The article traces the genealogy of the concept of Nature and landscape from the romanticism to
the second industrial revolution. This archeology of ideas aims to dissect Nature as a subject of discourse in
order to propose it as an “empty container” filled with fantasy and which has been instrumentalized by
(sometimes) conservative power axes. The ongoing ecological crisis demands a set of new theoretical
approaches towards what is that thing “out there” that we call Nature since the romantic paradigm only gives
away a passive and contemplative image that serves to economic exploitation and aesthetical consumerism.
Through the lens of eco-criticism, the aim is to dismantle and deconstruct the fantasy of Nature by proposing
different entry points from interdisciplinarity and critical studies.
Nature Oriented Verse: An Ecopoetic Critical Review of Romantic Poetry
Sabrina Abdulkadhom Abdulridha Jelal,
Department of English, College of Education for Human Sciences, Al-Zahraa University for Women, Iraq
The concept of nature in literary works is not altogether a new phenomenon. It has been spotted in the earliest works of literature and has been a concept that poets approach, revealing how they perceive nature and what kind of relationship they might share. With every scientific discovery, however, an impact on the human mind may reframe the manner of perception. The twentieth century has witnessed a drastic increase in scientific studies that reveal the impact of humans on the natural environment, which in turn effected the way people think about the relationship between human societies and nature. With new perceptions of viewing nature, the way people narrate stories and write poetry has been changing as well. That is why the manner and aims of how nature has been approached and analyzed in poetry has drastically changed in today’s world. One of the most common eras that witnessed a wide use of nature is Romantic Age. This presentation shall analyze and evaluate Romantic poetry according to the most recent types of literary criticism; “ecocriticism” showing thereby if it is possible to categorize the poetic productions during this era under the means of “ecopoetry.”
Keywords: Ecopoetry, Nature, Ecocriticism, Romanticism, Global Warming
The Sixth International Conference on Languages, Linguistics, Translation and Literature
9-10 October 2021 , Ahwaz
For more information, please visit the conference website:
WWW.LLLD.IR
Nature Oriented Verse: An Ecopoetic Critical Review of Romantic Poetry
Sabrina Abdulkadhom Abdulridha Jelal,
Al-Zahraa University for Women, Iraq
The Sixth International Conference on Languages, Linguistics, Translation and Literature
9-10 October 2021 , Ahwaz
For more information, please visit the conference website:
WWW.LLLD.IR
Nature Oriented Verse: An Ecopoetic Critical Review of Romantic Poetry
Sabrina Abdulkadhom Abdulridha Jelal,
Department of English, College of Education for Human Sciences, Al-Zahraa University for Women, Iraq
The concept of nature in literary works is not altogether a new phenomenon. It has been spotted in the earliest works of literature and has been a concept that poets approach, revealing how they perceive nature and what kind of relationship they might share. With every scientific discovery, however, an impact on the human mind may reframe the manner of perception. The twentieth century has witnessed a drastic increase in scientific studies that reveal the impact of humans on the natural environment, which in turn effected the way people think about the relationship between human societies and nature. With new perceptions of viewing nature, the way people narrate stories and write poetry has been changing as well. That is why the manner and aims of how nature has been approached and analyzed in poetry has drastically changed in today’s world. One of the most common eras that witnessed a wide use of nature is Romantic Age. This presentation shall analyze and evaluate Romantic poetry according to the most recent types of literary criticism; “ecocriticism” showing thereby if it is possible to categorize the poetic productions during this era under the means of “ecopoetry.”
Keywords: Ecopoetry, Nature, Ecocriticism, Romanticism, Global Warming
The Sixth International Conference on Languages, Linguistics, Translation and Literature
9-10 October 2021 , Ahwaz
For more information, please visit the conference website:
WWW.LLLD.IR
Nature Oriented Verse: An Ecopoetic Critical Review of Romantic Poetry
Sabrina Abdulkadhom Abdulridha Jelal,
Al-Zahraa University for Women, Iraq
The Sixth International Conference on Languages, Linguistics, Translation and Literature
9-10 October 2021 , Ahwaz
For more information, please visit the conference website:
WWW.LLLD.IR
The Impact Of Postmodernism
The Pros And Cons Of Postmodernism
post modernism Essay examples
An Overview of Postmodernism Essay
Postmodern World, By Jean-François Lyotard
Essay on Modern and Post-Modernism Architecture
Postmodernism in Literature
Essay On Postmodernism
Postmodernism : A Consensus On Postmodernism
Postmodernism Essay
Postmodernism And Its Impact On Society
Modernism And Postmodernism
Differences Between Modern And Postmodernism
Postmodernism: The Movement in Life Essay
The Transition to Postmodernism Essay
Postmodernism Essay
Postmodernism : Modernism And Postmodernism
Postmodernism: Christian Worldview
Modernism vs Postmodernism Essay
Assignment 5Text edition 7Chapter 12 - Questions and Problems.docxssuser562afc1
Assignment 5
Text edition 7:
Chapter 12 - Questions and Problems - 5, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13.
Rubric Assignment 5:
Calculation Questions. Show your work - include formulas and step by step calculations.
5. Nominal versus Real Returns: What is the average annual return on Canadian stock from 1957 through 2008:
a. In nominal terms?
b. In real terms?
7. Calculating Returns and Variability: Using the following returns, calculate the arithmetic average returns, the variances and the standard deviations for X and Y.
Returns
Year X Y
1 6% 18%
2 24 39
3 13 -6
4 -14 -20
5 15 47
8. Risk Premiums: Refer to the table attached and look at the period from 1970-1975.
a. Calculate the arithmetic average returns for large-company stocks and T-Bills over this period.
b. Calculate the standard deviation of the returns for large-company stocks and T-Bills over this period.
c. Calculate the observed risk premium in each year for the large-company stocks versus T-Bills. What was the average risk premium over this period? What was the standard deviation of the risk premium over this period?
d. Is it possible for the risk premium to be negative before an investment is undertaken? Can the risk premium be negative after the fact?
9. Calculating Returns and Variability: You’ve observed the following returns on Crash-n-Burn Computer’s stock over the past 5 years: 2 percent, -8 percent, 24percent, 19 percent and 12 percent.
a. What was the arithmetic average return on Crash-n-Burn’s stock over this 5-year period?
b. What was the variance of Crash-n-Burn’s returns for this period? The standard deviation?
12. Effects of Inflation: Look at table 12.1 (same table from Q8) and the attached figure (12.4), When were T-bill rates at their highest over the period of 1957 through 2008? Why do you think they were so high during this period? What relationship underlies your answer?
13. Calculating Investment Returns: You bought one of Great White Shark Repellant Co’s 7 percent coupon bonds one year ago for $920. These bonds make annual payments and mature in six years from now. Suppose you decide to sell your bonds today, when the required return on bonds is 8 percent. If the inflation rate was 4.2 percent over the past year, what was your total real return on investment?
1
Realism and Naturalism: An Historical Context
Naturalism and Realism are literary movements which are
closely linked. Some writers, such as Guy de Maupassant, are
considered both naturalists and realists. Try to identify the
subtle differences between these two literary styles as you
read.
Definition of Realism
Encarta explains realism, saying,
Realist literature is defined particularly as the fiction produced in Europe and the
United States from about 1840 until the 1890s, when realism was superseded by
naturalism. This form of realism began in France in the novels of Gustave
Flaubert and the short stories of Guy de Maupassant. In Russ ...
