Fdocuments - in New Bearings in Ecocriticism Conference Abstracts

National Conference on New Bearings in Ecocriticism: ABSTRACTS
NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
20th and 21st October 2011
PONDICHERRY UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
ABSTRACTS
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NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
20th and 21st October 2011
PONDICHERRY UNIVERSITY
ABSTRACTS
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Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:

Little we see in Nature that is ours...
[William Wordsworth (1770 –1850)]
CONFERENCE Committee:
Convener: Prof. Murali Sivaramakrishnan
Coordinators: Dr Clement Lourdes, Dr T Marx
Treasurer: Dr K. Reshmi
Committee Members:
Dr Sujatha Vijayaraghavan, Dr.H Kalpana,
Dr. Lakhimai Mili, Dr.Binu Zachariah
Dr.Visakha Devi, Dr.Ujjwal Jana
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Ecocriticism has evolved into a full-fledged theory over the past two decades. Its simple,
easy-to-understand, yet sufficiently complex theoretical positions, have been foregrounded
and debated across regional, national and international forums. A long time ago even
derogated as mere sentimental nature writing, this critical practice has grown much beyond
its amateur position in the theoretical gallery of the post-deconstructive intellectual
depression into a full-fledged method of critical practice, creating its own aesthetic, ethical,
social and political spaces. However, for the most, in our part of the world this has been
practiced in isolation and amidst small coteries, and sometimes often misconstrued,
resorted to, and even evoked for the wrong reasons inadvertently. Nevertheless, with the
founding and establishment of ASLE India, this forum has been consistently expanding and
becoming more integrated diversifying into new directions with renewed impetus. Dialogic
and non-deterministic, this critical practice has now come into its own maturity—this
situation calls for a national conference of the proposed kind.
This conference is intended to bring together intellectuals, academics, research scholars and
teachers from across India to debate and deliberate on its new bearings and future
prospects. Explorations in and through new texts and renewed contexts are the major
highlights.
Papers and panels are organised under the following broad areas:
Ecocritical theories—their relevance and continuity

Eco feminism
Ecology and the region
Energy and earth
The Eco in Economics
The Literature of Nature
Regional focus on ecological theories
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The Ground beneath Our Feet: New Bearings in Ecocriticism
Prof. Murali Sivaramakrishnan

Professor and Head, Department of English
Pondicherry University, Pondicherry
The development of an ecologically sensitive critical thinking is among the most recent
advances to have contributed significantly to the field of literary and aesthetic theory. This
has been ushered in through a historically necessitated recognition that Nature as a living
concept and existential being is intrinsically valuable in itself and not as merely contingent on
the human’s being. The rapid growth and development of ecology as a science and the
corresponding emergence of ecologically sensitive critical theories in the social sciences and
humanities is a propitious feature of this very idea. Nature is not merely there for the taking
and neither is her resource unending: the earlier view of earth as replete with sources for
human evolution and expansion would ring merely hollow notes in the present. This
definitely has political, economic, literary and aesthetic implications.
In the rapidly expanding field of theory these ideas of silencing and domination of nature
have left lasting impacts: more so in the wake of post-structuralism and deconstruction in the
human sciences. My lecture would be an overview of a new direction in critical thinking that
would explore the historical and theoretical contexts of this nexus while attempting to invoke
certain conceptual issues and the cultural and aesthetic dimensions of the environment. The
ground beneath our feet is shrinking; the earth as we have understood it thus far is showing
signs of decay. We are faced with crises in a hitherto unimagined scale—what are the literary
and aesthetic connotations of this?
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Writing an Era of Tribal Repression: Mahasweta Devi’s Chotti Munda and his Arrow
Anu T Asokan
Research Scholar
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.
This paper undertakes to examine the marginalised presences in Mahasweta Devi’s fiction
using an ecocritical lens. Cheryll Glotfelty in The Ecocriticism Reader (1996) defines
ecocriticism, as ‘the study of relationship between literature and environment’ (xviii).
According to Barry Commoner’s first law of ecology, ‘everything is connected to everything
else’. Therefore, literature does not merely revolve around the concept of the material world
but it also plays an important role in representing the interaction between land, humans and
culture. Ancient Indian concepts personified the land and earth as a mother who is a source
of nourishment and plenitude for her children, the humans and the non-human others. Man
and earth were bound together in a relationship of respect and integrity by the law of Rita
which balanced everything in the universe from the macrocosm to the microcosm. This law
was seen as dharma, an ethical goal, the violation of which would cause great imbalances in
the ecological world. Therefore in this paradigm land was seen as sacred living entity and
not as a mere resource. However, the changing times brought about changes in this concept
with humans becoming relentless exploiters of the land. However, tribal cultures retain the
strong bond with the land and accord intrinsic value to it. Mahasweta Devi in her novel
Chotti Munda and his Arrow (1980) illustrates how the environment as well as the tribals and
the poor constitute the subaltern in the modernising paradigms of development. The power
discourses of globalisation play a significant role in the degradation and the destruction of the
environment and the tribals. As a social activist who has done tremendous work for the tribal
community, Mahasweta Devi endeavours to bring the same energy to her writing by giving a
voice to the voiceless. Her novel, Chotti Munda and his Arrow illustrates the violent tribal
struggle against the established order. The paper focuses on Mahasweta Devi’s use of the
strategy of historical discourse in the novel, for highlighting the significance of nature being
represented as the contested space of power struggle between the tribal and the non-tribal
mainstream. She also discusses the tribal struggle-taking place in Eastern India by tracing its
beginning from the legend of Birsa Munda to Chotti Munda, the famous archer.
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Practicing Deep Ecology in Everyday Life: Towards a Theory of Inclusiveness
Dr. Amarjeet Nayak,

Assistant Professor in English,
School of Humanities & Social Sciences,
Indian Institute of Technology Indore,
IET (DAVV) Campus,
Khandwa Road, Indore - 452017,
Madhya Pradesh, India.
Unlike the postcolonial studies and the subaltern studies, in which the postcolonial and the
subaltern can voice themselves without taking recourse in any mediation, is there a possibility
of a similarly unmediated voicing of the subject in ‘eco-criticism’? Can one see ‘eco-
criticism’ as a theory of inclusiveness? Is it possible to practice ‘deep ecology’ in one’s
everyday life? By drawing insights from some of the major philosophers and thinkers such as
Morleau Ponty, Heidegger and Timothy Morton, I shall try to examine the above-mentioned
questions and explore if deep ecology involves some sort of transcendence and the nature of
that transcendence, i.e. whether it’s only in the realm of philosophical abstraction or also at
the level of the lived experience. In this paper, it will be my endeavour to explore the
differences between ‘eco-criticism’ and other theories that privilege the ‘other’ and the
fallacy in the quest for any theory that is ‘unmediated’. Furthermore, this paper will attempt
to appropriate Gayatri Spivack’s notion of ‘privilege as a loss’ in the context of ‘deep
ecology’ for a more humane and inclusive approach to this theory that does not push human
beings to the periphery while giving centre stage to nature.
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Text and Texture in Eco-criticism: An Outline of J.M. Coetzee’s Life and Times of
Michael K
Mir Nurul Islam,

M.Phil
EFL University.
Hyderabad.
After The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology, The Environmental

