روایت‌های ‌زیست محیطی: فلسفه‌ی برابری‌طلبانه و اکوسوفی در نفی انسان‌محوری در اورلاندوی ویرجینیا وولف

نوع مقاله : مقاله علمی پژوهشی

نویسندگان

1 دانشجوی دکتری گروه زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی، واحد بروجرد، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، بروجرد، ایران

2 دانشگاه آزاد بروجرد

3 دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی واحد بروجرد

چکیده

بی‌تردید انسان همواره سعی در تثبیت جایگاه خود بر روی کره زمین داشته است. بسیاری از نویسندگان با آثار خود سعی در طرح این مسئله قابل مناقشه داشته‌اند، از جمله ویرجینیا وولف (1942-1882) نویسنده نوگرای بریتانیایی که با آثارش به جلب توجه خوانندگان خویش به محیط زیست و طبیعت و ارتقاء خرد بوم‌شناسی آن‌ها می‌پردازد. در رمان اورلاندو: یک سرگذشت (1928) وولف با توسل به روایت‌های زیست‌محیطی با طرح فلسفه‌ی برابری‌طلبانه مسئله‌ی پرچالش انسان‌محوری را محکوم می‌کند. این تحقیق بر آن است تا با بررسی رمان اورلاندو وولف به تحلیل فلسفه‌ی برابری‌طلبی و محکومیت انسان‌محوری بپردازد. مقاله حاضر، جایگاه انسان را بر روی کره زمین زیر سئوال می‌برد و اثبات می‌کند که انسان‌ها باید سعی در ارتقاء خرد و آگاهی بوم‌شناسی خود کنند، که همان اکوسوفی است که توسط آرنه نایس (1912 ـ 2009) فیلسوف و منتقد بوم‌گرای نروژی مطرح شده است. فلسفه‌ی اکوسوفی جزءِ تئوری نقد بوم‌گرا محسوب می‌شود و درنتیجه آن انسان پی می‌برد که تمامی موجودات روی کره خاکی اعم از کوچکترین آن‌ها که با چشم غیرمسلح قابل رویت است، تا بزرگترین موجودات از حقوقی برابر برای دسترسی به امکانات برای ادامه حیات برخوردارند. بنابراین شخصیت اصلی داستان، اورلاندو به نکوهش اجداد خویش در پرسشگری در باب فلسفه‌ی برابری-طلبی می‌پردازد؛ و در واقع، وولف در پی‌اثبات این امر است که چگونه از طریق قدرت روایت زیست‌محیطی حقیقت را که گاهی کتمان شده و یا رنگ باخته است، احیاء کند.

کلیدواژه‌ها


عنوان مقاله [English]

Environmental Narratives: Egalitarian Philosophy and Ecosophophy in Denying Anthropocentrism in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando

نویسندگان [English]

  • Ziba Roshanzamir 1
  • Leila Baradaran Jamili 2
  • Bahman Zarrinjooee 3
1 Ph.D. Candidate of English Literature Department of English Language and Literature, Borujerd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Borujerd, Iran
2 استادیار زبان و ادبیات انگلیسی، واحد بروجرد، دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی، بروجرد، ایران
3 Islamic Azad University (IAU), Boroujerd Branch
چکیده [English]

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.

کلیدواژه‌ها [English]