As the only superpower in the world, the fundamental interest of the United States in the Syrian conflict
is to maintain its superpower status. Guided by this principle, the United States has important interests in Syria:
Toppling or at least the long-term weakening of the Syrian Assad regime; Containing Russian and Iranian
influence in Syria; Fighting terrorism such as ISIS to prevent Syria from becoming a terrorist base; Opposing the
Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons; Supporting Syrian Kurdish forces on the basis of not breaking with
Turkey, etc. Interest is the unity of needs and means to realize them. With the development of the situation in Syria,
the ability of the United States to fulfill its needs is also changing, which leads to the differences of its main
interests in different historical periods of the Syrian conflict, not only in the content of interests, but also in the
priority of interests. In the Syrian conflict, the constant changes in the important interests of the United States
show that the United States is increasingly unable to safeguard its superpower status
The paper focus on entrepreneur skill through business education program to curb restiveness for
sustainable development. Need for entrepreneur skills acquisition were identified, business education program
and functions of entrepreneur were identified and sorted out as the types of entrepreneur in our present society.
Conclusion was drawn which include effort towards creating good initiatives in order to develop our dear
societies as it become the focus in 21st century. Therefore parents and business society should emulate a kind of
economy strategies like China, Germany, and America etc. in order to provide means of surviving strategies
among individuals in the entire nation.
Non-linguistic symbol is a carrier of language,which carries ideas, positions, attitudes and emotions
that people communicate. Based on the case of business communication and the theoretical framework of
semiotics, this paperprobes intothe influence of nonverbal signs on international business banquets from a
cultural perspective, and then puts forward relevant strategies to promote the smooth communication. The study
finds that nonverbal signs play a significant role in the communication and exchange of international banquets.
Nonverbal signs can be made use of to accurately understand the meaning of the other party, and further foster
the realization of effective communication. The purpose of this study is to aimed to provide correspondent
strategies for language barriers encountered in business banquets and business activities, in an attempt to
provide certain implications for such fields as business discourse research, business communication and
cultural exchanges.
Nawāl al-Sa'dāwī has criticised sharply the discourse of masculine God in her works, either
fiction or non-fiction. The phenomena is interesting to be analyzed since there are no many feminists who have
courageoulsy discuss the problem. By paying attention on her works, this paper is aimed to answer the
question: What are the forms of Nawāl al-Sa'dāwī's criticism on the masculinity in the discourse on God? What
is the positionisation of the criticism in the meaning of discourse on divinity and why did Nawāl Al-Sa'dāwī
criticise? The paper gives meaning to the reading on the deconstruction that emphasizes the plurality and
meaning of the relation between the signifie and signifiant in language. Nawāl al-Sa'dāwī offers a new meaning
which is different, humanistic, and visionary, since the masculinity of discourse on God had been structured by
the ruler as a philosophical basis for the theological justification to structurise the patriarchal point of view to
preserve women's subordination. She has made her deconstruction as a strategy for liberation of women and
establishment of their autonomy as their fundamental condition, a gift from God. This autonomy of women had
been actualised in the early history of mankind through the reconstructive reading on history of ancient Egypt
which has been done by her.
The contending forces generated by friction between the collaborative platform firms in the paid transportation of people’s market, and the regulation present in anti-trust policies in Costa Rica will be discussed in depth as a means of determining the economic impacts that new regulatory bills may cause.The recent entryof developing countries into the collaborative economy has caused social and economic tensions due to the lack of an updated and rejuvenated legal framework which could reconcile the economic and legal differences.The expected results of a new anti-trust policy to regulate collaborative transportation platform firms in Costa Rica are a higher regulated price, a lower quantity supplied of hailing rides, and a loss of efficiency in the sector consequence of the new technical requirements. The case of Uber Company’s entry in Costa Rica is used to depict these economic effects.
The Srebrenica event during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina has become one of the most
famous. It has also brought the first verdict of the criminal offense of genocide before the international
body after the Second World War. The purpose of this paper is not to attempt relativization of facts or to
answer the question of whether it was truly genocide in a subjective sense, but rather to comment on
judicial practice in those essential segments related to dubious questions and theses. The purpose is, of
course, to understand the issues in order to understand and classify other terrible events in the recent
war or current or future conflicts and trials more easily and correctly.
This paper examine the impact of macroeconomic factors on firm level equity premium. Following
the concept of macro-based risk factor model, we consider macroeconomic variable set of equity premium
determinant. The macroeconomic variables include interest rate, money supply, industrial production, inflation
and foreign direct investment. The macroeconomic variables are not in control of the firm's management. These
are the external factors which affect the company as well as the overall market returns. The Macro-based
Multifactor Model is estimated for the whole sample. It is found that the market premium and the selected five
macroeconomic factors significantly affect the firm level equity premium of non-financial firms. Increase in
market premium, money supply, foreign direct investment and industrial production positively affect the firm
level equity premium while increase in interest rate and inflation negatively affects the firm level equity
premium. These findings are beneficial for the common shareholders, institutional investors and policy makers
to find more specific insight about the relationship between macroeconomic variables and equity premium of
non-financial sectors.
The paper focus on entrepreneur skill through business education program to curb restiveness for
sustainable development. Need for entrepreneur skills acquisition were identified, business education program
and functions of entrepreneur were identified and sorted out as the types of entrepreneur in our present society.
Conclusion was drawn which include effort towards creating good initiatives in order to develop our dear
societies as it become the focus in 21st century. Therefore parents and business society should emulate a kind of
economy strategies like China, Germany, and America etc. in order to provide means of surviving strategies
among individuals in the entire nation.
In this Article the historical survey of puppet art in Pakistan are explained. The survey starts from
1947 to till now. The roots of this art are traced back to the Indus valley civilization, to the Sub Continent, and
eventually to the areas which are now known as Pakistan. Same like India there is no clear history of Puppet
art in Pakistan. This research concludes the details of the history after independence. Underlying research has
strived to explore the significance and the importance of the puppetry as art form and some extent for the sake
of education in Pakistan. This art is subject to decline because of lack of interest of the people in it. This
research explains to know the brief history about puppets stories its reasons and the struggle of the artist to
make this term so prominent. The research also counts the positive aspects of the puppetry that despite all the
odds is still alive and working in our society. Besides this many organizations are also contributing to this field
of art. It proves that the puppetry is in the cultural roots of the people of this region. If a nation is alive then its
art and culture is also alive. Underlying research contributes towards creating awareness for this art and
entertainment form.
Based on John Bailey’s theory of Cultural Adaptation, this research mainly focuses on the differences
between Chinese and the United States’ diet culture, analyzes the background and causes of differences between
Chinese and Western diet cultures, and further expounds the long-standing exchanges and collisions between
Chinese and Western diet culture differences so as to reveal the development status and existing problems of
international business activities under the diet culture differences. The study is aimed to provide certain references
for the elimination of cultural barrier in international business communication and thus promote the smooth
development of international market.
