Contemporary Western Theories and Film Studies
Paper - 204
Name - Nehalba Gohil
Roll no - 15
Enrollment no - 4069206420210009
Email ID - nehalbagohil26@gmail.com
Batch - 2021 - 23
M.A sem - 3
Submitted to - S.B Gardi Department of English M.K. Bhavnagar University
Eco - Criticism :-
Definition :-
Ecocriticism is the interdisciplinary study of the connections between literature and the environment. It draws on contributions from natural scientists, writers, literary critics, anthropologists and historians in examining the differences between nature and its cultural construction.
What is Eco critical theory ?
Ecocriticism 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. Ecocriticism was officially heralded by the publication of two seminal works, both published in the mid-1990s: The Ecocriticism Reader, edited by Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm, and The Environmental Imagination, by Lawrence Buell.
Ecocriticism investigates the relation between humans and the natural world in literature. It deals with how environmental issues, cultural issues concerning the environment and attitudes towards nature are presented and analyzed. One of the main goals in ecocriticism is to study how individuals in society behave and react in relation to nature and ecological aspects. This form of criticism has gained a lot of attention during recent years due to higher social emphasis on environmental destruction and increased technology. It is hence a fresh way of analyzing and interpreting literary texts, which brings new dimensions to the field of literary and theoritical studies. Ecocriticism is an intentionally broad approach that is known by a number of other designations, including “green (cultural) studies”, “ecopoetics”, and “environmental literary criticism.”
Western thought has often held a more or less utilitarian attitude to nature —nature is for serving human needs. However, after the eighteenth century, there emerged many voices that demanded a revaluation of the relationship between man and environment, and man’s view of nature. Arne Naess, a Norwegian philosopher, developed the notion of “Deep Ecology” which emphasizes the basic interconnectedness of all life forms and natural features, and presents a symbiotic and holistic world-view rather than an anthropocentric one.
Earlier theories in literary and cultural studies focussed on issue of class, race, gender, region are criteria and “subjects”of critical analysis. The late twentieth century has woken up to a new threat: ecological disaster. The most important environmental problems that humankind faces as a whole are: nuclear war, depletion of valuable natural resources, population explosion, proliferation of exploitative technologies, conquest of space preliminary to using it as a garbage dump, pollution, extinction of species (though not a human problem) among others. In such a context, literary and cultural theory has begun to address the issue as a part of academic discourse. Numerous green movements have sprung up all over the world, and some have even gained representations in the governments.
Two types of Eco critical theory
Ecocriticism emerged in the 1960s with the start of the environmental movement and the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring in 1962, but really began to take off in the 1980s. So far, there have been two waves of ecocriticism: the first in the 1980s and the second in the 1990s.
Two waves
The first wave emphasized writing about nature as both a field of study and as a meaningful practice. It maintained the distinction between human and nature, but promoted the value of nature and the need to speak and stand up for nature. People believed it was the duty of the humanities and the natural sciences together to raise awareness and come up with solutions for the environmental and climate crisis.
Second waves
The second wave expanded upon the first, broadening the reaches of environmentalism. Ecocritics of this wave redefined the term environment to include both nature and urban areas and challenged the distinctions between human and non-human and nature and non-nature. This wave also led to the ecojustice movement by examining the way that the poorest and most oppressed members of a population fall victim to the most adverse effects of climate change and environmental degradation.
Different types of ecocriticism include: pastoral, wilderness and ecofeminism.
-∆ pastoral, found primarily in British and American literature, focuses on the dichotomy between urban and rural life, often idealizing nature and rural life and demonizing urban life. There are three branches of pastoral ecocriticism: classical, romantic and American.
- ∆ Classical is characterized by nostalgia and nature as a place for human relaxation and reflection.
- ∆ Romantic is characterized by portraying rural independence as desirable.
- ∆ American emphasizes agrarianism and represents land as a resource to be cultivated.
∆ Wilderness examines the ways in which the wilderness is constructed, valued and engaged with. There are two branches of wilderness ecocriticism: Old World and New World.
- Old World portrays the wilderness as a scary, threatening place beyond the borders of civilization and as a place of exile.
- New World portrays the wilderness as a place of sanctuary where one can find relaxation and reflection, similar to classical pastoral ecocriticism.
Ecofeminism analyzes the connection between the domination of women and the domination of nature, usually by men. It draws parallels between women and nature, which is often seen as feminine, fertile and the property of men. Ecofeminism also includes other aspects of environmental justice, such as racial environmental justice. There are two branches of ecofeminism:
- The first branch of ecofeminism embraces the idea that women are inherently closer to nature than men on a biological, spiritual and emotional level. This branch is often called radical ecofeminism because it reverses the domination of men over women and nature.
- The second branch of ecofeminism contradicts the first, arguing that neither women nor men are more likely to connect with nature.
