Ecocriticism -During the last few decades, Environment has posed a great threat to human society as well as the mother earth. The extensive misuse of natural resources has left us at the brink of ditch. The rainforests are cut down, the fossil fuel is fast decreasing, the cycle of season is at disorder, ecological disaster is frequent now round the globe and our environment is at margin. -Under these circumstances, there arose a new theory of reading nature writing during the last decade of the previous century called Ecocriticism. It is a worldwide emergent movement which came into existence as a reaction to man's anthropocentric attitude of dominating nature. -We should make change in our attitude to nature. Literature does not float above life, so it has its role to play. -The term ecocriticism was first coined by William Rueckert in his critical writing "Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism" in 1978. -It also advocates systematic usages of natural resources like coal, gas, forests, oil, etc. for a sustainable future. -Ecocriticism gives emphasis on this eco-consciousness removing the ego-consciousness man .The present environmental crisis is a bi-product of human culture. -There are two waves of ecocriticism as identified by Lawrence Buell. The first wave ecocritics focused on nature writing, nature poetry, and wilderness fiction"(Buell 138)They used to uphold the philosophy of organism. Here environment effectively means natural environment. (Buell 21)The aim of the wave was to preserve 'biotic community'(Coupe 4) -The second wave ecocritics inclined towards environmental justice issues and a 'social ecocriticism' that takes urban landscape as seriously as 'natural landscape' (Buell 22). This wave of ecocriticism is also known as revisionist ecocriticism. It seeks to locate the vestiges of nature in cities and exposes crimes of eco-injustice against society's marginal section. -Ecocriticism is not merely the study of nature as represented in literature. Nature here does not mean a mere fancy of its beautiful aspects like plants and animals. Nature here means the whole of the physical environment consisting of the human and the nonhuman. The interconnection between the two creates a bond which is the basis of Ecocriticism. As long as there is a harmony between the living and the non-living, there prevails a healthy eco-system for the benevolence of mankind as well as the earth. -Anthropocence vs Biosense: Human nature is essentially anthropocentric which positions humans on top. As earth's only literary being, man considers himself as superior to every other organism. But ecocriticism decentres humanity's importance to every object of environment. In ecology, man's tragic flaw is his anthropocentric as opposed to biocentric vision, and his compulsion to conquer , harmonise ,domesticate ,violate and exploit every natural thing. Anthropocentric assumes the primacy of humans, who either sentimentalise or dominate.

1. Ecocriticism
-During the last few decades, Environment has posed a great
threat to human society as well as the mother earth. The
extensive misuse of natural resources has left us at the brink of
ditch. The rainforests are cut down, the fossil fuel is fast
decreasing, the cycle of season is at disorder, ecological
disaster is frequent now round the globe and our environment is
at margin.
-Under these circumstances, there arose a new theory of reading
nature writing during the last decade of the previous century
called Ecocriticism. It is a worldwide emergent movement
which came into existence as a reaction to man's
anthropocentric attitude of dominating nature.
-We should make change in our attitude to nature. Literature
does not float above life, so it has its role to play.
-The term ecocriticism was first coined by William Rueckert in
his critical writing "Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in
Ecocriticism" in 1978.
-It also advocates systematic usages of natural resources like
coal, gas, forests, oil, etc. for a sustainable future.
-Ecocriticism gives emphasis on this eco-consciousness
removing the ego-consciousness man .The present
environmental crisis is a bi-product of human culture.
-There are two waves of ecocriticism as identified by Lawrence
Buell. The first
wave ecocritics focused on nature writing, nature poetry, and