In Indonesia, forest fires become a problem every year during the annual dry season, when fires
are lit to clear and/or prepare land for agriculture. The smoke from the fires creates a haze that affects not only
the area where land is being cleared but also neighboring countries since it travels with the wind. This study
explores media framing related to haze that blanketed parts of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore, through a
qualitative content analysis of the news stories published in 2017 in three leading English newspapers from the
three countries: The Jakarta Post (Indonesia), The Straits Times (Singapore) and The Star (Malaysia). A
theoretical framework from Semetko & Valkernburg (2000) who suggest five media framing (conflict,
responsibility, economic consequences, human interest, and morality) is used in the analysis. The research
questions: What were the main frames used in the three newspapers from the three countries? The results
indicate that responsibility was the most visible frame in the three newspapers. Alleged land clearance by
plantation companies and individuals was the main theme associated with the responsibility frame
and more, the discourse of as a vehicle through which messages are communicated in film
is taking centre stage. Its use necessitates an understanding not only of the vocabulary, but also of the content.
Cameroon filmmakers exploit language to expound and portray how the society is still constantly faced with the
problem of power manifestation and most especially, the marginalisation of women. Limits are set as to where
and what a woman can say in the presence of men. Considered a cultural marginalization, a woman’s words
are not to be heard in public spaces where men are. As such, language in traditional settings, sets limitations
for the woman in almost all aspects of life. Through a semiotic reading of Victor Viyouh’s Ninah’s Dowry and
circumscribed by feminist criticism, this paper attempts to portray the role of the sign in promoting male
domination in Cameroon. The woman is constructed by words and images as the weaker sex and subjected to
the men
The purpose of this study was to describe the use of newspapers as a source for English
Language Acquisition. Its aim was to investigate the extent of which newspapers can affect and enhance the
learning of English language. The Technical English curricular aims to extent learners’ English language
proficiency in order to meet their needs, in everyday life including for knowledge acquisition purposes, and for
workplace use. Effectiveness learning entails learning beyond the classroom. In this regard, newspaper may be
a good resource that can be used to promote and enhance English language learning. This study explored
whether newspaper as an alternative to the textbook able to arouse learners’ interests in learning English.
Newspaper as a tool for language learning.
This study was conducted in Institute Latihan Perindustrian Kuala Lumpur (ILPKL) to obtain students’
views on using the newspapers and to access the effects of its use on their learning. The quantitative modes used
for the data collections. The findings of the study indicated that the use of newspapers did indeed have positive
effect on learners. For the benefit of learners, it is therefore hoped that there, would be greater usage of
newspaper as source for English language acquisition in the classroom.
The goal of this work is to address, from the conceptual framework of theories on “deliberative
democracy”, the role played by the Judicial Power, being an integral part of the State, as the institutionalized
field of deliberation for making collective decisions.
In order to do this I will start by analyzing, from a legal-institutional perspective, the way in which the
National Constitution of Argentina distributes the functions of the State and how it divides the competences to
decide on the Public Thing. Furthermore, I will analyze which are the degrees of deliberation and of citizen
participation (direct or indirect) in each portion of the constituted power. Then, I will develop my intuition about
the way Justice operates as an institutional form of citizen participation within a Social State of Law, comparing
such proposal with the opinion of authors that highlight the countermajoritarian nature of the Judicial Power. I
will present some representative cases of the intervention of the Judicial Power in the making of
institutionalized public decisions, generated by the action of minorities with little or no political representation
and in which, after a deliberative practice, government measures that gave a positive response to the proposals
of the actors were ordered.
As an anticipation of my opinion, I will say that in our current Argentinian constitutional system there
is a paradox in which the Judicial Power (being, due to its origin, the least democratic of the powers) allows for
the development of procedural discursive practices, enabling the Public Decision Making to be the product of
the deliberation between parties (citizens and governments) on a level of equality and freedom of speech in
which arguments are exchanged in a rational way and in a previously regulated framework within a formalized
procedure.
This qualitative case study focused on developing a better understanding of a major utility
company’s knowledge management/customer service information and communications as well as practices
that were implemented during a catastrophic hurricane. The data collection and analysis procedure
revealed a gap when a comparison of the actual knowledge management practices that were used and not
used in the utility company’s customer response during the hurricane. Organizational practices of highperforming knowledge-management companies were used to analyze and compare their practices to utility
company. Findings from the analysis resulted in the establishment of a Balanced Scorecard framework for
recommended best practices and action steps with the potential to set new strategies and trajectories for
allorganizations.
The current work presents a literature review about life skills, which have been studied for a
long time; however, it was until 1993 when the World Health Organization (WHO) placed them among the 10
basic abilities which allow the individual to develop correctly in various contexts. From that year, a series of
actions were taken to standardize a common language around them and have derived in several promotion and
research around this topic. In many countries of Latin America and Spain, the teaching of life skills have been
incorporated into the basic education and shown good results since its implementation. Regarding higher
education, this proposal can prove promising in view of acknowledging that universities at present do not only
form specialists in a given discipline, but also promote integral development. It isconcluded that teaching life
skills in higher education can aid in the students’ integral development.
The services of local government legislators and customary court judges are often associated with
self-abnegation. However, most of these officials use their positions as money making ventures and material and
financial considerations have been the principal catalyst in the quest for such offices. It is because of these
recurrent occurrences in developing countries in general and Cameroon in particular that the study revisits the
situation in West Cameroon. It contends that most of these officials used their offices in amassing wealth as the
quest for increases in allowances and privileges became the common characteristic. Where these perceived
gains were not forthcoming, legislators and judges resorted to corrupt practices and their decisions/judgements
were often based on material and financial considerations. When some of them found it difficult to raise money
from services offered to their constituents, they simply abandoned their duties for personal businesses or juicy
opportunities elsewhere. The study concludes that legislation which warrants only selfless and dedicated
individuals to seek for these positions is needed. Again, it holds that local communities should be empowered to
sanction recalcitrant officials with little or no interference from central authorities. In this way, the engaging of
unpatriotic citizens in the management local government affairs will be checked.
The need to deepen the study of nationality formation and consolidation processes in Cuba, has
found in the Masonic fraternity an unobjectionable source of information, closely linked to the deepest roots of
nationalist thought and feeling. Masonic researches have become vital in unraveling the historical fabric that
gave way to the beginning of struggles for the Island independence.
The present research, as part of a doctoral thesis project -in the initial phase-, aims to elucidate the importance
this subject refers to researchers from Cuba and the world. It also pretends to focus on Freemasonry in
Guantánamo province, as an effort to explain the main factors that contribute to the social reproduction of
Masonic fraternity from a sociological perspective which is an insufficiently studied subject into the Cuban
context. The relationships that underlie the fraternal group's behavior and cohesion will be revealed by using
the prosopographic method, the theory of social networks and the analysis of socialization forms.
Using a theoretical concept by combining linguistic relativity and linguistic determinism – the
structure of our language; a set of specific selected words influence man’s perception of the world and language
use determines thought and action, data was collected and analysed qualitatively. The aim of the paper is to
illustrate the pertinence of culture in language use and actions with emphasis to explore the contextual symbolic
meanings of specific words in Africa nation states’ quest for peace. Specifically, in this paper we examine
carefully selected and uttered lexis and their significant meanings in Cameroon, South Africa and Uganda. The
results of the study confirmed that words have unique significance in relation to the culture, history and identity
of a particular African people. Words used in the Cameroon context, ‘all is well’, are mostly words of hope and
assurance in a war-free nation. The interpretation of some words, ‘Rhodes must fall’, generate disputes and
lead to violent actions in the search for peaceful and prosperous co-existence in an apartheid ridden country
like South Africa. Certain words of greetings, ‘you still exist’, though a total recall of pain and torture in a
period of turbulence and massacre in Uganda, portray gratitude and delightedness among citizens.