Imagination, The Song of the Earth, The ISLE Reader, Ecocriticism is not a new name. But
there lies a gap between practice and preaching. As a potential medium of consciousness
change it’s our duty to strengthen it .The ‘text’ and ‘texture’ are the sole root of Ecocriticism
where the text is a tree and its narrative style, use of metaphor, characterization, personae and
canonicity are the branches.
Although any text can be analysed ecocritially, including many works of eco-fiction but often
the problem lies in analysis. As a popular genre, ecofiction engages a wide variety of readers
and it invokes the imagination which engages people intellectually and emotionally,
providing them greater personal stake in the text itself, and making them more precautionary.
So what are the tools to evaluate a text where most of its earlier criticism takes us to other
issues ignoring the earth where we are living?
On this following basis this paper will try to define ‘text’ and ‘texture’ in Ecocriticism with
an outline of J.M. Coetzee’s Life and Times of Michael K. I will try to argue the ecocritical
‘texture’ of the text which is overlooked in earlier criticism. Moreover, I will argue that
Coetzee transgressed the geographical boundaries and sketches an alternative ethical
dimension against our anthropocentric attitude. His characters are not specifically rooted in
history but they have a history of their own. This will be classified in four sections: 1) Text
and texture, 2) K as a metaphor 3) K’s nostalgic sustainability, and 4) Eat or not eat.
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Green politics-Repercussions and Refugees analysis of The Hungry Tide
Tanveer Hasan
The paper intends to explore the dichotomy present between the politics of conservation and
development. It is in the name of development or in the guise of conservation that most of our
policies come into a confrontation with nature. The consequent arguments bring out the
essential principles (hidden agendas) of Green politics. With Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry
Tide as the backdrop this paper shall probe into the actions of a government and the reactions
of a refugee settlement regarding the same issue. This paper shall employ theories such as
Deep ecology and Anthropocentrism for the construct of the argument and will also bring in
views of writers such as Arne Naess, Timothy Morton, David Harvey, James Lovelock and
others.
It comes as a surprise that the principles of deep ecology were applied in West Bengal in the
year 1979 itself, not in spirit but to achieve immoral goals which were anti human. The
eviction and killing of the refugees on the island 'Marichjhapi' had the philosophy of pro
ecology as its motif. This brutal act of eviction is captured by a journalist in its essence,
"when tigers became citizens and people became Tiger food". Kusum the survivor and martyr
of this settlement exclaims, "this island has to be saved for its trees, it has to be saved for its
animals… it is a part of a reserve forest, it belongs to a project to save tigers…’ Who are
these people, I wondered, who love animals so much that they are willing to kill us for
them?"
The paper shall strive to answer questions such as, Should Green Politics be at the cost of
humans? Or should nature be sacrificed? Is there no way two faces of the same universe
progress in tandem?
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Who is a better friend -Birds or their Hunter? An Ecofeminist reading of Sarah Orne
Jewett’s A White Heron
Jubimol.K.G
Research Scholar
Area of Study- Ecofeminism (American Women's Fiction)
Sree Sankara University of Sanskrit
Kalady

Have you ever thought why we always call ‘Mother Earth’ not ‘Father Earth’? Is it only a
simple personification on its life giving and nurturing aspects by embodying it in the form of
a mother? Or will it suggest any other connection between women and nature? Women are
frequently given natural traits or are often associated with the earth. Ancient mythologies, our
language and literature are full of such associations. All these increased awareness of these
associations and connections between women and nature give rise to Ecofeminism- a blend
of Environmentalism and Feminism. Ecofeminism insists that the oppression of women and
degradation of nature in patriarchal/capitalist society are conceptually and historically linked.
The famous Ecofeminist philosopher, Karren J.Waren in her essay “Feminism and Ecology:
Making Connections”, argues that feminist should pay attention to environmental issues and
ecological interdependencies, and in the same way environmentalists should also pay
attention to the connections among ecological degradation, sexism, and other forms of social
oppression.
Ecofeminism studies the relationship of literature with social and physical environment,
asking how women and nature are constructed in fictional discourses. It emphasizes how the
traditional representation of nature with women often shows the land as innocent, feminine
and suitable for exploitation. The nineteenth century English and American literature is a rich
area for this type of study. American women writers like Sarah Orne Jewett wrote about the
local landscapes as an integral part of the daily life. Her short story A White Heron is an
excellent example. This study “Who is a better friend -Birds or their Hunter? An Ecofeminist
reading of Sarah Orne Jewett’s A White Heron”, will disclose the following ecofeminist
ideas:
1. The attitudes towards gender and environment and the treatment of both.
2. The different levels of domination (racism, sexism, speciecism) along with
environmental degradation.
3. How women and nature are seen as commodifiable objects for fun and profit.
4. How the representation of landscape in the story helps to construct personal, social
and cultural identities.
5. The representation of men, women and nature within the context resulting from a
conflict between the rural and urban.
Though this work is written long before Ecofeminism took hold, it proves itself as an early
work in the ecofeminist thought by embracing environmentalist ideas and gender issues.
It represents earth as the sustainer of human life and relationships and celebrates women’s
potential to reform the wrong environmental attitudes because of her association with earth.
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An Eco Economic Analysis of Automobile Pollution – Social Cost and Pricing (With
Reference to Tamil Nadu)
First Author: Dr. N. P. Hariharan.,

Professor and Division Leader of Economics,
School of Social Science and Languages,
VIT University, Vellore.
Second Author: G. Raja Rajeswari,

Assistant Professor,
School of Social Science and Languages,
VIT University, Vellore.
The Automobile Industry is known for air pollution and noise pollution. After 1991, the Era
of Globalization, the number of automobile vehicles (two and three wheelers, cars, trucks and
multi-axis vehicles) has increased. The average paying capacity of Indians has also gone up
due to increase in earnings through employment in MNCs and also due to change in culture,
place of domicile and employment and change in the pattern of expenditure.
The increase in number of automobile vehicles coupled with increase in frequency of travel
has resulted in greater pollution by the automobiles. Some of the auto manufacturers have
successfully designed eco friendly vehicles; but few other auto manufacturers are unable to
meet the basic ecology requirements.
The present paper analyses on three types of automobile pollution namely: air pollution, noise
pollution and stress on human eye. Black smoke emissions from the automobile result in air
pollution, the blaring horns result in noise pollution and glaring lights effect eye sights.
The present public authorities engaged in controlling pollution have not succeeded in their
task. The vehicles causing pollution should be asked to pay a price equal to social
disturbances it causes. Social costing of the pollution may be able to provide much required
answer for Automobile Pollution.
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Eco – economics: a study of NHAI – Tamil Nadu
Prof. N.P. Hariharan (Professor of Economics)
S. Siva Kumar (Assistant Professor of Economics)

VIT university, Vellore
The study on Eco Economics is so vital in the present world. As the requirement of people is
ever increasing for various goods and services, kind of unwanted or unethical activities are
done relating to natural factors.
The study on eco economics is trying to highlight on the issue relating to destruction of
natural resources in our country with the aim of providing a sophisticated services to the
people. As the natural resources have its own value, spoiling of those will not fetch any price
to those resources.
For laying of National Highway (NH) roads in Tamil Nadu, various natural resources are
destroyed. The precious herbals, trees, minerals, water storages etc., are spoiled for providing
services to the road users.
The length of National Highways in Tamil Nadu at the time of formation of National
Highways Wing in 1971 was 1816 Kms. Till 1991; the total length of National Highways in
Tamil Nadu was only 1998 Kms. The total Length of National Highways network has
increased from 1998 kms in 1991 to 4873 kms in 2011.
Tamil Nadu Government plays a vital role in acquiring land for the completion of Projects by
National Highways Authority of India. Since formation of NHAI and up to March 2006, 709
hectares of land has been acquired and handed over to NHAI for projects. Tamil Nadu
Government has paid special attention to land acquisition and during the period from April
2006 to December 2010, 7301 hectares of land has been acquired and handed over to NHAI
for projects.
The spoiling of natural resources in various forms has its ill effect on human being in the
form of non availability of fresh air, reduction of water contents, exhausting of natural
resources for the future generation. So it is to be priced.
The paper attempts to study on the effect on the construction of NH constructions, water
bodies, trees and agricultural lands. The extent of cost involves should be able to take into
account, not only the account cost but also the ecological cost.
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Ecological Movements and the Involvement of Women
Dr Usha V.T
Head
Centre for Women’s Studies
Pondicherry University
Pondicherry
The direct involvement of women in social and public protests has often been a matter
of serious concern on account of many impediments, societal and otherwise. However, a
closer look at ecological movements reveals that the involvement of women herein is
spontaneous and genuine. Perhaps, the personal becomes the political in such cases.
This paper attempts to make a close analysis of ecological movements and in

