Ecocriticism, Anthropocentrism and environmental ethics (Deep ecology and Shallow ecology)

 

The newest and most strongly emerging field of theoretical perspective is ecocriticism. Ecocritical studies emerged in the United States in the late 1970s and then spread to Europe. From its beginning, like postcolonial criticism, it was dominated by literary scholars. Most notably, the critic Lawrence Buell was influential in shaping the early definition of the field as one in which literature and the environment would be studied in relation to each other. In Buell’s work is an explicit commitment to environmental values. For this reason, the field is also sometimes called environmental studies, or green studies.

 

The word ‘ecocriticism’ itself was first used in 1978 by the critic William Rueckert in his essay ‘Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism’ and there now exists an established body of work focused on ecocriticism, including The Cambridge Introduction to Literature and the Environment (2010) and The Ecocriticism Reader (1996). Early ecocritical approaches focus on the role of the environment in literature, an interest that can be taken back as far as Raymond Williams’s The Country and the City (1973). It is concerned with how literature represents the environment and how this might contribute to understanding the environmental crises of the contemporary world. Recent ecocriticism has moved beyond the concern for the environment to questions about the human as a part of the ecosystem. In particular, ecocriticism ask questions about anthropocentrism (human centred thinking) – the way in which human thinking is centred on the human subject and how this shapes our perspective on the world and our treatment of it.   

Environmental Ethics

Environmental Ethics is an area of philosophy that attempts to establish that we have a moral obligation  to protect the environment. One of the most radical forms of environmental ethics is deep ecology  which was first advocated by Norwegian philosopher Arne Naess. The alternative to deep ecology is  often referred to as shallow ecology.

Deep ecology

The core theme of deep ecology is the claim that all living things have the same right to live and flourish. This means that the interests of other living beings have to be treated as seriously as the interests of humans. A rainforest, for example, can no longer be regarded as a valueless wood resource. Instead, it is a collection of living things, all of which have a right to live and flourish.
Nature is said to have intrinsic value. It is valuable even if humans can find no use for it. From a deep ecological perspective, climate change is wrong because it will affect the wellbeing of billions of living beings. Even if we could provide a way of protecting humans from climate change, it would still be a bad thing because many other living beings would suffer. Another aspect of deep ecology is the idea that we should expand our notion of who we are so that it includes the natural world. This is known sometimes as the expanded self. If we harm nature then we are really harming ourselves.

Deep ecology rejects anthropocentrism in favour of ecocentrism or biocentrism.

 

Shallow ecology

Shallow ecology rejects ecocentrism and biocentrism. Shallow ecologists claim that there is nothing necessarily wrong with the anthropocentric worldview. Nature is only valuable insofar as it serves  human interests. This is sometimes known as instrumental value. From this perspective, climate change is bad because it will affect human interests. It is humans that  will ultimately suffer if climate change is allowed to occur. Even if there was a way of protecting humans from the effects of climate change, shallow ecologists
would still think it was a bad thing. This is because the damage caused to other life forms would  adversely affect humans. Damage caused by climate change might, for example, mean that it is difficult to obtain natural resources. The extinction of species may mean that food supplies become harder to find. It might also be that humans would simply not like to live on a damaged planet.

The Stone Angel Novel by Margaret Laurence: A Detailed summary

 

“Summer and winter she viewed the town with sightless eyes. She was doubly blind, not only stone but unendowed with even a pretense of sight.”

 

Chapter 1

Ninety-year-old Hagar Shipley, who lives with her son Marvin and his wife, Doris, reminisces about her childhood in Manawaka, a fictional town in western Canada. She grew up in a large house with a stern father, her brothers, Matt and Daniel, and the housekeeper, Auntie Doll. She recalls the day Daniel fell through the ice while skating. He was rescued but developed a fever and died.

The narrative returns to the present. Over tea, Marvin says he is considering selling the house and buying something smaller. Hagar insists that the house is hers. Marvin reminds her that she made it out to him when he took over her business affairs, but Hagar still regards it as her own.