2. wilderness
fiction"(Buell 138)They used to uphold the philosophy of
organism. Here
environment effectively means natural environment. (Buell
21)The aim of the
wave was to preserve 'biotic community'(Coupe 4)
-The second wave ecocritics inclined towards environmental
justice issues and a 'social ecocriticism' that takes urban
landscape as seriously as 'natural landscape' (Buell 22). This
wave of ecocriticism is also known as revisionist ecocriticism.
It seeks to locate the vestiges of nature in cities and exposes
crimes of eco-injustice against society's marginal section.
-Ecocriticism is not merely the study of nature as represented in
literature. Nature here does not mean a mere fancy of its
beautiful aspects like plants and animals. Nature here means the
whole of the physical environment consisting of the human and
the nonhuman. The interconnection between the two creates a
bond which is the basis of Ecocriticism. As long as there is a
harmony between the living and the non-living, there prevails a
healthy eco-system for the benevolence of mankind as well as
the earth.
-Anthropocence vs Biosense: Human nature is essentially
anthropocentric which positions humans on top. As earth's only
literary being, man considers himself as superior to every other
organism. But ecocriticism decentres humanity's importance to
every object of environment. In ecology, man's tragic flaw is his
anthropocentric as opposed to biocentric vision, and his
compulsion to conquer , harmonise ,domesticate ,violate and
exploit every natural thing. Anthropocentric assumes the
primacy of humans, who either sentimentalise or dominate the
environment. On the other hand, Biocentric decenters
humanities importance explores the complex interrelationships
between the human and the nonhuman.

3. -Nature vs Culture: One of the implicit goals of the ecocritics is
to rethink the relationship between culture and nature Culture is
associated with the geography of a landscape. Culture is
something which has been created over the years by the people
who have been living in an environment for ages. So long as
man lived in close association with nature there will be no
ecological threat. But with the advancement of science and
technology man has got alienated from nature putting his own
survival in a question. The natural environment is now replaced
by the built up environment. Our global crisis is not because
how ecosystems function. It is because how our ethical systems
function. Getting through the crisis requires understanding our
impact on nature. It requires understanding those ethical
systems and using that understanding to reform them.
(Ecocriticism Reader)
-Sustainable Development: Ecocriticism advocates sustainable
development for a better future of mankind in general. All
organisms have their right to survive in their own way. The
plants, the animals, the women, the marginal, the tribal - all
have their role to play to keep up the earth's basic life support
system. Limited use of resources will ensure the safe and
secured future of the generations to come.
-Environmental Justice: Ecocriticism underlines environmental
justice as man's voracious urge to conquer nature is somewhat
misleading. We used to believe ourselves to be superior to the
other life forms that inhabit the biosphere. But now we realize
that nature is not a subordinate but a co-inhabitant of this earth
ecosystem. We should change our self-destructive motives. If
humans try to destroy nature, they will be paid back by their
own coins.

4. -What ecocritis Do: In order to meet with the present
environmental crisis, the ecocritics play an important role in
building up the eco-consciousness among the readers. For this
they read major canonical writings; they look at the natural
world differently than others. They shift our critical attention
from the inner consciousness to the outer; rejects the belief that
everything is socially or linguistically constructed: believes that
Nature really exists beyond ourselves, but is with us and affects
us(perhaps fatally if we mistreat it).
-Ecocriticism redefines our relationship with the environment
and literature. It identifies roots of the problem of ecological
crisis in the relationship of the society with nature and also the
structure of the society inside. It’s also connected with social
and economic justice. The loss of ecology has irreversible,
intergenerational consequences. The protection of air, water,
soil health and diverseness ought to be primary environmental
imperatives. Environment impacts people’s day nowadays lives.
quality of natural environment determines the standard of
human life. Cultural survival of individuals depends upon
integrates environmental practices. Environmental history and
the ecological imagination suggest that today we are facing a
global crisis not because of the function of ecosystems but
because of the way our moral system works.
-Ecocriticism is an important step in bringing awareness to the
environmental problem that the world faces today, but it only
works if more people learn about it. The only way to change
these mindset is to educate the world, and hopefully bring about
a change in values.
-Characteristics of Ecocriticism: Peter Barry’s book Beginning
Theory, writes that Ecocriticism has no universal model. It is
still developing. The scholars are engaged in widening its
nature and scope. Several characteristics are found from their