A special school is a school catering for students who have special educational needs due to serve
learning difficulties, physical disabilities or behavioural problems. Special schools may be specifically
designed, staffed and resourced to provide appropriate special education for children with additional needs. A
Special school is a school for children who have some kind of serious physical or mental problem.The present
study examines the job stress of teachers working in special schools. The sample of the study comprised of 156
special school teachers working in aided and private special schools in Tirunelveli district, Tamilnadu. Simple
random method was used to select the sample from the population.Survey method was used to collect data. The
findings revealed that there is significant difference in job stress of teachers working in special schools with
regard to locality of special school teachers, qualification and work experience of special school teachers.
More from International Journal of Arts and Social Science (20)
Model Attribute Check Company Auto PropertyCeline George
In Odoo, the multi-company feature allows you to manage multiple companies within a single Odoo database instance. Each company can have its own configurations while still sharing common resources such as products, customers, and suppliers.
The Art Pastor's Guide to Sabbath | Steve ThomasonSteve Thomason
What is the purpose of the Sabbath Law in the Torah. It is interesting to compare how the context of the law shifts from Exodus to Deuteronomy. Who gets to rest, and why?
How to Make a Field invisible in Odoo 17Celine George
It is possible to hide or invisible some fields in odoo. Commonly using “invisible” attribute in the field definition to invisible the fields. This slide will show how to make a field invisible in odoo 17.
The French Revolution, which began in 1789, was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France. It marked the decline of absolute monarchies, the rise of secular and democratic republics, and the eventual rise of Napoleon Bonaparte. This revolutionary period is crucial in understanding the transition from feudalism to modernity in Europe.
For more information, visit-www.vavaclasses.com
Welcome to TechSoup New Member Orientation and Q&A (May 2024).pdfTechSoup
In this webinar you will learn how your organization can access TechSoup's wide variety of product discount and donation programs. From hardware to software, we'll give you a tour of the tools available to help your nonprofit with productivity, collaboration, financial management, donor tracking, security, and more.
The Indian economy is classified into different sectors to simplify the analysis and understanding of economic activities. For Class 10, it's essential to grasp the sectors of the Indian economy, understand their characteristics, and recognize their importance. This guide will provide detailed notes on the Sectors of the Indian Economy Class 10, using specific long-tail keywords to enhance comprehension.
For more information, visit-www.vavaclasses.com
2024.06.01 Introducing a competency framework for languag learning materials ...Sandy Millin
http://sandymillin.wordpress.com/iateflwebinar2024
Published classroom materials form the basis of syllabuses, drive teacher professional development, and have a potentially huge influence on learners, teachers and education systems. All teachers also create their own materials, whether a few sentences on a blackboard, a highly-structured fully-realised online course, or anything in between. Despite this, the knowledge and skills needed to create effective language learning materials are rarely part of teacher training, and are mostly learnt by trial and error.
Knowledge and skills frameworks, generally called competency frameworks, for ELT teachers, trainers and managers have existed for a few years now. However, until I created one for my MA dissertation, there wasn’t one drawing together what we need to know and do to be able to effectively produce language learning materials.
This webinar will introduce you to my framework, highlighting the key competencies I identified from my research. It will also show how anybody involved in language teaching (any language, not just English!), teacher training, managing schools or developing language learning materials can benefit from using the framework.
Ethnobotany and Ethnopharmacology:
Ethnobotany in herbal drug evaluation,
Impact of Ethnobotany in traditional medicine,
New development in herbals,
Bio-prospecting tools for drug discovery,
Role of Ethnopharmacology in drug evaluation,
Reverse Pharmacology.
We all have good and bad thoughts from time to time and situation to situation. We are bombarded daily with spiraling thoughts(both negative and positive) creating all-consuming feel , making us difficult to manage with associated suffering. Good thoughts are like our Mob Signal (Positive thought) amidst noise(negative thought) in the atmosphere. Negative thoughts like noise outweigh positive thoughts. These thoughts often create unwanted confusion, trouble, stress and frustration in our mind as well as chaos in our physical world. Negative thoughts are also known as “distorted thinking”.
Romanticism and Landscape: an Eco-critical approach to the Natural Image
1. International Journal of Arts and Social Science www.ijassjournal.com
ISSN: 2581-7922,
Volume 2 Issue 2, March-April 2019.
Diego Orihuela Ibañez Page1
Romanticism and Landscape: an Eco-critical approach to the
Natural Image.
Diego Orihuela Ibañez
(Art and DesignFaculty, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Lima)
ABSTRACT: The article traces the genealogy of the concept of Nature and landscape from the romanticism to
the second industrial revolution. This archeology of ideas aims to dissect Nature as a subject of discourse in
order to propose it as an “empty container” filled with fantasy and which has been instrumentalized by
(sometimes) conservative power axes. The ongoing ecological crisis demands a set of new theoretical
approaches towards what is that thing “out there” that we call Nature since the romantic paradigm only gives
away a passive and contemplative image that serves to economic exploitation and aesthetical consumerism.
Through the lens of eco-criticism, the aim is to dismantle and deconstruct the fantasy of Nature by proposing
different entry points from interdisciplinarity and critical studies.
KEYWORDS: Nature; Romanticism; Consumerism; Aesthetics
I. NATURAL IMAGE AND ROMANTICISM.
“Ecological writing keeps insisting that we are “embedded” in nature. Nature is a surrounding medium
that sustains our being. Due to the properties of the rhetoric that evokes the idea of a surrounding
medium, ecological writing can never properly establish that this is nature and thus provide a
compelling and consistent aesthetic basis for the new worldview that is meant to change society. It is a
small operation, like tipping over a domino…Putting something called Nature on a pedestal and
admiring it from afar does for the environment what patriarchy does for the figure of Woman. It is a
paradoxical act of sadistic admiration.” (Morton 2007: 5)
Romanticism was an artistic and intellectual movement which appears in Europe by the late XVIII century,
especially in Germany and England. The movement was a strong reaction to the Neoclassicist movement that
evoked the classical figures of the ancient Roman and Greek civilizations as the absolute beauty canons in art.
The romantic revolution takes place in an industrialized, urban and profoundly nostalgic Europe. About its
name, etymologically the root –romantcomes from the French roman (novel) but these relationships are not
fully clear. It was James Boswell who by the mid XVIII century mentions for the first time the term “romantic”
describing certain landscapes surrounding an exile experience. Romanticism being an intellectual and artistic
response to the rationalism present in the Enlightment and the neoclassicism put the creative weight on
emotions. These feelings being experienced by the artist were the engine of their creative activity and, being the
artist the catalyst of said feelings, this person became a creator/genius, an enlightened one.
The tormented poet was the only way to be a real artist and said artist needed a unique and particular voice.“We
found ourselves in Germany at the end of the XVIII century where, as in many other places, there was a huge
rebellion against the classical ideal of beauty which was confronted with much more poetic alternatives as the
picturesque and the sublime. This being followed by the displacement of the reason by the emotions. Some wise
men were expecting that a divine enlightment would reveal to them a series of inaccessible truths. This would
lead to understand romanticism as a soul attitude, one that designs in every human individual the creative
2. International Journal of Arts and Social Science www.ijassjournal.com
ISSN: 2581-7922,
Volume 2 Issue 2, March-April 2019.