Chapter 2

Hagar is visited by the minister, Mr. Troy, but she has little patience with him. The narrative then returns to Hagar’s youth. She recalls being sent to an academy for young ladies in Toronto. She hoped to become a schoolteacher, but her father insisted that she keep the accounts at his store. Hagar met Brampton Shipley at a dance, and married him against her father’s wishes. Back in the present, Hagar discovers that Marvin and Doris are planning to move her to a nursing home. Later, she reminisces again, this time about the death of her brother Matt, and how her father cut her out of his will. After another episode in the present, in which it is clear that Hagar is forgetful and confused, she gazes at the photographs in her room. This prompts more reminiscence, of shopping trips with her husband, in which Bram’s boorish behavior made her ashamed of him. Marvin and Doris try to persuade Hagar that she will receive better care at the nursing home. Hagar wonders whether they will be able to force her to move.

Chapter 3

In the doctor’s office, Hagar recalls how Bram boasted about how successful he would be. He planned to switch from farming to raising horses, but he was not a good businessman and nothing ever came of his plans. When Hagar sees Dr. Corby, she loathes the physical examination. After supper, Marvin and Doris take her for a drive in the country, but Hagar is alarmed when she discovers they are visiting the nursing home. While there, Hagar finds fault with everything. She meets two residents of the home, Miss Tyrrwhitt, whom she dislikes, and Mrs. Steiner, to whom she takes a liking. She also recalls the birth of her first son, Marvin, and for a moment thinks a man in the summer house is her late husband.

Chapter 4

As she waits in the hospital for x-rays to be taken, Hagar returns to memories of her marriage. While her life was filled with household chores, her husband would often prefer to spend time duck-shooting or drinking. The doctor recommends that Hagar be admitted to the nursing home, but she still resists. She recalls her second son, John, who used to get into fights at school and engaged in dangerous games with his friends. She recalls how, after watching Bram create an embarrassing scene in the store formerly owned by her father, she decided to leave him. Back in the present, Marvin tells Hagar she must move into the nursing home in a week’s time.

Chapter 5

Hagar makes plans to flee before she can be taken to the nursing home. Then the narrative returns to her decision to leave Bram, who had no objections to her departure. Putting her plan of escape into action, Hagar cashes her old-age pension check, buys food supplies and takes a bus to a quiet place called Shadow Point. Once in the countryside she finds an abandoned building, near to the fish cannery, long since closed. It is in a valley near the sea. She inspects it with approval. Her new abode leads into another flashback, to her memories of her life after she left Bram, when she worked as a housekeeper for an elderly man, Mr. Oatley.

 

 

Chapter 6

Hagar wakes in her makeshift home. She shivers in the cold as she lies on a mildewed, damp mattress. The narrative goes back to Hagar’s life during the Great Depression of the 1930s. John found it hard to find work, and returned to Manawaka to live with his father. Two years later, Bram became sick, and Hagar returned to live at the family home. Drought and economic depression had hit the region, and Hagar found their house in poor condition. Bram was so sick he did not recognize her, and it was John who cared for his father until his death.

Chapter 7

Hagar wakes in the morning feeling sore. She drinks from a pail of rain water, and then walks down a path to the sea. She encounters two children playing, but when they see her they run away. She walks through a wooded area and rests on a fallen tree trunk, where she recalls her life with John after Bram died. Their relationship was a quarrelsome one. Eventually, when Hagar returned to Mr. Oatley’s house, John refused to accompany her. Returning the following year, Hagar learned that John planned to marry Arlene Simmons. Hagar disapproved of the match. The chapter ends in the present, with Hagar walking to the cannery.

