The Importance Of Ecocriticism

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Cheryll Glotfelty defines ecocriticism as “the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment”. Ecocriticism poses a call to literature to connect to the environmental emergencies present in today’s 21st century context. In other words, ecocriticism is directly concerned with both nature (natural landscape) and the environment (landscape both natural and urban). Nature can be characterised from an ecocritical point of view “as existing apart from the social and economic structures of everyday life, often in places of wild or scenic beauty, with as little trace of humanity as possible.” (Hess, S, 2009, pp. 91) As a result, society battles to take a fair viewpoint on nature, as our understanding is constructed by existing cultural standards. Ultimately, by viewing humanity as the crux of existence, nature becomes merely a resource: ‘a raw material to be transformed into use-value for humanity’ (Connor 1996: 278). This hyperseraparation from nature poses a potential fatal outcome for the physical environment, as the ability to view ourselves as a part of ecosystems becomes damaged as we perceive the natural world as a disposable commodity, thus downplaying our understanding of how nature both sustains the environment and supports our lives. Therefore, this essay will draw on anthropocentrism and the dualistic nature between culture and nature binaries to comparatively analyse the excerpt from Consolations of the Forest (2013) by Sylvain Tesson and