particular the ecofeminist movements with a view to find the connections between sexism
and the domination of the land and its inhabitants. The unequal relations between man and
women in society and the exploitations therein find similar echoes in the human-nature
relations.
The green movements in India and elsewhere reflect this major trend. As long back as
1974, the term ecofeminism, first used by Françoise d'Eaubonne came into use and has
initiated studies into common territory. In 1975, Rosemary Radford Ruether wrote in New
Woman/New Earth that women "must unite the demands of the women's movement with
those of the ecological movements to envision a radical reshaping of the basic socioeconomic
relations and the underlying values of this society." These theoretical directions help in the
study of ecofeminist movements.
The connections between the theoretical and what some critics may call
“idealistic”(Janet Biehl) with the actual can be seen in these movements, wherein there is a
natural and spontaneous outburst to curb the patriarchal forces that involve in mass
destruction. “Ecofeminism is about connectedness and wholeness of theory and practice”
(Ynestra King, 1980). This presentation attempts to explore those involvements and
connections by a closer look at these social/ecological justice movements.
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Nature vs. Nature; Imperial vs. Subaltern: A Study of Anita Desai’s Fire on the
Mountain and Arundhati Roy’s The Cost of Living
S.Sujaritha
Assistant Professor
Perunthalaivar Kamarajar Institute of Engineering and Technology
Karaikal
Puducherry.
In India lives of human beings are intrinsic with nature. The teaching of Vedas and
Upanishads, which instructs nature as the form of god formats Indian culture and tradition to
lay much emphasis on environment. As ecology was seen as an inherent part of spirituality,
in India human beings were forbidden to exploit nature. In spite of it, invasion of the nation
by different rulers and their influences upon the Indian culture created a big gap between
nature and the human beings. Due to it, nature at times joins hands with the imperialists and
sometimes with the victim. The hypothesis of the paper is to look at the role of nature as the
imperial when it shows its domination upon the subaltern and as the partner of subaltern how
it faces the chaos created by the imperials. For this revelation two texts have been chosen for
study namely, Anita Desai’s Fire on the Mountain and Arundhati Roy’s The Cost of Living.
Anita Desai’s Fire on the Mountain examines how the Indian society, which has emerged as
patriarchal, has joined hands with nature in order to dominate women. On the other hand how
nature and the poor people suffer under the rules of imperials can be culled out by a close
textual analysis of Arundhati Roy’s The Cost of Living. The paper thus attempts to read the
two works in a parallel manner to exhibit the two different roles played by nature in the
Indian context.
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Effectiveness of the Eco-tourism Brochures.
First Author: Madhumathi P

Research Associate,
School of Social Sciences and Languages,
VIT University, Vellore – 632014
Tamil Nadu
Second Author: Dr. N.Ramani

Senior Professor,
Tamil Nadu.
The brochures of the eco-tourism contain the well thought-out text that reflects the richness
of the Ecology. The Eco-brochure reflects the life of the earth in a micro perspective. An
Eco-Brochure is a brief text that describes the history, nature, life, travel in the chosen region
of eco-tourism. It displays the pictures of the significant species and habitats that the
traveller likely to see in the chosen region of the earth. It highlights the climatic conditions of
a place with a graphical picture, which in turn makes the traveller curious to visit the place.
This paper focuses on the effectiveness of the eco-tourism brochure in tempting an individual
to join the eco-tour. The paper concentrates on the graphic, text, colour, pictures, packages
used in the brochure, to find out the effective element that attracts the viewers. Questionnaire
is prepared based on an eco-tourism brochure and is distributed to the viewers for their
opinions. Based on the results the effectiveness of the graphic involved in eco-tourism
brochure has been evaluated.
The paper also analyses the similar patterns and concepts, which is involved in formatting the
eco-brochures. It also tries to point out the similar use of the graphic effects on the pictures,
to kindle the eagerness of the individual to visit the ecology.
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Ecocriticism- A Reading of Indian and Sri Lankan literary Texts from an Eco-Critical
Perspective
Indrajee De Zoysa
Lecturer in English,
English Language Teaching Unit,
University of Ruhuna
Sri Lanka.
Ecocriticism is a movement which attempts to study the relationship existing between literature in its
various forms and the physical environment. Ecocriticism as a critical approach began in the USA in
the late 1980’s and in the UK during the early 1990’s and is a relatively new still emerging movement
which is broad in scope. Though one might point out that this critical movement merely limits itself to
the study of critically analyzing the depiction of nature (founded by the Romantic movement which
arose against the capitalistic materialization of Society with industrialization in Britain) and how it is
portrayed within a literary text, within time and the development of the Ecocriticism theories, the
word environment (both in terms of physical and the “reality” meaning the environment or the
environmental universe created through human beings by the use of various human institutions like
language etc) began to be analyzed and critically looked upon in broader terms.
In the modern global political arena both environment and climate change have become politically
loaded serious issues. Especially for those living within the geographical sphere defined as South
Asia, the environment has become a serious political issue of contention, a ground for conflicts,
marginalization and struggle. As a developing region in the world, as prefigured in the Rise of Asia by
Kishore Mahababani, it is important to do a political reading of how literature and the prominent
authors of the region has responded to this new political trend through a textual basis. It is practically
impossible to realistically carry out a literary analysis consisting of the whole region of South Asia.
Hence, this paper will focus on Indian Writing in English and Sri Lankan writing in English as to see
how it has tackled the issues pertaining to environment and how the texts have tackled the changing
aspects of environment, the problems, its relationship with the human being, the politics etc within the
modern political contexts existing within the two nation states.
It is obvious that the simple enthralling somewhat pastoral environment presented by R.K Narayan,
Raja Rao and Mulk Raj Anand etc has changed when it comes to modern day writers like Adiga,
Rushdie, Roy, Hariharan, Kiran Desai etc within the context of India. When it comes to Sri Lanka
again the environment presented by prominent authors like Martin Wickremasinghe, James
Gonnewardena, Ernest Macintyre etc have all changed when it comes to new writers like Romesh
Goonewardena, Shyam Selvadurai, Yasmine Goonerathne, Shehan Karunathilake and Nihal De Silva
etc. Though the case is as such, there is a vacuum in analyzing the depiction of this environment in
ecocritical terms and analyze them within the modern day politically loaded ecological discourse.
Hence, this paper will attempt to do such an analysis as outlined above in trying to bring about a new
perspective into reading literature within the aforementioned states by using an ecocritical perspective
and understand the politics behind the inclusion or exclusion of the politically loaded depiction of the
environment.
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Feasibility of Eco-literature in Classrooms to Improve Reading Skills.
Madhumathi P
Research Associate,
Tamil Nadu
Eco literature improves the efficiency of the individual in reading skills. The theory of
Ecocriticism studies the relationship between human and the environment. With this hold, the
paper appeals to research on the preconceived concepts of nature in the minds of the
individuals through the eco-literature. The text that refers ‘nature’ primary or exclusively to
human behaviour is stated eco-literature. Loretta Johnson, eco critic believed that
‘environment is perceived in literature’ and so the texts with natural elements are treated as
‘real’ world.
An empirical test has been conducted for the students in the classrooms to find out the
feasibility of the eco literature for improving reading skills. Two passages have been selected
to test the reading comprehension of the students. The first passage is chosen from the eco-
literature and the second passage is from the non eco-literature. Both these passages are
provided to the students for their reading comprehension. The results of these
comprehensions are compared to find the feasibility of the eco-literature in the classrooms for
teaching reading skills.
A text that incorporates the hidden memories of this natural ‘real’ world enhances the
comprehensive ability of the individuals. The theory of eco criticism tries to establish a
relationship between the human and natural environment. This paper attempts to distinguish
the comprehensive ability of eco literature to that of the other text, with a notion that human
is unconsciously connected to environment.
Reading is a passive skill in which consciousness is involves comprehending the meaning of

