The Transcendent Dimension of Ecology in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide
Dr. R. Badhridevanath,
Assist. Prof. English & IQAC Coordinator,
Vivekanandha College of Arts and Sciences for Women (Autnomous)
Elayampalayam
Tamilnadu bathridevanath@gmail.com &
Charles Godwin,
Asst. Prof. of English,
Akash Degree College,
Bangalore.
Charlesgodwin.k@gmail.com
Ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment. The word ‘Eco’ and ‘Critic’ is derived from the Greek word ‘Oikos’ and ‘Kritic’. The relationship is that literature is the reflection of life and this life entirely depends upon nature. Without nature there is no life, without life there is no literature. So literature and nature are inter-relatedn to each other. Ecocriticism celebrates nature to certain extent. But its pivotal aim is to make people aware of the importance of nature in an extreme situation of eco-crisis.
Ecocriticism or green studies both terms are used to denote a critical approach which began in U.S.A during 1980’s and in the U.K during 1990’s. It is still an emerging moment or an updating theory, which is feathering its wings in new colours. William Rueckert first termed the coin Ecocriticism in the year 1978, in his essay ‘Literature and Ecology- an experiment in ecocriticism’. Ecocriticism as it now extent in U.S.A, takes its literary bearings from three major 19th century American writers Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) and
Ecomodernist’s believe that modernization is the major tool to resolving environmental issues. Ecomodernist’s feel as though society needs to always progress and that humanity cannot ever slow down or else development would stop completely. Ecomodernist’s view modernity as the human separation from mastery over nature (Taylor). This perspective stresses the idea of using our technological and
There were many sources that lead to environmentalism. Preserving the wilderness was just one aspect of the progress made since 1945. Post WWII, Americans view on the resources used as well as the way they treated their environment changed. Americans protested the abuse of the environment (Stoll 11), and politically there were statements made against air and water pollution (Stoll 11) by the president as well as women’s organizations. “Novelist Earnest Callenbach imagined a transformation in the entire political and material basis of American Society in the form of a new nation…(Callenbach 111).” “Through this fictional device, Callenbach creates a world of complete equality, but also one in which a nationally unifying solution to the problem of the environment proved to be impossible” (Callenbach111).
Leslie Marmon Silko’s poem “Prayer to the Pacific” is a good example of ecocriticism works in literature because it explains an important myth about the Pacific Ocean that relates to culture, existence and the survival of Native Americans. The myth states that “thirty thousand years ago” the Laguna Indians had arrived America from China on the back of “sea turtles”. I think this poem is also significant because it gives us a clue on the importance of Pacific Ocean concerning Native American culture.
The conservation movement of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the environmental movement which came about after 1950 had symbolic and ideological relationships, but were quite different in their social roots and objectives. A clear point is that especially in the beginning, only the elite, wealthy class, had time left to think and enjoy nature and joined the environmental movement organizations. It was born out a movement of amateurs. The organizations of the environmental movement viewed natural resources such as water, land, and air, as recourses that would improve the quality of life (Sandbach, 1980). The conservation movement grew out of the idea of how to use water, forests, minerals and animals, fearing that they
“Environmental wackos” and “anti-environmentalists”, according to Edward O. Wilson’s The Future of Life, both have a hidden agenda. He claims that these hidden agendas are rooted in personal interest and ideas which only benefit them and not the people, nor the environment. Through the use of absurdity and irony with a sarcastic tone, Wilson satirizes these agendas that make the environmentalists and people-first critics unproductive.
The Curious Enlightenment of Professor Caritat, written by Steven Lukes. Towards the finale of the novel, Lukes briefly introduces a new collective set of characters to his audience. These new characters are environmentalists. Lukes did not simply add these characters to fill up empty space in his story plot. However, Lukes did this intentionally to have the environmentalists to be the symbolic embodiment of enlightenment ideas.
Another novel, Ecotopia (1975), seems to be a long forgotten utopia even though it too has many resonances in contemporary society. Popular in its time, it did not quite get a foothold into the canon. Callenbach’s novel, however, is no less important in understanding cultural attitudes about utopian hopes or dystopian fears. He creates a near paradise based on the principles of environmentalism and stewardship. The government system is based on that of the United States, but the driving force of sustainability is a novel concept for a government system, for not growth as the measurement of prosperity, but stability. Ecotopia offers not only a journal-style account of the narrator’s perceptions of the society he is in, much like Winston in 1984, but also presents the articles Will submits to the American paper he writes for, giving a glimpse into the way the media portrays Ecotopia and the expectations they have. I would like to discuss the differences in the way Ecotopia discusses environmental politics in comparison with the way they are dealt with in United
The Western world is the dominant society with specific parameters for modernity, which understands nature-people relationships from a perspective that is grounded on human domination over the environment. Nature is regarded as a provider of resources (e.g. oil, timber, cupper, rubber, etc.) for the profit and greed of a market-based economy that seeks infinite development. Consequently, the human-nature relationships are subject-object, implying
The theme of nature, environment, and landscape has always been integral in the development of plot for different genres of literature. Apparently, nature plays a significant role in the well-being of people. Humanity is dependent on the natural environment for its survival. Recently, there have been numerous threats towards the environment which when left unchecked lead to its destruction (MacFarlane 2). With the inception of the relentless efforts to create environmental awareness, different approaches and avenues have been utilized to ensure the intended message is gotten by a large section of the public.
She reviews the history of environmental progress. In the 1980s there was political movements and changes in environmental activism. However, with the emergence of neoliberal capitalism, there has been an escalation in environmental destruction (increase in greenhouse gas emissions). The first part of the book, she critiques free market fundamentalism, conservative politics and climate change denial, corporate opposition to regulation, the conflict between international trade agreements and renewable energy, the global outsourcing
“The only way forward, if we are going to improve the quality of the environment is to get everyone involved”(Richard Rogers). The environment is a beautiful thing if taken care of. Today there is much pollution and other harmful items hurting the environment we live in. Ecocritism is the study of literature and the environment together. Authors use ecocritism to educate readers about literature and the environment.
Though there are many basic premises of transcendentalism, being close to nature seems to be the most practiced still today, yet people never notice the amount of influence of this particular principle. Everyone has a little transcendentalism in him or her, but even those people are wondering how that is even possible. Look at the movies children watch, songs people listen to, and stories that are read. Transcendentalists are so much more influential than they ever could have thought possible.
When one element related do the mismatched with nature, the exploitation of nature for example, then the balance of nature will be distracted and badly other life around it. With this background, the writer directs the reader to use the perspective of Ecocriticism is related to the movie Wall-E to see how natural, human and cultural interplay with one another.
Our education should be aimed at educating people who love the world they lie in and who are ready to become peacemakers and healers of the world (Orr 55). A sustainable society “consists” of citizens, workers, specialists, technicians, etc, who are ready to work in order to build and support such society. One of the ways to provide such education is to “get outdoor”. The skills and abilities develop in real world and not in artificial situations in class. In this regard, we may refer to the Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”. One should “touch” the real world problems and get personal experience from it. Shadows in the cave are the retrospectives of the real knowledge. To acquire the knowledge, we should leave the “cave”. We can learn theory separated from practice and this will not have any result. Instead, we should understand that every individual is a part of the natural world, thus, education should be based on ecological literacy as “health of our planet” is one of the most urgent questions of the modern social community.
"What we call Man's power over Nature turns out to be a power exercised by some men over other men with Nature as its instrument."