this presentation is part of my academic studies in M.A in English at Department of English, M. K. Bhavnagar University

1.  Name : Vora Kiran Shamaldas.
 Class : M.A Sem. 2
 Roll no. 13
 Paper no. 7 Literary theory and
criticism – Indian poetics 2
 Topic : Eco – Criticism
 Email Id :
Kiranvora5196@gmail.com
 Submitted to : Smt. S.B. Gardi
Department of English M. K.
Bhavnagar University.

2. ECO-CRITICISM
Let's get green, people…!!!

3. What is the meaning of Eco-criticism?
 Eco criticism is the study of representations of nature in literary
works and of the relationship between literature and the
environment.
 The interdisciplinary study of literature and ecology.
 Eco criticism is a young literary theory.
 Eco criticism is the study of literature and environment from an
interdisciplinary point of view where all sciences come together
to analyze the environment and brainstorm possible solutions
for the correction of the contemporary environmental situation
 Eco critics consider the many relations between literature and
the natural world.

4. Man vs. Nature
 Anthropocentrism says that man
is in the center of everything.
 Bible – man is created from the
image of god.
 Man is most important creature
in the nature, man can use
everything including woman, let
the man rule everything.
 Eco criticism says that we all are
equal.
 we are all part of the nature.
 Man is not superior or inferior to
nature, but equal.
 Each and every thing in this
universe works in particular
cycle.

5. Nature is in the center.
 In eco criticism Nature is in the center,
not the man.
 It is study of literature and physical
environment.
 it is an earth centered approach to the
literary study.
 Ecologists think that man is the only
disturbnce in the univerese.
 Ecologically man is the ultimate villain.
 If there is no man on the earth then
everybody will live peacefully…!!!
 Because man has so much greed.
humans can be very self-centered.

6.  In Medieval time there was
God centered world, but in
Renaissance time
humanism rises and man
started challenging God and
nature.
 Dr. Faustus’ character, he is
scholar and atheist and he
challenges God. So
according to ecologist is
Faustus a villain?
 There is another Biblical
story about Jacob wrestling
with the Angel.

7. Earth days
 Earth Days is a 2009
documentary film about the
history of the environmental
movement in U.S
 Directed by Robert Stone.
 The film reviews the development
of the modern environmental
movement from the post-war
1950s and
 the 1962 publication of Rachel
Carson’s bestseller Silent Spring,
to the successful Earth Day
celebration in 1970.

8. Silent Spring
 Silent Spring is an environmental
science book by Rachel Carson
 The book was published on 27
September 1962
 It documented the detrimental
effects on the environment of the
indiscriminate use of pesticides.
 In 1996, a follow-up book, Beyond
Silent Spring, co-written by H.F.
van Emden and David Peakall was
published.
 In 2006, Silent Spring was named
one of the 25 greatest science books
of all time by the editors of Discover
Magazine

10.  American and British Romantic writers took a
particular interest in nature as a subject; Victorian
realists wrote about industrialization, which was
changing the natural landscape; explorers and
natural historians began to write about newly
encountered places and wildlife; and pioneers and
other travelers wrote of their experiences with an
emphasis on setting
 Two important books of criticism from the
mid‐twentieth century include Henry Nash Smith's
Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and
Myth (1950) and Leo Marx's The Machine in the
Garden (1964).
In literature

11.  Today, we've got this short-list batting for Team Eco criticism:
 Lawrence Buell He thinks we lack imagination when we
analyze nature. He's on that whole,
 Serpil Oppermann stresses the need for this theory to be
interdisciplinary. Like, how are we supposed to wrap our little
minds around the real meaning of the tree in A Tree Grows in
Brooklyn
 Dana Phillips This guy thinks we over-romanticize nature, and
that contemporary nature writing is basically a crock. He'd
really like for us to re-think what we mean when we use the
word nature to begin with, actually.
 These three proud lit critics don't always get along. But they all
agree on one central idea: both our imaginations and
understandings of the environment expand when we dissect
the relations between the human, the natural world, and the
text.

13.  In the process, some have rejected the label “Eco
criticism,” as it had become identified with one
particular strand of scholarship that is ideologically
aligned with Deep Ecology and strongly committed to
political activism, and suggested alternative
designations.
 such as “environmental/ecological literary studies” or
“green cultural studies.”
 the term Eco criticism has stuck as the name for what
is, today, a rather large tent, where work on nature
writing can sit comfortably next to animal studies, and
postcolonial theory rubs shoulders with ecofeminism.