the text. Eco critics discuss that the environment is connected to human as well as other
creatures in one way or other. So the paper argues that the natural element in the eco-
literature is unconsciously connected to the individual and so enables the reader to grasp the
concepts in the text naturally. It facilitates the reader to comprehend the eco literature
efficiently through less reading, when compared to other texts.
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Contemporary Malayalam Green Poetry: The Voices of Resistance for Existence
Ragesh G.
II M.A.
Dept. of English
Nature, as it is the source and the protector of life is one of the recurrent themes in
Malayalam poetry down the ages. The counterpart of the transition from the so called
romantic themes to the poetry of resistance that is the transition from nature to eco to green
all over the world is visible in Malayalam too. Edasserry Govindan Nair's Kuttippuram
palam, the first ecological poem in Malayalam views the development/progress from the
‘other’ angle. The 1970’s and 80’s, the decades of and after the Silent Valley movement had
heard more vivid and powerful green voices in poetry. These poems were propagandist in
nature which was, in fact, a need of the hour. The present paper analyses the contemporary
Malayalam poems that can be brought under the umbrella of green poetry in terms of their
inner and outer texture. The select poems of S.Joseph, P. P Ramachandran, Sebastian,P.
Raman, Vishnu Prasad, Veerankutty ,V. M Girija and Kanimol published after 2000 are taken
for this eco critical analysis. Unlike their predecessors’ poems these are not propagandist.
Treating the subtle nature of the environmental issues, these poems present the nature, the
elements and all the transients as the victims of an anthropocentric world view. Human
beings are presented as both the victims and the villains in these poems. Employing
innocence as a tool, these poets make black humour, the effect. These poems share the eco
centrist view and the Gaia theory of James Lovelock. Not being didactic these poems try to
evoke a sense of guilt in the reader of the human follies as committed narratives do. Thus
these poems voice the call for and of existence and resistance as being the tongue of people
and nature for a universal cause.
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The Everest Hotel: A Narrative through Seasons
Sarannya V Pillai
Ph.D Commonwealth Literature
The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad
The discourse of literature has always acknowledged the charismatic feature of nature; the art
and literature of ancient civilizations were fraught with motifs inspired by the natural world.
‘The Everest Hotel: A Narrative through Seasons’ highlights on how the seasons affect the
mindscapes of the characters involved and how they respond to the environmental changes as
well in the text The Everest Hotel: A Calendar by I. Allan Sealy. Through this paper, an
attempt is made to re-analyze the concept of development by tracing the eco-consciousness
and environmental politics
In The Everest Hotel: A Calendar the protagonists pass through a solitary phase in their lives
where they detach themselves from the mundane life and enter the dark recesses of nature.
The narrative follows like a garb weaving in threads of seasons so as to add beauty to its
rendering and a poetic rendering of the various issues discussed. Couched in poetic language,
it tells the tale of a nun (Ritu) who enters the worldly live and then returns to her ascetic way,
but, in a passive way, raises many issues on the nature of development. Ritu meets
Brijeshwar, a pro-Varunachal activist who awakes her sunken feelings buried in the nun’s
robes and makes her re-think of her spiritual life. The miniscule objects give voices to certain
unexpressed emotions or foretell the events that will affect the lives of the characters
involved. Ritu encounters men who sell trees illegally; she instils in the frightened villagers a
sense of responsibility towards nature in lines with the Chipko Movement. The concerns
addressed in The Everest Hotel gains relevance in the context of the larger debate on the
relationship between managing natural resources and the very idea of development and
progress.
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Exploring Endangered Environment: Environmental Awareness in Modern Indian

Fiction
Dr. K. Venugopal Reddy

Associate Professor
Department of History
School of Social & Behavioural Sciences
Central University of Karnataka
Gulbarga, Karnataka – 585 106
Exploring environmental imagination and demonstrating its critical and macrobiotic

relationship with the human world forms the seminal concern of the paper. While critically
interrogating environmentally informed literary imagination, it tackles the hitherto ignored
terrain in modern Indian fiction. It locates the sparkles and spaces that bring the
“environmental unconscious” to the fore in the fiction.
The paper also demonstrates the subtle literary endeavours by the novelists to formulate and
fashion viable visions for less embattled human development and less endangered
environment. It traces the allusions in the narratives to the growing ‘urban wilderness’ i.e.,
disorientation of human life and decay and degeneration in human values as a consequence of
aggressive industrial activity propelled by inexorable human greed. It focuses on how the
novelists articulated their sharp dissonance on the enormous multifarious insidious
environmental impact engendered by this unbridled human thirst for and thrust toward
economic development. Culture and nature cohere in socially and ecologically healthy ways.
The novelists through their narratives sensitively communicate the ecological and social
implications of placing the health of human and nonhuman communities within broader
discussions of thoughtless economic progress and materialistic advancement which threaten
in the process the overall planetary health.
20
Ecocomposition: Theory and Perspectives on Pedagogy
C.G Shyamala
Research Scholar
Dept. of Studies in English
Kannur University
Composition theorists have located gender, class, race and culture in delineating human
thought and identity. Such locations are often internal. In recent years, Ecocomposition has
emerged as a significant ecological approach to identify the role of place and environment in
composition proving that thoughts on identity are influenced by external agencies and
conventions too. This emerging branch of composition studies is very much an ecological
enquiry. The paper concentrates on the evolution of the ecocomposition theory, and
elaborates how the symbiotic relationship between discourse and ecology reasserts
relationships and ecological bearings. With the help of theory and pedagogy, the paper
explains how habitat, locales, place, and environment influence composition, and how they
tend to reinforce each other
21
Ecology of Dalit Literature: An Ecocritical Study of Poisoned Bread
Dr. Sanjiv Kumar,

Asstt. Professor
Department of English,
Central University of Haryana (at Narnaul).
Entire Dalit Literature is fraught with the torturous saga of unending exploitation of the
creatures of god in the hands of anarchic citizens of the largest democracy of the world. The
plight of the dalits in different spheres of life—social, political, economic and legal, has
obviously attracted the attention of dalit activists and writers but the ecological aspect of dalit
writings has been partially explored so far. The present paper attempts to locate dalit
perspective in an ecological setting where they are shown to have limited access to the
natural resources and essential needs of survival—be it the water, ownership over land,
freedom to move freely, besides much debated question of roti, kapda or makan. Feudalism,
untouchability, social-stratification, and numerous other social, political and economic factors
worked collectively to suppress the voices of dalits, but perhaps nothing contributed more
than adverse ecology of dalits. Here, the paper intends to perform an ecocritical study of
Poisoned Bread (an anthology of translated Marathi Dalit Literature) to highlight as to how
various poems, autobiographical extracts, short stories, essays and speeches essentially
portray the dalit predicament in the light of ecological deprivation. Arjun Dangle, Hira
Bansode, J.V. Pawar, Namdeo Dhasal, Daya Pawar, Sharankumar Limbale, Baburao Bagul
and many others have been conscious enough towards dalit subalternity and have shown the
subjugation of the millions not only by insensitive fellow human beings but also by nature in
its different manifestations. The paper largely deals with the instances of voicelessness
prevailing among dalits more due to their accepting their destiny as it comes to them because
for them, nature itself is inimical to them. Moreover, the affliction is taken as granted because
the ambience provided to them is always adverse to the realization of individual self.
22
An Emancipatory Space: Environment in Select Novels of Malayali Women Writers in