Diego Orihuela Ibañez Page2
activity itself. It was in Nature were melancholy and restlessness found their place”(Fernandez: 2017, 8). As
Fernandez puts it, it was this individualism coming from the creator/genius that could translate itself easily into
nationalist discourses along the countries were the romanticism was stronger (France, Germany and England).
Something very important about the creator/genius is that the artist and their vision was the subject that held the
undisputed vision towards the world and national landscape; they thought about themselves as receptors of
higher emotions. This makes place for binary: a subject-human being and an object-world thing.By facing such
idealization towards the creative forces it is interesting how the movement was also very nostalgic. There was a
huge longing for past days, especially medieval ones, a longing for a non-industrialized world took by surprise
the artistic and intellectual imaginary. The denial of the present days, those of the bourgeois, the mechanic and
rigid life, transformed itself into an adoration of Nature and rural life. This paradigmatic shift on howbeauty was
understood holds a rich period of artistic and literary creation in the most industrialized countries in Europe.
This cultural production found its ways to leak into philosophical axioms and mainstream thinking which would
lead later to maintain certain scientific visions about the natural world.
“Romanticism is considered as a period in which profound cultural changes in literature, philosophy
and arts flourished but in which few scientific innovations took place. Science and romanticism have
been interpreted as irreconcilable universes since this movement may have cultivated values
completely opposed to scientific objectivity, characterized by a strong irrationalism and by the
exaltation of the subjective components of knowledge. In fact, there are several opinions judging this
possible cultural impact in the scientific praxis as a disastrous event, which produced no effective
progress in the experiment sciences of said period.” (Martin and Menéndez: 2007, 296)
Natural ideals of freedom as high grass fields where the wind blows are the perfect picture for Rousseau’s
approximations of men going back to Mother Nature. These same thoughts which captivated the Versailles court
are still relevant since they detonate with the same concern. The romantic point of view could affect directly on
how we are able to think, approach and react to the ongoing ecological crisis. Even the legacy of the poetic style
developed in the XVIII century can be tracked on how today we speak and write about the subject. For John
Mayer, the contemporary ecological writing seems to be only focused to find a new vision on nature
independently if this vision can be useful to transform human politics and societies. The forgotten paradises
were those containing a simple life and nation/state ideal, the volkgeist. The exaltation of a beauty only found in
emotions and this being translated into the motherly nation landscape generated a series of aesthetical
experiences present in several paintings by Delacroix (1863), Turner (1799), Constable (1837) and Spitzweg
(1808). Sublime landscapes in the kantian sense, filling the spectator’s vision who feels reduced but still
overwhelmed by emotions. Nature is an exotic and savage beauty, it is a fetishized paradise where to escape
from urban life, and it is, overall, a desirable past. The aesthetic of these pictorial pieces reinforced a series of
opposed binaries (as said before) such as city/nature, human/nature and technology/nature to mention a few. For
what started as a revolutionary movement it is interesting to see how nostalgia and denial of the present days can
be easily transformed into reactionary thinking.
“Nature is no longer a resource to extract benefits and productivity but it is also looked at as an
aesthetic, in other words, nature or landscape can also be used for enjoyment and for aesthetical
pleasure. More the human disassociates from needs better they can contemplate the value of things:
nature is no longer just ground, it is already something more than the food supplier. What is being
produced with this aesthetical vision is the conception of a world that possesses beauty in function of
itself and not by its utility, a new comprehension of beauty on Earth.” (Martinez: 2007, 14)
Later on, romanticism fragmented itself into several other post-romantic movements that eventually would
dispute their place to dictate the European artistic dynamics. Remains of the creator/genius, for example, can be
found in surrealism but many other of its proposals have been able to linger and even to shape certain visions
that we have nowadays about the natural world. In the present days, even if romanticism was not a revolutionary
political carrier per se, its nationalist content inspired the independence movements in the American continent.
The new national landscapes were human property and the administration of the world was developed under the
vision of the romantic poet in which the world is an object to be seen and possessed.
3. International Journal of Arts and Social Science www.ijassjournal.com
ISSN: 2581-7922,
Volume 2 Issue 2, March-April 2019.
Diego Orihuela Ibañez Page3
“In this sense, romanticism carried a fundamental epistemological transformation or a change of
episteme facing the tradition of the XVIII century, one that produced the alteration of cognitive models.
This change illustrated itself by the comprehension of the individual’s mind as a mirror, a fateful
reflection of reality to be understood by the metaphor of the lamp, able to recreate Nature form
subjectivity. Both poles of knowledge were necessary to acquire an objective thinking without denying
the important role that played the imagination and the interpretation of the experience proposed by our
senses.”
(Martín and Menéndez: 2007, 298)
The previous quotation from Dolores Martín and Roberta Menéndez build up a conceptual bridge towards a
construction of the natural imaginary. Romanticism has a profound impact even in the contemporary days by
shaping a diversity of normalized concepts that are used in aesthetics and critique. One of these is landscape.
This recurrent figure appears in the reactionary spirit of romanticism and they can be analyzed by genealogy and
art.
II. INFLUENCE IN CULTURE.
Romantic thought gets to expand quite fast over the European continent and other latitudes thanks to the
mechanization and mass production of printing. Meanwhile, in its cultural axes the movement starts to divide,
but it travels to new actions spheres like the American continent where it translates into independence rebellions
and a new way of mapping territory. The political comprehension of territory starts to be understood through
visual tools and poetry. Contemplation as a colonial exercise gives its first steps through fantasy and fetish.
Javier Arnaldo approaches to this issue, “the term “romantic” had already made an appearance by the late XVIII
century in English literature and its use as a poetic charge can be tracked throughout the Enlightment period, it
could be used to point out a “roman” style by its extravagant signature or, in a more positive way, as a synonym
of what in nature and artistic creation would be understood as attractive and as an emotional object by its
surreal, fantastic or surprising appearance. What is romantic acquires its significance as an aesthetical concept
by the end of the century.” (2004, 207). Romantic posture has a quick acceptation in mainstream culture.
Science is no distant from this allure, certain concepts that found their fundaments in poetics were taken as a
base where to build up a sense of the natural world a century later.
“This “scientific” notion of nature exploded quickly from the XIX century. The conceptual tissue made
up by Nature/Science/Rationality consolidated itself quite firmly, mainly by the increasingly successful
development of natural sciences and their hypnotic applications in all domains of life. Nevertheless, at
the same time, other significant chains started to wrap the sense of Nature.” (Swyngedouw: 2011, 48)
This new vision coming from the idea of a science of contemplation, of individualization and nationalism
synchronizes with the European colonial expansion. By using these relatively new disciplines such as zoology,
botany and anthropology, western science starts creating an inventory of raw matter from the global periphery in
order to take agency and administration on them to the detriment of the first nations which inhabited those
territories. “During the romanticism, two axes predominated: nationalism and liberalism. This translated into
arts as an introspection of the self and its link with Nature. By doing so, changing the genre of landscape
painting, mainly in the northern countries thanks to their pantheist attitude.” (Fernandez: 2007, 9). This
quotation allows to keep on the discussion about a Nature that permits to understand the world as a landscape
image and therefore, as an aesthetical pleasure to be consumed easily transformed into material consumerism –
pushing towards an aesthetical depredation that maintains the early capitalism which romanticism, in the first
place, wanted to get rid of. The colonial European enterprise in the XIX century alongside with the romantic
vision of territory nests a cultural and landscape fetish of the invaded latitudes and a facility for aesthetical and
material consumerism.“By the other hand, landscape reflected tragedy because of the separation of men and
nature. The romantic landscape is not being taken by Nature but seduced and overwhelmed by it. Far away from
the pastoral conceptions, romantic landscapes are essentially tragic. It is the scenery where nature and men
confront, and in which men acknowledge the dramatic nostalgia that invades them by affirming their own
ostracism on behalf of Nature.” (Fernandez: 2007, 9). The confrontation of Nature and men on consumerism,
4. International Journal of Arts and Social Science www.ijassjournal.com
ISSN: 2581-7922,
Volume 2 Issue 2, March-April 2019.
