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العنوان
An Ecocritical Reading of Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal Dreams and Prodigal Summer /
المؤلف
Abdelfattah, Marwa Hussein Ahmed.
هيئة الاعداد
باحث / Marwa Hussein Ahmed Abdelfattah
مشرف / Etaf Elbanna
مشرف / Nagwa Ibrahim
مناقش / Nagwa Ibrahim
تاريخ النشر
2019.
عدد الصفحات
129 P. :
اللغة
الإنجليزية
الدرجة
ماجستير
التخصص
الأدب والنظرية الأدبية
تاريخ الإجازة
1/1/2019
مكان الإجازة
جامعة عين شمس - كلية الآداب - قسم اللغة الانجليزية
الفهرس
Only 14 pages are availabe for public view

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Abstract

This study attempts to analyze the problems which faces the environment and thus, these problems are reflected upon human’s life in general. This study uses two eco-novels, Animal Dreams andProdigal Summer, by the American writer Barbra Kingsolver. These two novels make explicit statements about the environment and its direct connection with human’s life. In order to analyze these two novels, I used ecocritical approach which is mainly concerned with analyzing scientific, social and moral commitments in dealing with nature. Additionally, this ecological approach intersects with critical approach like Bakhtinian dialogism, Feminism, trauma theory and Post-colonialism. All these theories intersect together to analyze the reasons behind environmental degradation in an attempt to protect both environment and human’s life. This appears obliviously through the aims of the ecocriticism.
Accordingly, this thesis is divided into three chapters and a conclusion. Chapter 1 entitled Ecocriticism and Literature gives a background about the emergence of ecocriticism and how it intersects with other critical theories as well as the emergence of various genres of novels which tackles environmental issues and the author’s background. Chapter 2 namely “Entanglements”: Ecological Interdependence” deals with the fundamental connections between human beings and nature using Morton’s theory of entanglements. Chapter 3 Complex Global Environmental Crisis Narratives show how the environmental crisis is mainly caused by human meddling in the ecosystem.
Chapter 1 is an introduction to ecocriticism and the literature. It gives a clear definition of ecocriticism. According to the ecocritic, CheryllGlotfelty“ecocriticismshares the fundamental premise that human culture is connected to the physical world, affecting it and affected by it” (The Ecocriticism Reader, xix). This fact enables many critics to
investigate social and scientific problems from different perspectives to analyze the ecological problems.
Ecocriticismanalyzes the basic connections between various forms of oppression and intersects with other fields of criticism. For example, it intersects with school of feminism which is mainly concerned with the analysis of women’s operation. It illustrates how women and nature are commonly oppressed. Ecocriticism attempts to give nature and women a voice. Moreover, ecocriticism shares an interest with Bakhtiandialogics in giving voice to the voiceless. This is one of the main concerns of both theories. Further, ecocritisim attempts to analyze the oppression which is resulted from traumatic experience. Furthermore, it analyzes the relationship between colonized people and their nature. Moreover, it studies how this relationship is affected.
This chapter also gives background the different genres of the novel and how it tackles the environmental problems. Moreover, it refers to the biographical background the author, Barbra Kingsolver. She studied biology and earned her masters degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. She believed that the best thing to do is to simplify these ecological concepts and deliver them into vernacular language. Thus, she starts writing her novels about ecological concepts.
Chapter 2 applies the ecological theory of “entanglements” for the ecocritic Timothy Morton. The theory is mainly about the interdependence of different forms of life, human, plants and animals. He deconstructs the system of life and proves that nothing in that world can exist without the other. In other words, life forms are derived from other life forms. Then, he said that forms of life are infinite. One cannot know when its end will be. He calls for acknowledging all forms of life, like animals life and plant life.
These previous concepts are found throughout the incidents of Animal Dreams. This novel tells the story of CodiNoline who returned to her hometown after 14 years. She forgets most of the things about her hometown, Grace. She feels stranger to her hometown, not only she feels stranger to people, but to the nature of her hometown as well. Throughout the novel, Codi tries to regain her identity and to recover her memory.
Through the incidents of the novel, Codi will discover how human beings are so much attached to the environment and how forms of life of human beings, animals, plants and nature in general are interdependent. She found that human beings and animals have the same reaction when they threatened. She also found that her relationship with the land is affected as a result of her traumatic experience. So, she seeks to give voice to animals and to regain her identity.
The same concepts are applied to the second novel, Prodigal Summer. The novel tells a story of three women whose main concern is to defend the nature. The first woman is Denna Wolf is a ranger who is trying to protect coyotes in the forest. The second one is LusaLandowski , a widow woman who struggles to learn farming concepts and to manage a farm. The third one is Nannie Rawley who challenges her neighbour about Darwinian concepts. These three characters will be connected by the end of the novels by family and community ties.
The novel starts and ends by a sentence which acknowledges the existence of different forms of life. Deanna can acknowledge the existence of the coyotes and can also acknowledge their rights in life. Also the second character, Lusa realizes the interconnectedness of human and non-human life through tracking the life form of the butterflies. Nannie also recognizes that spraying the plants with pesticides affects the form of life of the insects and tries to stop her neighbour from spraying trees.
Chapter3 tackles how the environmental crises are caused as a result of being unaware about the fundamental connections between humans and non-humans. This chapter applies Lawrence Buell concept of “toxic discourse” and applies some concepts of the Environmental Justice Movement. Buell believes that for human beings to have healthy life, healthy environment should be found. So, he calls for putting environment and human health into consideration. Environmental Justice Movement also highlights the strong tie between human culture and his physical environment. Stressing this concept means saving the entire ecosystem and, thus, human’s life and cultural memory.
Accordingly, the incidents in Animal Dreams, takes place in a multicultural society which consists of mixed Spanish, Mexican and Native Americans. Moreover, Codi seeks recovery of the damaged land of her hometown as there is a mining company contaminating the river of the hometown.
Animal Dreams addresses the toxic discourse which expresses anxiety concerning the environment which is contaminated by chemicals. Moreover, the novel refers to the environmental degradation to which the land is exposed. Women responded to that kind of environmental degradation. By the end of the novel, women were able to raise the voice of the land and to defend it.
The same thing happens in the incidents of Prodigal summer. Female characters in this novel are attached to the land. Each one of the three characters in the novel defends the environment. Deanna defends the coyotes and struggles against their extinction. Lussa also struggles for stopping planting tobacco. Moreover, Nannie struggles against using the DDT and spraying the plants.
The conversations within the novel stress the importance of stopping meddling in the ecosystem as it is the main cause for environmental problems. Each and everybody in this novel struggle for defending the land and protect it from being contaminated. Moreover, the novel insists upon the importance of cooperating between people in the community and their environment.
To conclude, this thesis is written to analyze human / nature relationship. It attempts to shed the light upon some environmental concepts. The representation of nature in both novels reveals a lot about human / nature relationship. Moreover, both novels include scientific details which enable to understand the issues which connect human beings with nature. Realizing the common things between human beings and nature allow to understand the origin of environmental crises and allow to try to find solutions and avoid other environmental problems.