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Ecocriticism

When we observe the era in which we live, which is characterized by technological and scientific advancement, it is clear that the avant-gardist aspirations in all the fields mostly all head toward a reconciliation with the environment. Economy aspires for sustainable development. Tourism aspires for  green tourism or what is called ecotourism. Car industry aspires for environment friendly cars using green energies. Agricultural production advocates the label "BIO" or "Organic". The same with clothing industry and fashion, there is a coming back to natural raw materials.

If the avant-guard favors ecology it is due to the drastic consequences of massive industry on the environment. The flagrant threat on the environment (and by extension on humans' survival) by industry has led to the elite's concern about ecology.

Literature as a vessel that carries avant-guardist ideas contributes in spreading the ecological concern. Many literary texts and artistic works has dealt with the environment long before current concern about the environment. 
Examples:
• Algerian Chaabi Music mirrors the Algerian culture's interest in and respect for birds. Probably because Algerians' longing for freedom during colonial times made birds stand as a revered symbol for freedom.

• Many post-colonial texts depict the coming of the colonizer by imposing his ways and order as a disturbance to the harmony that the colonized has with his natural environment. Colonialism causes disorder and chaos by affecting the environment. This change in the relationship with the environment affects the colonized cultural ways. 

• The extinction of certain living organisms also lead to the extinction of culture. Certain animals or plants carry a cultural value and their disappearance cause the death of culture. In the same way, change in the environment (geography or climate) alter and distort culture.


Ecocritism:

According to Jelica Tošić in her article Ecocriticism - Interdisciplinary Study of Literature and Environment:
The word ecocriticism is a semineologism.2 Eco is short of ecology, which is con- cerned with the relationships between living organisms in their natural environment as well as their relationships with that environment. By analogy, ecocriticism is concerned with the relationships between literature and environment or how man's relationships with his physical environment are reflected in literature. These are obviously interdisciplinary studies, unusual as a combination of a natural science and a humanistic discipline. The domain of ecocriticism is very broad because it is not limited to any literary genre. […] It is appropriate here to stress that it was only in the 1990s that ecocriticism emerged as a separate discipline although it is a fact that the relationship between man and his physical environment had always been interesting to literary critics.3 This interest, both at the basic scientific level and in the metaphorical form in literature, can be explained in two ways: 1. man always exists within some natural environment or, according to Buell, there cannot be is without where,4 and 2. the last decade of the twentieth century was the time when it became obvious that the greatest problem of the twenty-first century would be the survival of the Earth. The first explanation is concerned with man's essential quest for personal identity or with his need and failure to find his roots. That is the reason why he is a life-long wanderer, on the one hand, and why he is always identified with the fa- miliar physical and cultural environment, on the other.5 The latter explanation results from the fact that man feels vitally threatened in the ecologically degraded world. Over- exploitation of natural resources and man's disregard of the air, water and soil that sustain him have given rise to the question of the survival of both man and the planet (Earth). The end of the twentieth century showed clearly that everyone had to do something to help the Earth survive. Ecocriticism is one of the ways in which humanists fight for the world in which they live. The reflection of that difficult struggle in the area of culture and spirit speaks for the urgency of action or the urgent need to do something in this respect. P44


Ecology is the science that studies the relationships between living organisms (biotic component) and their physical environment (abiotic component). In other words, ecology is concerned with the living organisms in their natural environment. Although it is not explicitly stated here, ecology is anthropocentric whereas deep ecology originating from the endeavor to promote life as such is biocentric and stresses the fact that man is only one part in a huge and complex life net in nature in which everything has a certain value. That is why man has to realize that he is not allowed and entitled to reduce the richness and variety of the living world except for the satisfaction of his basic needs. P45


Table 1. Ecological Terms as a Source of Ecocriticism and Language Study

Ecology
Ecocriticism and language study
ecology    
deep ecology
physical environment  
environmental imagination reimagination
biodiversity 

global environmental culture environmental unconscious 
endangered species  
ecocultural habitat
pollution   
toxic discourse literary hazards language pollutionpage3image21160

For further understanding of these concepts concepts check the article:




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