English
S.Devika
Associate Professor
Department Of English
HHMSPBNSS College for Women
Neeramankara
Trivandrum-695040
One look at Kerala’s long tradition of performing and ritual arts and oral and written
literature and one is convinced that the crystalline rivers that criss-cross this verdant land
have not only made it fertile and sustained its lush environment since the day Lord
Parasurama created it with a throw of his “mazhu”, as legend has it, but have also been
watering the imaginative faculty and nurturing the artistic and creative aspirations of its
people—so powerful is the symbolic connection between the reality of the land and the life
and culture of Kerala, its art and literature. The Malayali consciousness and identity, his
habits, customs, rituals and mode of life have been defined by the milieu in ways that have
cultural, social, economic, even political ramifications. Malayali writers of poetry, fiction and
non-fiction in Malayalam and English have sought to understand Kerala by exploring, again
and again, this unique land and culture interface.
In the post-Rushdie period which saw the renaissance of Indo-Anglian fiction, there appeared
an array of incredibly talented Malayali-Anglian women novelists- Meena Alexander, Suma
Josson, Nirmala Aravind, Manorama Mathai, Arundhati Roy, Anita Nair, Jaishree Misra,
Susan Visvanathan, Shinie Antony, Preethi Nair, Geeta Abraham Jose, Jyothi Menon, and
others- who, it may be said, have attained a near-canonical status in the imaginative
recreation of the milieu of Kerala in their works. In this context, I would like to explore the
nature-individual nexus in the novels of Malayali writers in English that are intensely
concerned with the regional landscape shaping individual lives. This paper shall focus on
three novels - Arundhati Roy’s The God of Small Things, Anita Nair’s The Better Man and
Geeta Abraham Jose’s By the River Pampa I Stood, where the environment plays a vital part
in the narrative, instead of merely serving as a beautiful and passive backdrop for the human
drama to unfold. It shall study these novels to see how the environment becomes a strong
presence as an emancipatory space in the heterotopian world of transgressors, a utopian
‘other space’ outside the authoritarian framework of society.
23
In Tune With Nature: Ecological Consciousness in Native American Fiction
Jouhar.K
Assistant professor, Department of English. S.S college, Areacode.
Indigenous people live in a universe, in a cosmological order, whereas we, the people of the
industrial world, no longer live in a universe. We in North America live in a political world, a nation,
a business world, an economic order, a cultural tradition, a Disney dream land. -Thomas Berry
We are living in a world of impending ecological disaster triggered by man’s exploitation of the
natural resources to maximize profit, turning a blind eye towards the larger consequences of
disturbing the ecological equilibrium. The technical jargons of science fail to appeal to masses and the
media, largely controlled by the corporate, fail to play their roles effectively. So the mission of
appealing to the consciousness of the public is left to the writers, especially the writers of fiction. Any
attempt to analyse the narrative strategies adopted by the writers to deal with this subtle yet
complicated area is a daunting yet interesting endeavour.
Ecological crisis arises from the insatiable demands of a modern economy. The rise and growth of
capitalism took its toll on nature. It led to a shift from a bio-centric universe to an anthropocentric
universe. Colonialism, which was one of the by-products of capitalism, was what Alfred W Crosby
calls “ecological imperialism”. Coloniser’s greed ultimately resulted in the destruction of the
ecosystem. America, whose policies pose a grave threat to nature at present, had one of the richest
ecosystems in the world before the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers. Even today the Native Americans
are in the forefront of the battle against climate change.
An attempt to analyse the attitude towards nature in Native American Fiction is relevant because it
brings to light the internalized politics that is woven into the textual fabric. What does recent
mainstream American fiction have to say about ecological situation and the environmental crisis?
Does the stand taken by them radically differ from that of the Native American novelists? Is there a
common strain that runs through at least some of these works? are some of the questions taken up
seriously by the researcher.
The researcher analyses the representation of nature in Native American fictional works so as to
compare their stand on nature with that of the mainstream fictional works. Ecological consciousness
of these works is fore grounded. Novels like Silko’s Almanac of the Dead and Ceremony, Vizenor’
Bearheart and Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms which set the environmental values of Native culture
against those of white industrial capitalism are looked at closely.
 What are the textual strategies that the writers use to portray nature in all its subtleties?
 Colonialism was more or less an invasion and manipulation of native ecologies. Using the
theoretical framework of Ecocriticism and postcolonialism the researcher tries to explore
the fictional representation of the conflict between the colonizer and the nature.
 How does Ecocriticism as a theoretical approach lend itself to comparative and
postcolonial literature in particular?
 Attempts of the native writers to recreate nature in texts with a political edge received
immense critical reception recently. The researcher tries to explore the various narrative
strategies that these writers use to reconnect to nature. To which extend do these writers
succeed in coming up with an alternative textual framework to alter the reader’s attitude
towards nature?
 How do native writers redefine the very notion of community so as to view it as both an
ecological as well as social entity?
24
Tracing Consonances and Dissonances in an Ecocritcal Dissection of William

Shakespeare’s Plays: A Select Exegesis
Stephen Heldt
II M.A English and Comparative Literature,
“...that Nature might stand up and say to the world—this was a man”
(Mark Antony’s eulogising words before Brutus’ corpse in JuliusCaesar)
Besides the variegated readings widely applied in explicating Shakespeare’s Sonnets and
Plays—be it Feminist readings, Archetypal approaches, the Bakhtian Dialogic and
Carnivalesque interpretations, Post Colonial readings et cetera, this paper shall exclusively
devote itself to delineating the multifarious ecocritical nuances replete in the plays by the sui
generis ‘Bard of Avon’. Ranging from the most conspicuous like his rendition The Forest of
Arden to the most subtle like the episode where Birnam Wood seems to be entering
Dunsinane Hill, the objective is to underscore how nature per se is conceived, thematically-
treated and exploited vis-a-vis humankind. Through the selected plays, different genres like
the tragic, comic as well as the tragic-comic shall be brought together with the deliberate
purpose of tracing an ecological kinship as well as dichotomies that underpins Shakespeare’s
works. Despite the inadequacy of nature as depicted in his Sonnets, the plays offer a larger
canvass of opposing eco-ideologies which shall be dwelt upon at considerable length.
Further, the application of critical terms like “ecophobia” with respect to plays like Macbeth,
Hamlet, King Lear and Othello shall be elucidated. Again, in this respect, the distinct
departure that Shakespeare employs in his comedies like As You Like It, Twelfth Night and A
Midsummer Night’s Dream shall be substantiated in the light of Shakespeare’s Ecopoetics:
where Nature’s benevolence in his comedies is counterpoised with her Malevolence(with
instances where Nature’s exploitation parallels that of man) in his tragedies together with a
fine balance being struck in his tragi-comedies and Romances like The Tempest and The
Winter’s Tale. Last but not least, this paper seeks to probe beneath the veneer by analysing
whether the representation of Nature’s aspects and its callous annihilation, is treated as nature
per se or whether it has been egotistically perspectives or made myopic and parochial in
nature.
25
Towards an Ecofeminist Poetics
Dr. K. Reshmi
Assistant Professor
Department of English
The paper begins by pointing out the urgency of ecofeminist movement in the contemporary
scenario of scientific and technological advancements and the consequent threat to the
survival of the biosphere. Ecofeminism’s basic premise is that the ideology which sanctions
oppressions such as those based on race, class, gender, sexuality, physical abilities is the
same ideology which sanctions the oppression of nature. The paper traces the origin and
development of ecofeminism and outlines the major tenets of this new critical concept. The
connection between the oppression of woman and that of nature is explained to make clear
why environment is a feminist issue and why feminist issues can be addressed in terms of
environmental concerns. The criticism against ecofeminism, that it is dualistic, partial, anti-
rational and essentialist are discussed in brief. The differences between ecofeminism and
other feminist and environmental theories are pointed out. Ecofeminism is of the view that
environmental problems as well as sexism, racism, colonialism, capitalism and militarism
arise due to the elevation of values considered to be masculine such as competitive
individualism, instrumentalism and progress as freedom from natural constraints.
Ecofeminists are of the view that phallocentric metaphysical dualism like mind/body,
self/other; culture/nature is the reason for all oppressions. Ecofeminist theory recognises
sympathy and compassion as the fundamental feature of any liberatory theory. It opposes the
dualistic constructions and aims to establish a different system of values where the category
of ‘other’ is reevaluated. Ecofeminism which advocates a harmonious relationship among
man, woman and environment becomes the need of the hour, to ensure the survival of life on
this planet.
26
Self and Nature in the Poetry of Jibanananda Das
Anindya Sunder Polley, Lisha Sinha