Diego Orihuela Ibañez Page4
contemplative or economical, allows to reinforce the human/nature dichotomy which for romanticism obeys an
ancient philosophical duo: subject/object.
One reason to argument in favor of the fusion of both dichotomies through the romantic period is that both duos
present vision and agency: man is the subject and Nature is the object. Men’s agency lies on their capacity to
passively contemplate by then possessing and administrating actively and then exercising their own gaze and
epistemological construction onto the object. For this dichotomic vision, nature is a beautiful landscape that lies
passively and it is infinite.
“In the landscape genre, the contemplation of Nature is just an external one: the fundamental gaze,
which puts in the confidence of imagination, it exist towards the exterior, the unconscious. Inside the
romantic painter’s canvas reality is shaped and dominated by the forces that come from this gaze. A
ruin, a mountain, a sunset, or a hurricane must recall and, therefore, visually reflect, not orographic or
climatological phenomena, but states of subjectivity. The acceptation of this premise separates radically
the romantic aesthetic from a realist preach and an impressionist one too.” (Argullol: 2000, 68)
In the romantic pictorial production and those that followed, landscape has an especial protagonism. There are
infinite meadows, indomitable mountains, and urban scenery (as Argullol proposes by mentioning impressionist
preaches). These three characteristics can respond to 1. The domesticated landscape, this means the already
worked territory ready to be consumed and useful,2. The sublime frontiers and the phallic elevation of
contemplative geographies by their masculine power, and 3. The human natural space: the Enlightment urban
castle with a romantic interior design. Nature seems to be always divided by its practical quality or its
contemplation quality present in western art and literature. Cultural productions reinforce more and more the
passive visions of Nature but also the dichotomy that something beautiful and wild lies outside the barriers of
civilization. Maybe a lens that Paul Gauguin could expand in a transparent way by translating the indomitable
and savage Nature into the women he found in the south pacific ruled by the French empire at that time. “This
barriers situate themselves in order to see Nature beyond a knowledge resource, but maybe as the face of an
incontrollable force, of sickness and death, catastrophe and the expression of what makes men conscientious of
their finitude.” (Fernandez: 2017, 15). Once planted, the natural fantasy is diversified into a series of human
shaped desires, almost flirting with the eros of power and domination. At the end, Nature seems to be an empty
container.
III. DICHOTOMY.
Coming back to romanticism, Francisco CalvoSerraller offers and interesting recompilation of some of the
previously discussed concepts. About the sublime, it can be taken by different perspectives, the most well-
known one is the kantian definition where the sublime is thought as a counterpart of beauty where understanding
and imagination are engaged in a free game. For Kant, the sublime is a blocked game of these two faculties.
Aesthetically this brings a problematic contemplation, a sort of emotional and intellectual wallow where outside
mellowness exist dynamics and lack of control.
“In the XVIII century, and significantly associated with the industrial revolution, political changes are
coming to the urban expansion and overall to the idea that Nature is already well dominated. A reaction
towards the domesticated, rationalized and ordered Nature is being born, at the same time an attraction
for its vast scope takes place. The sublime is a term which etymologically means what is outside every
limit, the unlimited. As an aesthetical feeling, it identifies with the sense of overflow by the natural
phenomena and disasters. (…) In order to identity this feeling we have to look at Turner’s landscapes,
we have to think about the excursions, to think about that restlessness that moves alpinists to do things
as surprising as climbing up the Himalaya without knowing if there is going to be a comeback.
Suddenly, men longs for the lack of control and risk. All the contemporary landscape is marked by
tragedy due, precisely, by this wish to find in Nature what is not familiar, but everything that is
completely external to men and exceeds its possibilities of control.” (Serraller: 2005, 262)
5. International Journal of Arts and Social Science www.ijassjournal.com
ISSN: 2581-7922,
Volume 2 Issue 2, March-April 2019.
Diego Orihuela Ibañez Page5
With the sublime, the natural vision of traditional romanticism crystallizes the dichotomy outside/inside which
obeys a savage Nature being somewhere “outside” and a domesticated and controlled “inside”. The sciences and
arts of the outside have to deal with the problematic contemplation of the sublime while the arts and sciences of
the inside can deal with the traditional concept of beauty according to the kantian genealogy. Once designated in
another conceptual space, natural sciences stop creating just archive in order to build up a comparative analysis
of what they have discovered. The figure of the western adventurer in foreign lands starts to be very attractive
and feeds the popular imagination of Nature (territorial and cultural) as a counterpart of the city. A highly
aestheticized literature with romantic hints appears exploding this vision. “Much of the romantic literature
emerges from the desperate feeling of alienation from the natural world and it expresses an anxious attempt to
reestablish a vital and sustainable relationship between humanity and the fragile planet in which we live.”
(McKusick: 1997, 123 – 124). Being outside Nature, the human being does not belong to this order. Mountains,
animals, plants, insects, viruses, mushrooms, rocks and water are not indexed in the same category as ourselves,
so-called civilized human beings. By having a foot (and not a paw) outside this category that builds up “the rest
of the world” the alienation is fully done in a conceptual and material level.
“Romantic mind is so voraciously longing to achieve the totality and unicity that erects the natural
spirit as the genuine aesthetical representative of its angst: this is the reason why landscape, even from
the renaissance crisis, constitutes itself as the main romantic genre.” (Argullol: 2000, 46)
These landscapes are different and distant, nostalgic but nonetheless they are desirable in a pragmatic way. Its
contemplation is beautiful through the romantic representation, facing such landscapes would be cathartic
through the sublime presentation and its relationship is dichotomic by becoming the opposite of human
civilization. The “Discourse on Inequality” by Rosseau1
, for example, projects certain fantasies of simplicity
over his idea of men in the state of Nature and he observes the increasing alienation of the subject individual
while human beings form communities, develop governance and interchange systems, invent languages and
gradually subordinate their autonomy and self-sustain capacity to the traps of civilization (Harrison: 2006).
Romanticism aimed to be an artistic and intellectual movement that could rise a strong critique of
industrialization and the neoclassical and rationalist visions of the European Enlightment. This enterprise is well
achieved by proposing a new status quo of conceptual axioms about the natural world plagued with
dichotomies: nature/human, landscape/city, natural/artificial, etc. By the end of the second industrial revolution2
the horizon is different, and the colonial and capitalist conquer is already done.
How to think about Nature once it is no longer there? How to understand a new ecological horizon in which the
dichotomy is still operating? How to face the natural crisis of the XXI century from a critical approach?
IV. ECOCRITICISM.
Ecocritical thinking is a fairly new field with an ongoing development, especially in the North American and
European academy from the 1990s. The main idea is to discuss about concepts of Nature found in the literary
and artistic production from the present and the past in order to relativize human visions about the world. For
the ecocritical gaze, the natural world is highly idealized thanks to artistic movements, especially romanticism.