  • Anthropocentrism
  • Ecocriticism
  • Ecosophy
  • Environment
  • Environmental Narrative
  • Egalitarianism
  • Nature
Adkins, Peter. “The Climate of Orlando: Woolf, Braidotti and the Anthropocene.” Comparative Critical Studies, vol.19, no.2, 2022, pp. 237-257. 
Alt, Christina. Virginia Woolf and the Study of Nature. New York: Cambridge UP, 2010.
Amanolahi Baharvand, Peyman and Seyd Bakhtiyar Sadjadi. “Anthropocentricism vs Biocentrism: The Treatment of the Natural World by Human Subjects in James A. Michener’s Chesapeake.” Critical Language and Literary Studies, vol. 10, no. 23, Autumn and Winter 2019, pp. 32-61. 
Cottingham, John (ed). “Our Relationship to Environments.” Western Philosophy: An Anthology. 2nd Ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1996, pp. 585-590. 
Crist, Eileen. “Animals.” The Cambridge Companian to Literature and the Anthropocene. Edited by John Parham.Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2021, pp.196-211.
Davidko, Natalya. “Symbolism in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando (Cognitive Tools of Figurative Thought).” English Lingustics Research, vol. 8, no.4, 2019, pp.27-37.
Devall, Bill and George Sessions. Deep Ecology. Utah: Gibbs M. Smith, Inc., 1985. 
Ding, Wei et al. “Virginia Woolf’s Ecological Writing in Her Novels.” English Language, literature & Culture, 2017: 2(1), pp. 1-4. 
Goralnik, Lissy and Michael Paul Nelson. “Anthropocentrism.” Encyclopedia of Applied Ethics. Edited by Ruth Chadwick. 2nd Edition, vol 1. San Diego: Academic Press, 2012, pp. 145-55. 
James, Erin. The Storyworld Accord: Econarratology and Postcolonial Narratives. Lincoln: University of Nebraskap, 2015. Print.
 Kostkowsk, Justyna. Ecocriticism and Women Writers: Environmentalist Poetics of Virginia Woolf, Jeanette Winterson, and Ali Smith. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
Naess, Arne. “The Shallow and the Deep, Long-Range Ecology Movements: A Summary.” Philosophical Dialouges: Arne Naess and the Progress of Ecophilosophy. Edited by Nina Witoszek and Andrew Brennan. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 1999. 
Naess, Arne. Ecology of Wisdom. Edited by Alan Drengson and Bill Devall. Berkeley: Counterpoint, 2008. 
Naess, Arne. Ecology, Community and Lifestyle: Outline of An Ecosophy. Translated by David Rothenberg. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1989.
Perez, Naomi. “Orlando in the Anthropocene: Climate Change and Changing Times.” The Anthropocene: Approaches and Contexts for Literature and the Humanities. Edited by Seth T. Reno. New York: Routledge, 2022, pp.125-134. 
Romero, Diana. Villanueva. “Reflections on Literature and Environment: An interview with Scott Slovic.” Ecozon, no. 12, 2010, pp. 67-86. 
Sanei, Dianoosh, and Jalal Sokhanvar. “Cultural-environmental Discourses in Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid Tale.” Critical Language and Literary Studies, vol. 14, no. 19, Autum and Winter 2017, pp. 209-31.
Thirriard, Maryam. “Biographical Truth as Represented in Virginia Woolf’s Orlando: A Biography.” Halopen Science. Paris: Honoré Champion, 2020, pp. 265-7.
Tavoosi, Sohrab, and Shohreh Chavoshian. “An Ecocritical Reading of Vladimir Nabokov’s Pinn.” Critical Language and Literary Studies, vol. 16, no. 23, Spring and Summer 2019, pp. 119-142. 
Woolf, Virginia. Orlando. Translated by Farzaneh Ghojloo. Tehran: Gathreh Publishing, 1385.
Woolf, Virginia. The Letters of Virginia Woolf, vol. 1: 1988-1912. Edited by Nigel Nicolson and Joanne Trautmann. New York: Hartcourt Brace Joranovich, 1975. 
Woolf, Virginia. The Diary of Virginia Woolf, vol. 2: 1920-1924. Edited by Anne Olivier Bell, Florida: Harcourt, 1978. 
 Woolf, Virginia. The Essays of Virginia Woolf: Volume Two 1912-1918. Edited by Andrew Mcneillie. London: Harcourt Brace Joveinovich, Publishers, 1987. 
Zarrinjooee, Bahman. “A Discourse of Other-Nature: An Ecocritic Postcolonial Study of Rare Beast Creatures in Amitav Ghosh’s Hungry Tide.” Critical Language and Literary Studies, vol. 14, no. 18, Spring and Summer 2017, pp. 103-32.