5. approach to this theory. Ecocriticism is interdisciplinary
although Ecocriticism emerged as a separate academic
discipline of literary study during 1990’s, it is by its very nature
interdisciplinary. It is not a unitary discipline. All science come
together to contribute to this theory. Ecocriticism seeks to
explore the interconnectedness of the human (biotic) and the
non- human (a-biotic; finds the relationship between literature
and the physical environment since antiquity. Therefore, both
History and geography contribute to the field. It discovers
ecological implication in literature, therefore, it is science;
likewise it is related to politics(as it tries to find a solution to
present global environmental crisis), spiritualism(as it helps
developing and eco-wisdom among the readers), moral science,
philosophy etc.
-Relationship between Nature and Culture: In a sense,
ecocriticism is a key issue concerning the relationship between
culyure and nature. Perhaps the most important point here is
that ecocritics reject the notion that everything is social and
linguistically constructed the essence of ecocriticism does exist;
in our own side rather than waiting to be considered ionized,
because it knows that the transformed commas, in any case, are
factors that affect us and affect us; may be fatal. In our abuse of
its opportunities, naturally, it cannot be reduced to what we
consider to be part of our social practice. However, nature and
culture are different parts, but they are interdependent and
interrelated. According to William Ecocriticism provide critics
or race and ethnicity with the view of how those social
constructions relate to larger histories of land use and abuse.
“As land is traded, people are degraded, moved to and from
regions are mere chattel in an invidious property system”(coupe
165). Arnold Toynbee, in his narrative history of the world,
entitled Mankind and Mother Earth, published in 1976,
concludes that “our present biosphere is the only habitable
space we have or are ever likely to have” (Coupe, 225). There is
always a possibility of environmental disaster because it is the

6. humankind which makes the biosphere uninhabitable.
- Ecocriticism is an interdisciplinary movement committed not
to any one methodology but to a particular subject: the subject
of how literature and other media express environmental
awareness and concern.
-Ecocriticism did not start as a transnational project, but rather
as a movement within
U.S. and British literary studies. But since then it has spread
worldwide.
- Regarding the politics of ecocriticism itself, most ecocritics
think of their ecocritical work as implicitly if not overtly
progressive political interventions, although within the
movement one finds the same tension as in environmental
history between a nature-centric protectionist strain and public
health environmentalism concerned especially with such issues
as pollution, global warming, and environmental justice.
Broadly speaking, the center of ecocritical interest has been
shifting from the first emphasis to the second, and as part of
this shift one sees a certain amount of “intratribal” criticism of
the kind you rightly mention as often coming from outside—
namely, contempt for “tree-hugging” images and the like. This
internal critique is directed toward the conceptual or theoretical
naivete of simplistic versions of “deep ecology” as well as
motivated by political commitment.
- “Environmental justice” refers to the problem of (in)equitable
distribution of environmental ills and benefits across population
groups. In the U. S. this has been associated especially with
“environmental racism”—targeting minority communities as
sites of hazardous waste facilities and other bearers of
toxification. Outside the U. S., and also to a certain degree
within, the question has been raised as to whether the key factor
in producing environmental injustice is poverty rather than race.

