. Background Studies Ecocriticism and Environmental literary studies were first introduced to the world of literature in 1970 in world’s most important assembly “The Western Literature Association” (WLA). After the Industrial revolution, human being transformed his connection with nature and started to experience a new season in his life. The earlier connection was based on a mutual relationship, but the new one was entirely shifted to something far from a mutual link. In other words, after the Industrial revolution, human being occupied an upper position and nature suffered from a banal one. Incidentally, the ecocritics enjoy various methods of analysis in their studies; some believe that nature is not more than a humanized structure which some poets like William Wordsworth started to form in their works. Many of these critics put nature as a counterpart of culture, or identify nature as instinct. Instinct is the main inner motive which transfers its effects to other creatures. It is identified with nature or the animal’s desire to do profitable deeds. Materials and Methods The present study attempts to reveal ecocritical works and thoughts of two most significant Persian and American poets/authors, Nimā Yushij (1897-1960) and Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882). To do this, the poetry and the letters of Nimā together with Emerson’s book titled Nature (1836) have been selected. It is indicated how Nimā and Emerson’s idealism is closely related to nature, and how it is based on Human-God-Nature-Justice circle. It is shown that nature is the major source of this circle. Hence, the present study, by the use of American School of Comparative studies, while applying a library-analytical approach, tries to compare and contrast the major thoughts of Nimā Yushij and Ralph Waldo Emerson due to their literary environmental writings. Furthermore, it is emphasized that these two poets belong to different languages and literatures; however, as far as the American School is based on Eclecticism in comparative studies, it is hoped that the major nature-oriented themes and ideas of these poets might be revealed in this essay. It should be also considered that the American School of comparative studies does not concentrate only on the effects or influences in literary studies; to such school, literary movements, genres and literary types, and the topics and themes of world literature are the fundamental spots of studies. Results and Discussions The study discloses how Emerson’s outlook to nature is more philosophical than Nimā’s. When he talks about nature his idealistic motives start to appear. Both poets insist on the unity of human being and nature by unifying human history and natural history. The beauty of nature is another major theme of their poetry; both look at nature as the source of beauty and its pleasures. Emerson believes that the ultimate end of the cosmos is a desire to the beauty. Why human being is so much interested in the beauty is beyond the thoughts and logics of man. Furthermore, Nimā’s ecocritical tendencies are closely related to coexistence of man and nature, and the poet’s thoughts are not separated from the beauties of nature and its inspiration. Nature, environment, and the world around are at the core of both Nimā and Emerson’s thoughts and writings. To live naturally and to get involved with nature are their ideal way of life. To them, solitude and primitivism are man’s solution to release him/her from the chains of society. Both of them complain about human being’s distance from nature; they believe that solitude is mankind’s opportunity to conform his/her soul to nature.
Sohrab Tavousi; shohreh chavoshian
Abstract
Abstract Environment and its problems is the subject of study for many contemporary thinkers. Indeed, an environmental study is a field where humane and natural sciences, in the shape of man and nature, are combined. Ecocriticism is a branch of literary criticism which deals with the relationship between ...
Read More
Abstract Environment and its problems is the subject of study for many contemporary thinkers. Indeed, an environmental study is a field where humane and natural sciences, in the shape of man and nature, are combined. Ecocriticism is a branch of literary criticism which deals with the relationship between literary work and its natural surroundings. One of the most important branches of ecocriticism is deep ecology. In deep ecology, the equality between human and nonhuman animals is of vital importance. In this regard, the research in hand, focusing on Vladimir Nabokov’s Pnin, has criticized this novel based on ecocriticism and particularly deep ecology. This article shows how Nabokov has selected a structure based on a character whose most distinguished attachment is to a squirrel. Pnin, the protagonist of the story, is an exiled Russian professor of an American university and the only living creature that comes to his life now and then is a squirrel. The presence of squirrel is so recurring and significant that it tacitly represents the author’s special purpose in making such vicinity. Beside similarities between the main character of the novel and the squirrel, the novel in general has a similar structure to the shape and life of the animal. In this article, first the theoretical framework of the study including ecocriticism and deep ecology are defined, then squirrel’s life style, in city and in jungle, are depicted scientifically. The last part of the study includes the analysis of the researcher on the novel to investigate the complicated structural, as well as characterization, similarities between Pnin and squirrel. The article comes to the ultimate conclusion that Pnin is an example of Nabokov’s respect to nature and the equality, he believed, between human and animal which is also seen in his letters and interviews. This is similar to the principle deep ecology penned down during the same years Nabokov was handling Pnin.