Introduction of Ecocriticism and Anthropocentrism

Phattarapol Thongcharoensub

 "Alas, all of my Nature. 

  Descended with ones' Pleasure

  Cascaded shamelessly the Mortal

  Shall Nature once deny thine Arrival?"

  

 What is Ecocriticism?

        In the core of the absolute interrelationship between humans and nature, especially animals, they can be forevermore particularized in a myriad of facets. Humans or Homo Sapiens tend to engage and cling to the world of nature from the beginning; nature is portrayed to be resources, residence, and fortress for humans to live, consume, and protect themselves from other known and unknown detriments and deprivations. Pertaining to this exposition of their interconnectedness, humans and nature are preponderantly inseparable....  


Source: https://www.ecowatch.com/forest-facts-2646992339.html and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Riau_deforestation_2006.jpg


       Ecocriticism can be perfectly defined as the theory to understand how relationship between humans and nature is depicted in literary works to raise humans’ environmental awareness and concerns (Glotfelty & Fromm, 1996, pp. 18-19). The theory itself means to shed light on how nature in the story is treated or maltreated by human characters. Literary works are deemed mediators to convey the theory, since the theory has been applied in the works to investigate how humans' cultures and practices can affect the world of nature.


What is Anthropocentrism?

      .... Nonetheless, humans have not been deemed equivalent to the entities of nature since the creation of humans. According to Genesis I in the old testament of the Bible, Gersdorf and Mayer (2006) allusively recollect in their book that the Jesus Christ has never created humans: Adam and Eve, to be equal to previously created animals, as they are depicted and commanded by the Jesus Christ to expend and consume the animals as much as they want, which is humans’ path of deliverance (pp. 114-117).


Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-Ancestral-Tree-Smallwood-Reveley-and-Bailey-Elements-of-Biology-1948_fig19_257767779
   

   The ideology of anthropocentrism is a human-centric theory to propagandize humans’ separation from nature. Accordingly, anthropocentrism blatantly rejects that nature holds a valuable status in humanity. It is believed that merely humans hold such a status in the world. Owing to this biased idea, humans become conclusive that they are fully entitled to use up and take advantage of nature, such as deforesting to construct buildings, setting fire to forests for profitable plantations, and quarrying (Smith, 2019).




Further Reading:

Gersdorf, C., & Mayer, S. (2006). Nature in Literary and Cultural Studies: Transatlantic Conversations on Ecocriticism. Rodopi.

Glotfelty, C., & Fromm, H. (1996). The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology. University of Georgia Press.

Smith, S. (2019). Anthropocentrism in English literature studies. International Journal of Arts and Social Science, 2(5), 66–67.

                                                                                                    

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