 

Chapter 8

Hagar explores the cannery and settles herself on some old boxes. A seagull flies around the room; Hagar throws a box at the bird, injuring it. At night, a man enters the cannery. He is Murray Lees, who says he has come to the cannery for some peace and quiet. As they drink the bottle of wine Lees has brought with him, Lees tells Hagar about how his son was killed in a fire at the family home. The narrative returns to the past. Hagar relates how John and Arlene were killed when John bet his friend he could drive a truck across a railroad bridge. They were hit by a freight train. Hagar returned to Mr. Oatley’s house. In the cannery, Lees has been listening to her story and commiserates with her. They spend the night together, leaning against boxes. Lees comforts Hagar when she wakes up in the night sick.

Chapter 9

In the morning, Hagar finds that Lees has gone. He returns with Marvin and Doris, who express relief that Hagar is safe. Suffering from exposure, Hagar is taken to the hospital, where she lies in a ward of about thirty women, complaining about the lack of privacy. At first Hagar dislikes the patients in the adjoining beds, but later finds she has something in common with Elva Jardine, who comes from a town close to Manawaka. They exchange news of people they knew. When Marvin and Doris visit, they tell Hagar that Tina, her granddaughter, is getting married. Hagar pulls a sapphire ring from her finger, and asks Doris to give it to Tina.

Chapter 10

Hagar is moved into a semi-private room, which she shares with Sandra Wong, a sixteen year- old girl who is to have her appendix out. Hagar tries to calm Sandra’s fears. Doris visits with Mr. Troy. The clergyman sings a hymn, and the

words make Hagar realize that her unhappiness in life has been caused by her pride. Later, she receives a visit from her grandson. In the night, Sandra is in pain. Hagar fetches a bedpan for her, struggling the few steps to the bathroom and back. A nurse arrives and is horrified to find Hagar out of bed, but when the nurse leaves, Hagar and Sandra laugh together about the incident. Marvin visits,

and Hagar tells him he has always been good to her. Finally, Hagar, close to death, holds a glass of water in her hands and is ready to drink. The novel ends at this point.

 

The Stone Angel Novel by Margaret Laurence: An Introduction

The Stone Angel is a much celebrated Vollendungsroman novel (novel about old age), features the central character Hagar in her 90s, remarkably most of all characters are in their old age.

It was published in 1964, which was first won Margaret Laurence a wide and appreciative audience. In ninety-year-old Hagar Shipley, the restless, short-tempered and proud protagonist. Laurence creates a memorable character who reveals what it is like to be very old, physically frail, dependent on others, and tormented by memories of the past. Laurence also movingly depicts the sudden dawning of realization in Hagar’s mind of where she has gone wrong in life, and what has been the cause of her unhappiness. The novel suggests there is hope that even those most set in their ways can find the inspiration to change for the better, and that change, even at the last stage of life, is never wasted. The Stone Angel is also a realistic portrayal of life in the prairie towns of western Canada from the late nineteenth century to the Depression of the 1930s and beyond. Laurence went on to write four more books set in the same region, and these, together with The Stone Angel, are collectively known as the Manawaka series. Critics regard the series as one of the finest achievements in contemporary Canadian fiction. The Stone Angel in particular has continued to win respect for its structure, in which present and past are interlinked, its language, which captures the forms of Canadian speech of the period, and the universality of its theme, which at its broadest is one character’s search for self-understanding and redemption. 

 

 

The term Vollendungsroman, was coined in 1992 by literary critic Constance Rook as a companion to the more familiar term Bildungsroman. Bildungsroman refers to stories where the protagonist is coming of age, growing, developing or "building" towards adulthood or maturity. One of the most classic examples is Henry Fielding’s Tom Jones. A Vollendungsroman is a novel of winding down or completion. It focuses on the challenges presented in late life, chiefly to discover the tension between affirmation and regret. More examples for Vollendungsroman novels - Tolstoy, Leo. The Death of Ivan Ilych (1886), Spark, Muriel. Momento Mori (1958), Pym, Barbara. Quartet in Autumn (1977), Stegner, Wallace. The Spectator Bird etc.(1990)