MA second year, Department of English,
The basic definition of ecocriticism is, it is a form of literary criticism which investigates the
relation between humans and natural world, in the field of literature. However, our discussed
poet, Jibanananda Das offers us enough opportunities to look at his poems from ecocritical
point of view. the poetic world of Jibanananda is colorful and sensous, dark and melancholy
and totally different from geography celebrated in Bengali Poetry, both by his predecessors
and his contemporaries. Like his syntax and rhythm, his imagery attempts a state of
defamilarization, where he uses his ingenuity to construct an unfamiliar geography out of a
familiar world. In the poems discussed we will be trying to find out how Jibanananda has
tried to project the nature-human relationship and how his indefinite poetic 'I' finds a defenite
universal position in the realm of nature. Looking at the selected poems ecocritically, would
be an inevitable outcome at this point, which is our chief objective to find out.
27
A sensitive literary representation of nature in Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide and
Sea of Poppies
Enoch.R
Research Scholar
Twenty years ago the uses of plastics were relatively less compared to today. If you go to a
medical shop most of the syrups and medicine are in plastic containers. If you go to hotels in
Tamil Nadu, mostly food is served in plastic paper instead of banana leaf. Cows of
Pondicherry eat plastics and digital banners for which is Pondicherry is worldly renowned.
The Semi-God is digital banners! The list goes on, what will happen in twenty years?
The threat is obvious. Even eagle and ordinary squirrel are kept in cages. The children of
today watch and learn names of the virtual animals and birds and the other world instead of
the real ones as if dinosaur age has taken them into their account.
The sustainability is oscillating. The nature once had abundance and animals and human
beings had more than what they needed. Now the history and culture of human beings show
where we stand and the position in which we are pushed in. The petrol and diesel price may
go up to 500 rupees in next two years. Water is polluted. Air is polluted. Land is polluted.
Everything is polluted. Human beings are polluted to put it in Jonathan Swift’s language.
Today we do not get sufficient things to live in the world. How are we going to give the
sufficient mantel to the generation which is going to succeed us? How to make the world
sustainable?
The planet is in peril. The BBC is crying from the mountain top. The literary worlds also
create deep sustainable awareness about nature and the relationship between human beings
and environment and invite one to think and act accordingly. Some of the ecological thinkers
and ecocritics are William Rueckert , the first person to use the term ecocriticism, Joseph
Meeker, Glotfelty, Simon Estok ,Michael P. Cohen, and Camilo Gomides. In India, Vandana
Shiva, environmental activist, and eco feminist, Murali Sivaramakrishnan, a poet, ecocritic
and environmental writer and ect. One among those literary people is Amitav Ghosh.
Ghosh’s well known themes are mostly diasporic, blurring boundaries, creating forgotten
histories, cultural displacement and language experimentation and creating ecological
awareness.
The paper reads about the sensitive literary representation of nature In The Hungry Tide and
Sea of Poppies and Ghosh draws our attention to the predicament where the human beings
and the animal kingdom face each other for survival in order to live the survival of the fittest
and also to the ecological hidden histories in the past.
28
Perceptual Reciprocity, Emotion and Lived Experience: An Eco-Phenomenological

Study Of Gretel Ehrlich’s Islands, The Universe, Home.
Dr.R. Ramapriya
Asst Professor & Head
Dept of English
Kunthavai Nachiyar Govt.
Arts College Fort Women(A)
Thanjavur-613007 .
Tamil Nadu
India.
The Cartesian worldview disconnects the thinking mind from the material world. This
outlook has infused all our thinking with a string of dualistic and tiered oppositions:
mind/body, reason/emotion, male/female, culture/nature, subject/object, active/passive, and
human/nonhuman. In each case, the first is absolutely valued over the second of the duo. The
western world view coupled with the individualistic view of the self is the basis of our
cultural dysfunction. Individualism causes fear and a deep sense of lack. The persistent
anxious wanting of the individualized self is taken care of by a consumer society that relies
on an exponential economic growth. Thus the Western consumerist lifestyle and the
environmental destruction caused thereafter are driven by the ontology of a separate, tightly
defined self that makes us hold ourselves apart from the world and each other
‘Environmental’ thinking is not a standing stone, but comprises a range of approaches to
address the problems we are currently facing in our relationship to the natural world that
sustains us. Drawing from Merleau- Ponty and other philosophers, the present paper
examines through the text Islands, The Universe, Home of Gretel Ehrlich, the
implications of an ontology that replaces the duo subject/object, reason/emotion with
the perceiver, the perceived and the cooperative act phenomenal unfolding. Ponty’s concept
of “flesh” (the mutual spatiality of the perceiver and the perceived) forms the ground of
perceptual unfolding. The concept of “flesh” is the basis of deep kinship, the principal facet
of which is an ethic of care. Deep kinship is a fascination with the sensuous world’s wild
being and an urge to express our interconnectedness with it. Gretel Ehrlich’s text
celebrates our immersion within the sensuous and spatial world and it redraws the
boundaries of alterity and embodies an ethics of care and beauty.
29
Ecofeminism : Significance of Earth based Spiritualities and Neopaganism
Lekshmi.S
Research Scholar
Sree Sankaracharya university of Sanskrit, Kalady
Ernakulam
Kerala.
The term Ecofeminism, coined by French feminist Francois d’ Eaubonne in 1974, looks at
cultural and social concerns dealing with the relationship that the oppression of women has
with the degradation of nature. Oppression of women and the environment have been the two
sides of the same coin, rising some 5,000 years ago with the emergence of Western
patriarchy. Given the ecofeminist respect for non-linear, non-rational, emotional
understanding, it's not surprising that spirituality is a core element. Most religions are
considered to be patriarchal and often exemplify the way humankind aims to transcend nature
through the realm of culture. Mainstream religions portray God as a transcendent being,
somehow beyond this world.
Those spiritual paths and religions with a strong environmental element share many central
themes. That common ground is held in by both modern and ancient traditions across the
world suggests that they reveal some central human intuition. This notion is supported by
archaeological evidence that spirituality was originally earth-based and centered on our
experience of a oneness with nature.
The deployment of earth based or women centered spiritualities is a significant and unique
aspect of Ecofeminism. It deserves serious consideration for a number of reasons also.
Because the idea of an ecological ontology which celebrates nature’s relation to women lies
at the centre of these spiritualities. In this context when one analyses deeply, he can find that
there are strong links between Ecofeminist spiritualities and neopaganism. Eventhough neo
paganism is easily defined as a practice of an ancient and/or contemporary Nature religion. It
was also used to refer to a Nature Spirituality or Earth-centered Spirituality, and Goddess
Spirituality group or practice. When neopaganism is approached in a feminist, especially an
ecofeminist perspective, it provides a rich material to analyze the strengths and limitations of
neopaganism as a part of Ecofeminist spirituality.
My paper is a humble attempt to delve into the role and scope of earth based spiritualities and
neopaganism in ecofeminist theory and practice
30
Reinterpreting Arthur Miller’s ‘Death of the Salesman’ Through Ecocriticism:

