I have always been enraptured by and appreciative of the environment, so this theory fits well with me on multiple levels. And I realized that this theory showcases literature's unheralded hero: setting. I once had an assignment in high school that forced me to focus on place, and how it influences the story, almost becoming a character in its own right (the assignment was officially coined "talking about place"). Ecocriticism works not only to defend the environment, but to call attention to the various ways it's used in literature. Of course, there are stories/poems that utilize it more than others, but I believe this criticism provides a wonderful perspective that helps us understand the way humans tell and have always told stories, in that it's not just about the words and actions of the characters, but of the environment they are surrounded by. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we live and breathe and grow with the earth, and our literature reflects that living and dying.
Overall, Ecocriticism strongly reminds me of New Historicism, Cultural Studies, and Marxism because of its reliance on observing the world surrounding the writing (such as peoples' responses and views about the planet). I feel like this criticism blends well with the others we've studied throughout the semester, proving that all of these schools of thought intertwine in fascinating, and sometimes subtle, ways.
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| Plaque says: "Symbiotic relationships mean creative partnerships. The earth is to be seen neither as an ecosystem to be preserved unchanged nor as a quarry to be exploited for selfish and short-range economic reasons, but as a garden to be cultivated for the development of its own potentialities of the human adventure. The goal of this relationship is not the maintenance of the status quo, but the emergence of new phenomena and new values." |
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