7. Both seem very important to me, and I am not sure whether it is
possible (or fruitful) to insist on one alternative rather than the
other—even though in the U. S. and many other countries there
is a suspiciously high correlation between racial or ethnic
minority status and social immiseration of every kind. But to
move more closely to the subject of (literary) discourse,
environmental justice revisionism tends to focus on urban rather
than rural or backcountry settings, in minority and other
subaltern voices, and in discourse of the past half-century or so
rather than earlier eras—although it can legitimately claim
antecedence back to at least the start of the industrial era.
- LB: Ecocritical practice at the level of eco theory and
discourse analysis is obviously not the same thing as activism.
On the other hand, I believe (and have heard this credibly
affirmed by others) that its (re)readings of world literature from
the standpoint of attention to environmental emplacement and
environmental concern can have a public consciousness-raising
effect, and all the more so when one considers the combined
impact of scholarship, non specialist writing, public lecturing,
and pedagogy in which most serious practicing ecocritics
engage. Furthermore, engagement in such work is likely to
reinforce for the ecocritic as well as some of his or her hearers,
the motivation to engage in on-the-ground activist work. All
that having been said, I am inclined to fall back on a haunting
line in a poem by Ralph Waldo Emerson: “Nor knowest thou
what argument thy life to thy neighbor’s creed has lent.” To
measure the social impact of any intellectual intervention is
tricky if not impossible. Here one can only hope.
- Ecocritics lay emphasis on the preservation of landscape in
order to save the human race. Ecocriticism not only lays
emphasis on the ‘harmony’ of humanity and nature but also
talks about the destruction caused to nature by the changes
which take place in the modern world for most of which man is
directly responsible. Ecocriticism is a fairly new concept but it

8. has gained importance rapidly
- There have also been numerous debates on whether to include
human culture in the physical world. Despite the broad scope of
inquiry all ecological criticism shares the fundamental premise
that human culture is connected to the physical world, affecting
it and affected by it. It is a broad genre that is known by many
names like green cultural studies, eco-poetics and
environmental literary criticism, which are some popular names
forthis relatively new branch of literary criticism.
-
- Ecocriticism is by nature interdisciplinary, invoking
knowledge of environmental
studies, the natural sciences, and cultural and social studies, all
of which play a part in answering the questions it poses.
- Ecocriticism has emerged as a field of literary study that
addresses how humans relate to non- human nature or the
environment in literature. Today, with the development and
expansion of ecocritical studies, any line between human and
non- human nature has necessarily blurred. So when subjected
to Ecocriticism, literature of all periods and places—not only
ecocentric or environmental literature or nature writing, but all
literature is viewed in terms of place, setting, and environment.
- Ecocriticism regards nature as an autonomous, active entity of
its own and so can be used as an important tool in interpreting
literary texts that represent the relationship of human beings to
their natural environment. As man moved from science to
modern technology nature became the “Other”. All that is not
man came to be called as nature.
- Nature has always proved to be stronger than human. It has
often shown its power by controlling manpower through natural

9. calamities like famine, drought, flood, earthquake etc. Human’s
life and nature are so interlinked that it is not possible for
human beings to separate themselves from its influence.
Therefore they have no choice but to accept both nature’s
bounty and adversity. This can be said to be reciprocal as nature
too is the recipient of human’s action. Our irresponsible actions
cause irreparable damages to nature. This is how the chain of
ecosystem works in which everything is related to each other
and therefore affects each other.
- Cheryll Glotfelty, who is one of the pioneer ecocritics in the
English profession and one of the founders of ecocriticism,
makes one of the most valuable defi nitions of ecocriticism in
her introduction to the co-edited work The Ecocriticism Reader:
Landmarks in Literary Ecology. She notes that “ecocriticism is
the study of the relationship between literature and the physical
environment” (Glotfelty, 1996: xviii). Thus, she tries to link
literature and the physical world, or, in other words, she tries to
improve the relationship between literature and nature. She
argues that people do not have to treat literature and nature as
independent with no effect on each other. On the contrary,
literature and nature affect each other. The acceptance of this
mutual influence of literature and nature is one of the basic and
exclusive features of ecocriticism.
- Donald Worster: “We are facing a global crisis, not because of
how ecosystems
function but rather because of how our ethical systems function.
Getting
through the crisis requires understanding our impact on nature
as precisely as
possible, but even more, it requires understanding those ethical
systems and
using that understanding to reform them. Historians, along with
literary
scholars, anthropologists, and philosophers cannot do the

10. reforming, of
course, but they can help with the understanding.”
- Nature not just as the stage upon which the human story is
acted out, but as an actor in the drama.
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