A Look at Why We Garden.
Mark A. Shryock
Research Scholar
Department of English
Theresa J. May writes in her paper "Greening the Theater: Taking Ecocriticism from Page to
Stage”, that it has been argued that American Theater is anti-ecological because of its
nineteenth century humanistic roots that still create the paradigm it is both created and
criticized from. Few playwrights write on ecological issues. Even less ecocriticisim of theater
has occurred. She further points out that as of yet no ecocritical interpretation of Death of the
Salesman has been written. The criticism that has occurred reads Willy Lowman as having
“pastoral longings” and that he fails to “adapt” to the requirements of the modern urban
world.
Willy Lowman is the main character in Arthur Miller’s play ‘Death of the Salesman’.
Lowman who is sixty four has spent most of his life traveling the open road and womanizing
at the expense of rootedness and family commitment. Near the end of the play, right before
he commits suicide, Lowman goes out into his back yard at night with a flashlight and tries to
plant a garden in between the concrete and buildings on untilled soil. Literary criticism up
until know has argued that Willy Lowman’s act of planting the seeds is insanity or the very
least a failure to adapt what all “sane” humans adapt to. I want to argue just the opposite that
Lowman was trying to become sane, but could not break the culture chains that binded him to
modern society. He had for too long, overly emphasized the traveler at the expense of
creating a sense of place. Lowman, at some level, knew his cure was a garden and a
connection with nature. He just did know how to carry out the cure.
We each have in us a duality. We all have a need for travel, freedom, and adventure, as well
as the need for rootedness, a sense of place, and commitment to family and home. I want to
look at gardening in this light, explore why it might be important, and how it might have
saved Willy Lowman.
An ecocritical reinterpretation of Death of the Salesman and Willy Lowman is long over do.
31
Ecofeminism in Amitav Ghosh’s “Sea of Poppies”

N.Arularasi
Lecturer in English,
Dr.Pauls Engineering College,
Engineering Vanur, Villupuram-605 109.
Melpakkam-604 001.
Dr.S.Kumaran
Tindivanam,
University College of
Assistant Professor of English
Ecofeminism is relatively a new part of the feminist movement, evolving out of political
activism over the past three decades. The theory intertwines feminism and environmentalism
and discusses about the women - nature connections in terms of degradation, exploitation and
injustice that are inflicted on them by the patriarchal society. The first in Amitav Ghosh’s
new trilogy of novels, Sea of Poppies is set in the 1830’s just before the opium war, which
brings the colonial history of the East. This paper examines the concept of ecofeminism in
Amitav Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies, which is his ambitious new novel and a finalist for this
year’s Man Booker Prize.
Sea of Poppies reveals the ways in which the patriarchal ideologies and colonialism exploit
and harm both women and the environment. The novel portrays the women-nature
exploitation due to the invasion of European colonisers who come to settle in a far away land
to get the raw materials for their factories but later started to set up their rule and domination
on the native population. Further, the paper explores the ways in which the opium market has
affected the lives of the major characters and points out East India Company’s exploitation of
the colonies and people.
32
Ecocriticism and the Human Psychology

Poonam Dwivedi
English Lecturer,
D.D.M.P.G. College, Firozabad
Rishikesh Kumar Singh

Research Scholar,
Central University of Haryana
The term ‘Ecocriticism’ gets an impression of an entrant in Indian context. Nevertheless, an

adequate number of treatises are available where the roots of ecocriticism can be traced. In
Indian panorama nature has been considered as an inevitable part of human life and custom
but ironically it has not been considered as a valued term in its textual form. However,
various poets and authors have presented the peerless and perennial Indian landscape through
their visual imagery and metaphorical language. It seems a resurgence of romanticism as they
cherished nature. But, indeed, it is not their true ecological concern. The Indian Diaspora
would require much more than this, if practised in its ecological context. It requires the
peculiarity of relationship between humanities and science, between cognitive and
praxilogical aspect of human beings, between pedagogical and cultural perspective of
ecocriticism and, above all, between text and nature. As interpretation of a text requires the
understanding level of the reader or learner as well as their cognitive acceptance, the
interpretation of the nature also becomes important. When the nature gets a textual
interpretation it includes some amenable facts, such as people’s alignment with nature as
consumers, their exploitative practices, their orthodoxical tendencies and so on. Ergo it is
relevant to study environment and human beings in terms of their psychological perspectives.
Such effort in literature can be observed with the emergence of the Organisation for Studies
in Literature and Environment-India (OSLE- India), founded by Dr. Nirmal Selvamony who
is almost an icon of ecocriticism in India. Professor S. Murali is another reputed ecocritic
who is working a lot in the field of ecocriticism. In fact, ecocriticism or ecoliterature is a
human effort to restore the non-human mainly for the human. This paper also contains the
ecocritical approach of Jayanta Mahapatra, K. N. Daruwalla, Kamala Das, Shiv K. Kumar
and Dom Moraes and their incorporation with Lacan and Zizek’s ecopsychological concerns.
33
A Critical Insight into Feminism and Eco-feminism

Dr.S.Kumaran
Assistant Professor of English,
University College of Engineering Tindivanam,
Melpakkam- 604 001, Tamilnadu.
Feminism and eco-feminism are the two prominent fields that hold scope for the betterment
of both humans and non-human others and their link has been pointed out by many eco-
feminists since the inception of the term eco-feminism. This paper examines the concepts,
which establish the connection between feminism and eco-feminism, to evaluate the
soundness of the arguments and to explore other avenues for expansion. Further, this paper
scrutinises the three waves of feminism to ascertain their relevance for growth and is on
lookout for the existence of waves in eco-feminism. Moreover, it tries to differentiate
feminine and eco-feminine from feminist and eco-feminist perspectives and necessitates the
real understanding of the terms. It also questions the universal application of feminist and
eco-feminist principles and analyses the need for national theories with respect to the
condition of women in the respective nations.
34
Anthropocentrism versus Biocentrism: The Levinasian Approach towards Nature
Mahesh Sharma
PhD, The English And Foreign Languages University
Hyderabad
Literally defined as ‘‘human-centeredness,’’ anthropocentrism as it is commonly understood

in environmental ethics and philosophy refers to the view in which nonhuman nature is
valued primarily for its satisfaction of human preferences and/or contribution to broader
human values and interests. Most theorists identify the militantly and exclusively
anthropocentric worldview as the root cause of environmental problems such as species
extinction, the loss of natural areas and wilderness, and the general decline of environmental
quality. As a consequence, the rejection of anthropocentrism has become the hallmark of
environmental ethics since the 1980s. Contrary to this Biocentrism is a life-centered outlook
that rejects the view that humanity alone matters in ethics and accepts the moral standing of
all living creatures. The aim of my paper would be to reject both the approaches towards
Nature and look for a third space of embracing where the ethics of care will develop a new
look on the relation of humanity and nature.
Proponents of an ethic of care consider relationships central to moral life. The disposition to
care for particular others and the practice of caring for others are sources and priorities of
morality. In this regard I would develop the theory of the French critic Emmanuel Levinas
and his doctrine of ‘responsibility for other’. I would argue in my paper that either
anthropocentric or biocentric approach towards nature, they both annihilate the relation of
self and others. So what we need in the present time is the theological doctrine of Levinas
which understands self in relation to other and feels the responsibility for the other as mother
does while conceiving the child in her womb. I would conclude my paper with the story of
humming-bird.
35
“There Will Always Be a Hyphen between ‘Eco’ and ‘Criticism’” – A Reading of Select
‘Ecocritical’ Readings of Literature Presented at the 4th International Conference on
Consciousness, Literature, Theatre and Arts, University of Lincoln, UK
Caveat: This is not an ecocritical reading but a reading on select ecocritical readings.
M. Sahaya Ilanchezhian
Research Scholar
“Criticism is always and already self-referential” [italics Derrida’s]
This is a brief attempt to read, rather self-reflectively/referentially/consciously a group of

