Ecocriticism: The Relationship Between Nature, Culture And Literature

Oikos is nature and krites is an mediator of taste who wants the house to be kept in good order, without any indiscriminate scattering of its original decoration. Since, ecology studies the relations between the species and habitats, Ecocriticism must see its complexity in what it attacks. Though the culture and nature are cast as opposites, in fact they constantly mingle, like water and soil in the flowing stream. Living in the era of prolonged environmental crisis the examining of natural-cultural relations has at last become a trend. Thus the ecological criticism deconstructs the relationship between nature, culture and literature. The term ‘literary ecology’ was first introduced by J.William Meeker, which refers to

“the study of biological themes and relationships which appear in literary works. It is simultaneously an attempt to discover what roles have been played by literature in the ecology of human species”.

He further says that ecology is an ancient theme in art and literature. He says that the physical world can be divided into two

In most literary theory the world is synonymous with society which is the social sphere. Ecocriticism expands the notion of ‘the world’ to include the entire Ecosphere connecting everything to everything else. The term ‘ecocriticism’ was possibly first coined in 1978 by William Rueckert in his essay Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism. According to Rueckert ecocriticism means “the application of ecology and ecological concepts of the study of literature”. Rueckert’s definition was concerned specifically with the science of ecology, which includes all possible relations between literature and the physical world. The term “ecocriticism” coined in 1978 lay dormant in critical vocabulary until 1989. Western Literature Association (WLA) meeting which held in Coeur d’Alene, helped to revive the term by Cheryll