10.4.1
Eco-Critical Analysis
Eco-Critical Analysis
Eco-Critical Analysis
Like feminism and Marxism, eco-criticism examines power relations but it does so from the perspective of our natural environment and the impact humanity is having on it.
Eco-criticism
Eco-criticism
- Eco-criticism is a relatively new way of examining texts, emerging from the Green movement which began to organise politically in the 1980s.
- Like feminism and Marxism, eco-criticism examines power relations but it does so from the perspective of our natural environment and the impact humanity is having on it.
- Connection
- Connection
- The following ideas are central tenets of eco-critical thinking:
- “Everything is connected to everything else” and eco-criticism should explore how nature and humanity are interconnected.
- Contrast
- Contrast
- Early forms of nature writing (e.g. the pastoral tradition of the 16th and 17th centuries) would contrast rural and urban life, associating the countryside with innocence and the town or city with corruption.
- Realities of the countryside
- Realities of the countryside
- More modern criticism (the post-pastoral tradition) considers earlier ideas of the pastoral as being “false” or “escapist” in that they hide or cover over the realities of the countryside.
- E.g. the unequal power relations between landowner and labourer
- Exploitation
- Exploitation
- The exploitation of the planet is connected to the traditional exploitation of women and minorities – eco-feminism.
Eco-critical considerations
Eco-critical considerations
- As a result, eco-critical approaches to literature may include:
- Exploring how nature (or the wild, or the city) is represented in a text.
- Examining how a writer creates and uses settings.
- Analysing the imagery used to describe nature.
- Considering if men and women write about nature differently.
1Introduction
1.1Introductions
2Act One
3Act Two
4Extended Passage Analysis
5Character Profiles
5.1Willy & Linda Loman
5.2Biff & Happy Loman
5.3Other Characters
6Key Themes
7Writing Techniques
7.1Structure
7.3Expressionism
8Historical Context
8.1Historical Context
9Literary Context
9.1Tragedy
10Critical Debates
10.1Introduction
10.2The Marxist Reading
10.3The Feminist Reading
10.4The Eco-Critical Reading
10.5Other Debates
Jump to other topics
1Introduction
1.1Introductions
2Act One
3Act Two
4Extended Passage Analysis
5Character Profiles
5.1Willy & Linda Loman
5.2Biff & Happy Loman
5.3Other Characters
6Key Themes
7Writing Techniques
7.1Structure
7.3Expressionism
8Historical Context
8.1Historical Context
9Literary Context
9.1Tragedy
10Critical Debates
10.1Introduction
10.2The Marxist Reading
10.3The Feminist Reading
10.4The Eco-Critical Reading
10.5Other Debates
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