“These debates (Ecocriticism) investigate on how these texts (romantic ones) got to participate in the proto-
ecological discourse about work and the function of humans in this world. (The debates) not only focus on
testing if one author is green or not, but also they try to distinguish through research the ideological use for
which Nature has been used” (Salt: 2001). A proposal which goes against the natural idealism can be found in
“The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology” by CherrylGlotfelty published in 1996 in the United
States. The text aims for a critical lecture of literature and the means of academic comprehension about the
subject of Nature looking for alternative entry points based not only in science but also in philosophy and
artistic proposals.
1
« Discours sur l’origine et les fondements de l’inégalité parmi les hommes », Jean Jaques Rousseau, 1754.
2
1850-1970.
6. International Journal of Arts and Social Science www.ijassjournal.com
ISSN: 2581-7922,
Volume 2 Issue 2, March-April 2019.
Diego Orihuela Ibañez Page6
“It is not easy to define in a satisfactory way what is Ecocriticism, but we can affirm that we are talking
about a concept that started to mint inside the Anglo-Saxon academy, especially the American one
from the second half of the 90s decade. One of the first times the term was used can be found in 1995,
year in which an American Literature professor in the Harvard University, Lawrence Buell, published
“The Environmental Imagination” in which the note number 20 mentions vaguely the word
Ecocriticism to define it as “study of the relationship between literature and environmental conducted
in a spirit of commitment to environmentalism praxis.” (Buell: 1995, 430). Echoing this need to hunt
the literature theory with the ecologist commitment shortly after in 1996, an anthology of critical texts
configured by this criteria’s is published. “The Ecocritical Reader” is a book still considered a mayor
hit mark of the discipline. In this way, it is rare to find nowadays a book that ignores what Glotfelty
proposed as Ecocriticism in the general introduction of the piece: “Simply put Ecocriticism is the study
of the relationship between literature and the physical environment.” (Garcia: 2017, 80)
In the text “Ecocriticism” published by Greg Garrad in the year 2004 in the UK, a deeper gaze on the
environmental cataclysm is introduced. Pollution is also taken into account as one of the many “natures” to
acknowledge and study. Finally Timothy Morton, in his 2007 text “Ecology without Nature”, approaches the
subject of Nature with a multidisciplinary problematization from arts and philosophy. All the authors previously
mentioned have an interest to diversify even more their critical capacities through this new discipline by being
flexible to become a coherent theoretical set for other latitudes. What romanticism achieved Ecocriticism can
dismantle and it can allow those who were understood as savage and un-civilized to have agency and a voice.
“Ecocritical theories aim for some consciousness about the environment inside the literary debates
which would bring, according to the experts, a new ecological ethic. This field presents a level of
diversity that goes in parallel with cultural studies since the biotechnological changes facilitated the
study of cultural comprehension about Nature (Heise: 2006, 506). In the same way, in its third stage it
has promoted an intense dialogue with ecocritical perspectives articulated in other countries: England,
Japan, Australia, Latin-American and Africa.” (Rosa-Bustos: 2004, 64-65)
The discursive permeability in Ecocriticism exist to understand the vast diversity of natures that are present in
the “outside” of the popular imagination. To understand the cultural construction that is that empty container
that we call Nature is a first step to analyze the world, not as a study object (thing that would reinforce even
more the dichotomy), but as a subject with agency who is looking back at us. This is how the ecocritical thought
needs interdisciplinary entries in order to better comprehend the ways in which the world can look back at us
and even objurgate us. Fiction, art and cinematography are big allies of Ecocriticism and permit a dynamic sway
in the core of its debates.
“From all these definitions we can extract two characteristics that keep themselves invariable beyond
the nuance differences: on one side, Ecocriticism occupies about the relationship about literature and
the environment, on the other one, it does it from the openly militant consciousness on the ecologist
movement. This explains that, in recent work, Ecocriticism does not appear as an analysis method, but
as concern to translate the cultural study fields into the ecological issues (Clark: 2001, 303). Besides, an
insistent appellation to transgress the academic limits into the sciences, to forge a transformative and
sustainable discourse and, by the immersion in cultural history, to understand the complex relationship
between the human and not human are some of its most important goals.” (Garcia: 2017, 81)
As Garcia mentions in the previous quotation, Nature is an existent entity outside any postmodernist interest that
would put it as only a social construction. The “outside” exists, Ecocriticism does not want to deny the material
presence of what we call Nature but it does search for an ecological thinking that can be critical, diverse and
creative far away from passive and contemplative concepts of the romantic tradition. Precisely this is the part
that Timothy Morton finds tricky and difficult. To understand the material dimension of Nature still knowing
that it has real effects on life and existence qualities but at the same time recognizing the fantastic and romantic
narrative that has shaped it.
7. International Journal of Arts and Social Science www.ijassjournal.com
ISSN: 2581-7922,
Volume 2 Issue 2, March-April 2019.
Diego Orihuela Ibañez Page7
V. NATURAL PROBLEMATIC.
If Ecocriticism pushes us to deconstruct certain axiomatic concepts inside the fantasy of Nature, which are the
steps to follow? A first one would be to start questioning nature for real outside the shadows of romanticism and
aestheticized idealisms. If we do some surveys, Nature will probably be described as animals, oceans, mountains
and valleys… this is a first approximation and it is quite romantic. At first glance, we consider and appreciate
Nature as everything that is useful and disposable to be consumed (aesthetically or economically). Geography
and edible animals and plants are quite regular figures appearing once we call out Nature in our heads, but, what
about all the other entities, existences and lives that are not “useful” to the human being?
“Nature is, indeed, very difficult to understand. Is it about the physical world around and inside us, as
trees, rivers, mountain chains, HIV, microbial life, elephants, petrol, cacao, diamonds, neutrons, our
hearts, trash, etc.? Does it includes things as the roses in the botanical garden, fresh orange juice,
adventure island in Disneyland (one of the most diverse ecotopes in the world), an eco-building by
Richard Rogers, served water fluids, genetically modified tomatoes or a hamburger? Should we expand
it to include greed, avarice, love, compassion, hunger and death? Or should we think about it in terms
of dynamics, relationships, and relational processes as climate change, hurricane movements,
proliferation and extinction of species, erosion, droughts, food chains, tectonic plates, nuclear energy
production, black holes, supernovas and things like that? (Swyngedouw: 2011, 42)
This is a first step towards deconstructing notions of nature. The anthropocentrism that holds the romantic vision
is not unjustified, it comes from the Europeanrenaissance where the gaze and epistemological center was the
human being. Such highly anthropocentric vision of Nature shape the ideas around the natural world as passive.
Those entities or lives that, peripherally, do not contribute to the human cultural (western) expansion or the
capitalist model are undesirables. Keeping the line drawn by Swyngedouw, HIV, fungus, pollution, hot lava,
excrement, cancer cells, amongst other things are thought as not necessarily natural elements, they are thought
more as the rage of Nature, the demons inside it. On the other hand, diseases or industrial waste are conceived as
elements existing outside Nature, they are the human industrialization’s bastard children or at its best, parasite
life forms. One gaze that compels to problematize in a schematic way three discourses about Nature is Timothy
Morton’s one in his 2007 work.
