Literary Theory and Methodology

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Literary Theory and Methodology

• Session Four Green Reading

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Agenda

• Summary
• Green reading and ecocriticism an introduction
• Wordsworth, Tintern Abbey

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Summary key oppositions

• Literary theory
• Postcolonialist theories
• Gay, lesbian, and queer theories

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Literary theory key oppositions

• Theory and literature

Theory --------- literature
Literature ------------ theory
Literature-theory
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Postcolonialist theories key oppositions

• Western non-western
• The Occident the Orient
• White black
• Center periphery

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Gay, lesbian, and queer theorieskey oppositions

• Heterosexuality homosexuality
• Normal queer

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Green reading and ecocriticism an introduction

• Culture nature
• Human non-human
• Rationality, reason animality, nature

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Green reading and ecocriticism an introduction

• Mind body
• Reason emotion
• Freedom necessity

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Green reading and ecocriticism an introduction

• Civilised primitive
• Master slave

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Green reading and ecocriticism an introduction

• Male female

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Green reading and ecocriticism an introduction

• A continuum of related ideas

Mind body
Civilised primitive
Male female
Culture Nature
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Green reading and ecocriticism an introduction
O my America! My new-found land, My kingdom,
safliest when with one man manned, My mine of
precious stones, my empery, How blest I am in
this discovering thee! (John Donne, Elegy XIX.
Going to Bed, ll. 25-30)
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Green reading and ecocriticism an introduction

• Nature on the agenda
• Global warming
• Deforrestation
• Pollution
• Decimation of species
• Animal rights

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Green reading and ecocriticism an introduction

• What does nature have to do with literature and
  art and how?

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Green reading and ecocriticism an introduction

• the study of the relationship between literature
  and the physical environment (Cheryll Glotfelty)
• the study of explicitly environmental texts by
  way of any scholarly approach or, conversely, the
  scrutiny of ecological implications and
  human-nature relationships in any literary text,
  even texts that seem, at first glance, oblivious
  of the nonhuman world (Scott Slovic)

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Green reading and ecocriticism an introduction

• a person who judges the merits and faults of
  writings that depict the effects of culture upon
  nature with a view toward celebrating nature,
  berating its despoilers, and reversing their harm
  through political action (William Howarth)