Characteristics of Eco Criticism
Ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment. The first person to use the term appears to have been William Rueckert in 1978. His main purpose in doing so was to suggest that ecological terms and concepts can usefully be applied to the study of literature. This, however, is not the dominant meaning of the term. It tends to be interpreted more loosely as a general term for the study of the relationship between literature and the natural environment.
Although several critics have considered the importance of the environment in the literature (e.g. Leo Marx and Raymond Williams), it was not until the late 1980s and early 1990s that it became a recognizable sub-branch of literary and cultural studies. One explanation for this may be that it was not until then that the environment itself became of broad and perhaps even urgent concern for many people.
Ecocriticism defines itself as a practice of reading literature from an earth-centered (rather than human-centered) perspective. There is also an activist dimension to ecocriticism: at least part of the reason ecocritics want to discuss the centrality of nature in literature is to raise awareness more generally about the need for concern and indeed action concerning the environment. Unsurprisingly, many ecocritics are also active in the environmental justice movement, whose interest is the uneven and generally inequitable distribution of the burden of environmental degradation e.g-poorer countries tend to be more polluted than richer countries).
Key Points:
In Ecocriticism Nature is the center, not the man
It is the study of literature and physical environment
It is an earth-centered approach to the literary study
Ecologically man is the ultimate villain
Eco criticism says that we all are equal.
The main purpose is to protect the earth
Marxist Criticism :-
Karl Marx
Karl Marx was a 19th century German thinker most famous for developing a notion of communism in The Communist Manifesto. His notion of communism was not simply a utopia presented in a vacuum, it was a political program meant to critique the social conditions of capitalism.
What is Marxist criticism?
The Marxist criticism definition is an approach to diagnosing political and social problems in terms of the struggles between members of different socio-economic classes. Drawing from this approach, criticism does not aim at the flaws of particular individuals, even if they have attained positions of power. Instead, such an approach focuses on how social life is structured by class oppositions that are determined by laboring relationships. Or in other words, Marxist criticism seeks to show how the economically powerful exploit and dominate the economically disadvantaged. Moreover, Marxist criticism also points to how class conflict is obscured and hidden in ideology.
Several concepts are indispensable for Marxist criticism:
Class -
Class is a grouping of people with a similar social situation with regard to labor and exchange. The proletariat, for example, are a social class defined by their need to sell their labor power because they do not have sufficient property to generate income. In short, they are the 'have-nots.' The bourgeoisie, on the other hand, are a social class defined by owning the means of production, and they have sufficient property to generate wealth without needing to labor.
Alienation -
The concept of alienation is meant to capture the ways in which workers are separated from the fruits of their labor and from others. When a worker creates something, but they cannot take pride in their work, their work only puts them in competition with others, and they receive no profits from the quality of their work. In this case, they are alienated laborers.
Ideology -
Ideology is a system of values and beliefs of a society or group. Ideology tends to be explicit, or at least have a significant explicit component, and it serves to protect the material conditions of a society by distorting them. For instance, capitalist ideology includes the value of self-reliance and being 'self-made,' while also insisting on free competition. This obscures the fact that those who are born into rich families have a significant edge in competition.
Base and Superstructure -
The base and superstructure of any society consists of material conditions and then explicit institutions, art, and ideology, respectively. In other words, the base of any society, the driving reality behind any experience or political action, is its economic conditions. This includes the methods of production as well as the relationships that constitute social production and exchange. The superstructure is every aspect of society beyond material necessity, including ideologies, art, and institutions. This include religion as well as normative political views, e.g., liberalism. Institutions include government as well as social clubs. While the ideologies and institutions of a society may appear open and impartial, Marxist criticism holds that they are a tool used by the powerful to oppress the weak and obscure the very mechanisms of that oppression. Marxist criticism examples would include Charles Beard's work on the American Revolution and the self-interest of the moneyed class in designing the constitution.
Marxist criticism has also been important for literature. That is, works of art have a relationship to the societies in which they are created. Using literature as a means to ask questions about society and culture is called literary criticism. Criticism of that art has taken it as its task to diagnose and illuminate the social oppression that informs the work. In other words, literary works may present, consciously or unconsciously, the contradictions inherent with the seemingly neutral or impartial superstructures of a society and its oppressive material base. Marxist literary theory involves criticism that makes those contradictions explicit and analyzes them.
Conclusion
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Hunger Games are both examples of literary works that lend themselves to Marxist criticism. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, for instance, presents the relationship of Huckleberry and Jim, a slave. While class opposition is presumed in that relationship, the two characters nevertheless form a bond that would otherwise be forbidden in a slave-owning society. Thus, the work presents an inherent contradiction between the laboring conditions of slavery and the ideals of friendship. Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games trilogy, by contrast, presents a view of a society ridden by poverty and scarcity for most of the population. The rich elite hold a competition pitting the poor against each other and lionize that competition. Nevertheless, bonds of humanity form between competitors from the poverty-ridden districts, hinting that the competition is a mere ideological tool used by the rich.