“In a fairly recent book, titled Ecology without Nature, Timothy Morton makes reference to Nature as
“a transcendental term with a material mask that lies at the end of a potentially infinite series of other
terms that merge into it” (Morton: 2007, 14). Morton places at least three senses or spaces in our
symbolic universe about Nature. First, it comes as a floating significant, the content of Nature
expresses itself through a variety of diverse terms that all together cast into the name of Nature: olives,
fish, parrot, SRAS virus, love, reproduction, the alps, mineral water, markets, desires, profit, CO2,
money, competence… said metonymical lists offer some – but still unstable, significance, but they are
intrinsically slippery and they refuse to show a more consistent sense. Nature, as a metaphor, stays
empty, its meaning can only be extracted as metonymical references or other significants.”
(Swyngedouw: 2011, 42)
Coming from Swyngedouw leaded by Morton, the concept of the empty container comes back to the article as
the point 0 in the metonymical series. In other words, Nature’s definition depends on the enunciation of figures
that do not answer to the question “what is nature?” rather they are a list of elements that got to be classified as
such. It seems that Nature requires the existence of such series in order to justify itself, its real definition is
indeed slippery because it aims to give away “entry passes” by cataloguing what is Nature and what is not.
“Second, Nature has a “law force, which is a norm to measure deviation” (Morton: 2007, 14). This the
kind of invocation of Nature that is used, for example, to normalize heterosexuality and to think
queerness as some sort of deviation and against nature identity and to put competition against human
beings as something natural and altruism as a merely cultural product” (Swyngedouw: 2011, 43)
8. International Journal of Arts and Social Science www.ijassjournal.com
ISSN: 2581-7922,
Volume 2 Issue 2, March-April 2019.
Diego Orihuela Ibañez Page8
A second discourse is the one about the natural and the unnatural. As the previous author mentions, Nature has
been used as a measurement unit to validate and condemn human actions. Taking Nature as a scatological issue
transforms its norms as supposedly inviolable laws which have to stay and long in order to continue balanced
life on Earth. These visions come more from fantasies about harmony and stability that are not the result of
analysis or observation of the natural world. In the validation of human activities and identities, Nature acts as a
foucaultian exercise of power. The ruler of the regime is in the tacit aspect of Nature, that empty container
without definition that fills itself with any reactionary ideology that can fit in and, most of all, needs an
undisputable dogma. For Ecocriticism, all Nature is strange and dynamic, there is no norms, just the becoming.
“Nature embraces a plurality of fantasies and desires, for example the dream of a sustainable Nature,
the desire to make love in a warm beach under the sunset, the fear of Nature’s revenge if we keep
producing CO2… Nature is always summoned as the substitute of other passions and desires, often
repressed and invisible. The lacanian objet petit a around which we conform our motivations and that
hides the lack of a firm ground on which we can support our subjectivity (Zizek, 1999b). It is a
procedure in which we project on Nature – displaced on otherness – our desires and fears, it is falling
down the abyss that separates the difficult ontic core of what is real repressed from the symbolic world
where we live in. It is that kind of fantasy that unfolds in discourses that aim for taking back the true
human harmony – original, presumably, but lost nowadays – through the restoration of the lost balance
of the world. Here Nature is put as the external terrain that offers the promise, if we know how to
understand it, of finding or producing a really happy and harmonious life (Stavrakakis, 1997a)”
(Swyngedouw: 2011, 43)
A third and last point from Morton is that Nature is an empty container that seems to have some sort of desire
gadget. In a more aestheticized sense we can talk about an Eros fantasy of Nature. This quality is directly taken
from Romanticism and the campaign to flee the big cities, industrialization and the routine. Ideas such as
skipping one day of work to go to the beach to see the sunset are discursive figures highly charged with
romantic aspirations and therefore highly desirables. Nature is some “other reality” where to scape. This last
point is maybe the main reason why tearing apart the notion of traditional Nature is so difficult. Without the
fantasy, the vision of a savage yet desirable outside dies. Nature suddenly is no longer an exotic foreign country
and maybe we will have to understand that we are that exotic place and we inhabit it. The duality of desire falls
down and there is nowhere to scape but the gaze of the subject and the object combined in one. This dissolution
deconstructs contemplation as it was put together on previous pages but for Ecocriticism it may be the only way
to face the conditions of ecological devastation in which we live in.
Finally, the existence of a romantic Nature, passive, ready to be consumed and beautiful exists for the benefice
of its own depredation, of its own idyllic eroticism and of its own fetishization ready to be tamed. It is not
gratuitous the quote with which I decided to start the article. Nature seems to be the victim of a sadistic gaze
longing for control and desire, a double dynamic that does not allow to act but it begs for dominance. Untouched
lands in the world can only exist as a reservoir of unexploited capital, as some worldwide conflicts have shown
already. Nature is an abstraction… what is savage embodies the freedom of determination, the bedrock of
capitalist ideology. It is always “somewhere”, behind the showcase at the distance as an aesthetic experience,
even when you are in it, as much of writing about nature shows (Morton: 2007). In order to think and re-think
what Nature iswithout falling into its slippery abysses, it is important to keep in mind a critical approach, having
into account the tradition of its poetic construction but moving forward an action sphere were sacristy only
exists for the good of a bigger panorama.
9. International Journal of Arts and Social Science www.ijassjournal.com
ISSN: 2581-7922,
Volume 2 Issue 2, March-April 2019.
Diego Orihuela Ibañez Page9
REFERENCES:
[1] R. Argullol, La atracción del abismo. Un itinerario por el paisaje romántico(Destino,Barcelona, 2000, 68).
[2] J. Arnaldo, El movimiento romántico. Historia de las ideas estéticas y de las teorías artísticas contemporáneas,La balsa de la Medusa
nº 80, 3ª ed., Vol. I, Valeriano (ed.), Madrid,2004, 207.
[3] F. Calvo Serraller, Los géneros de la pintura (Taurus, Madrid, 2005, 262).
[4] M. Fernandez, El romanticismo alemán y la naturaleza (Universitat de les Illes Balears, Philosophy and HumanitiesFaculty,
Baleares, 2017, 8, 9 and 15).
[5] J. Garcia,Ecocrítica, ecologismo y educación literaria: una relación problemática, Revista Interuniversitaria de Formación del
Profesorado, 90 (31.3),2017, 79-90.
[6] G. Harrison, Romanticism, Nature, Ecologyhttps://www.rc.umd.edu/pedagogies/commons/ecology/harrison/harrison.html, 2006.
[7] D, Martín and R. Menendez, La Objetividad en el Romanticismo: El Empirismo Imaginativo en J.H. Lambert y en J.W. Ritter, LULL,
vol. 30,2007, 295-318.
[8] L, Martinez, El paisaje: el Romanticismo como búsqueda de lo sobrenatural, de lo trascendental, de la divinidad en la naturaleza,
Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, ArtsFaculty, Spain, 2007, 14.
[9] J, McKusick, Introduction: Romanticism and Ecology (The Wordsworth Circle, 1997).
[10] T, Morton, Ecology without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics (Harvard University Pres, United States, 2007).
[11] E. Swyngedouw, ¡La naturaleza no existe! La sostenibilidad como síntoma de una planificación despolitizada, Urban Magazine.
Articles And Research Notes, 2010, 42, 43, 48.
How to Cite:
Diego Orihuela Ibañez, ‘’ Romanticism and Landscape: an Eco-critical approach to the Natural Image’’.
International Journal of Arts and Social Science, 2019. 2(2), 01-09. ISSN: 2581-7922.
www.ijassjournal.com