select papers presented at the 4th International Conference on Consciousness, Literature,
Theatre and Arts held at the University of Lincoln, Lincolnshire, UK between May 28 and
30, 2011. The papers were chosen for the geographical diversity and thematic similarity in
their attempt to read nature as (re)presented in the pieces of literature [not just literary] they
claimed to analyse [read, read]. In addition, the paper will look at how any relatively new
critical approach is not only usurped and co-opted by the academic circles in an attempt to
legitimize the approach as scientifically/contextually relevant but, in turn, adapts to and co-
opts all the other critical ‘isms’ that went before it in an attempt to claim for itself the so
called ‘practical’, ‘scholarly’ and ‘scientific/rational’ approach to ‘reality’ and ‘nature’ as one
sees/views/reads them.
Furthermore, a futile foray will be made into the stark fact that the rights of indigenous
people, flora and fauna, their claim to their rightful land and nature is highly theorized in a
way that alienates one to an approach that would otherwise have been fresh and insightful.
[The idea for this paper cropped up during an intense discussion with the paper presenters
on May 29, 2011]
36
Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams: An Ecocritical Perspective

Akaitab Mukherjee
Dept. Of English
Using camera the director shapes the meaning of his cinema. The audience sees through the
lens of the camera. Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams was released in the last decade of the previous
century when ecocriticism was much debated topic. The Japanese director, using the Japanese
myth and theatrical traditions, tries to analyse human nature and human culture from the
stand point of ecocriticism. The cinema is divided into eight sections. The first two dreams
deal with myths. Sunshine Through the Rain, the first dream, focuses on the reverence of the
human beings to the animal myth. The next part shows the ruined relationship between
human being and god. It is popularly believed that on Dolls Day gods and goddess come to
every home. But here they refuse to go to the home of the protagonist, for his family has
destroyed the peach orchard. However, The blizzard uses the setting of snow covered
mountain and presents nature’s destructive attitude. Snow Woman, the goddess who
according to the Japanese mythology tries to kill human beings in snowy hills, has been
presented. The Tunnel, another dream, presents the brutality of war, its consequences and
how with the decadence of human mind his relationship with animals changes. Crows
presents how the wealth of nature inspires an artist to create. Mt. Fuji in Red, on the other
hand, points out the demerits of scientific advancement. The Weeping Demon is the portrayal
of the post-Nagasaki wasteland where the ecological niche has been damaged. Village of the
Watermills, the last dream, presents utopian world where the human beings again establish
their relationship with nature. Here the use of songs and different types of dances play an
important role. My paper will focus on how these eight aspects have been presented in order
to locate the position of human being on earth.
37
Eco-critical study of Frost's ‘Mending Wall’
R.S.Vetri selvi
Assistant Professor of English
Arignar Anna Government Arts College
Musiri
Keats observed the beauty of nature. Shelley and Whitman view nature and society
together.Wordsworth personified nature. But Frost's approach to nature is a mixture of the
above. He finds nature as a mirror of man's soul.He beautifies nature. He has a special
interest on the society. It is reflected in his poem 'Mending Wall'. He says,"I guess I'm not a
nature poet. I have written no poems without a human being in them. He never separates man
and nature. Man acts in course of the daily work of gaining a livelihood through nature. He is
essentially a poet of pastures and plains, mountains and rivers woods and gardens groves and
bowers. Nature teaches love, anger, generosity liberty and equality to man.
In the poem Mending Wall he picturises universal brotherhood through nature. Nature never
likes to make boundaries. It is the essential need of man. it is the urge of nowadays.Frost
beautifully observes,
My apple trees will never get across

And eat the cones under his pines I tell him
He only says, Good Fences make Good Neighbours.
Here there is no scope for encroachment that is there are times when there should be a wall
and there are times when there need not be a wall between neighbours. In the situation of
Mending Wall the boundary-line does not serve any practical purpose and so it is useless.In
the poem the second person likes to follow the traditional ideas of his father. That's why he
often says "Good Fences make Good Neighbours". But the speaker is for adjustments
according to the needs of the hour, to the demands of the situation.
Thus Frost teaches universal brotherhood through Mending Wall. Nature is the first teacher
of man. When we disturb nature it will teach a lesson one day. That's why we've witnessed
natural calamities often. The reason for tsunami in South-Coast-Asia and particularly in
Tamilnadu in 2004 is the deforestation of Mangrove Forest. They protect the people of
Pudukkottai district. Why tsunami did not touch Rameswaram?

Should we be eco-friendly, no need, let us do our work . Nature will look after itself. Frost
sees man in nature and nature in man. They are inseparable. Man cannot mend nature. This
article explores the possibilities of "mending" nature which is a failure.
38
Eco Critical Understanding of the Impact of Nuclear Power Plants in India
K Bhaskar,
Assistant professor of English
Arignar Anna government Arts College Musiri ,
Trichy
Nature creates us. We decreate it. A human with strong social consciousness considers this as
a social problem. What we do to our environment will certainly affect, not only the
environment in future but our generation too. We are doing irrecoverable damage, thus
affecting natural justice .Modernization never civilized human society .Industrial revolution
was not only an assault to cottage industry but environment also. Environment changed the
lives of the human’s .But now, humans change the environment. Man is unnecessarily
oppressing nature .The struggle for "power" has become pertinent attitude of the world. Man
is powerful as long as he is powerless. But this basic ideology is reversely understood . In the
post-colonial socio-political scenario, India has become "power" monger. Indian government
could not supply power to the exploding population .India has shifted its eyes from the
natural power producing units to nuclear power producing technology. Nature is a proton .It
should not be divided .But we, as neutron, divided it. Thus power producers from it is,
unstoppable .It gives us more than necessary power and finally kills us. Plato says

Science saves us in retail and kills us in wholesale
Tsunami and earthquakes are the outburst of nuclear explosions in the ground. Super power
countries and countries aspiring to be superpower are the cause for major environmental
changes and possible dislocations of the current physiological position. But we never talk
about it .They are nature's revenge on human’s attitude .This paper would intervene the
outcome of the nuclear power projects.
39
“Within and Against” Human and Nature: A Reading of Thomas Hardy’s The Return
of the Native and Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea
Arularasi. P
Asst. Professor &Head
Department Of English
Perunthalaivar Kamarajar
Artscollege, Puducherry
This paper seeks to explore the “other side” of the so-called “beauty and complacency” of
Nature in the two novels The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy and The Old Man and
the Sea by Ernest Hemingway. In both the novels Hardy and Hemingway have offered nature
as an antagonist with whom the human beings are struggling for their survival.
In The Return of the Native, the Man-Nature conflict is proclaimed by Hardy in different
ways, at different levels of narrative and character. In the novel, Egdon Heath, in all its
agency and autonomy is a representation of Hardy's natural world. It demands absolute
subjugation and if its authority is contradicted, it smacks back, as with Mrs. Yeobright, Clym
and Eustacia. Surrender to nature would lead to survival in nature's terms as we see with the
likes of Venn and Thomasin. Hardy also presents to us the conflict between the human will to
change nature and the resistance of nature’s will to change.
In The Old Man and the Sea, one can perceive the human beings struggle against nature and
also the story of man’s place within nature. The novel has focused on the perseverance of
human being till the last moment of his/her life. From the very first paragraph, Santiago is
pitted against the creatures of the sea; he is characterized as someone struggling against
nature. He has gone eighty-four days without catching a fish—he will soon pass his own
record of eighty-seven days. Almost as a reminder of Santiago’s struggle, the sail of his skiff
resembles “the flag of permanent defeat.” But the old man refuses defeat at every turn: he
resolves to sail out beyond the other fishermen to where the biggest fish promise to be.
40
List of Participants
(In Alphabetical Order) ADDRESS and email TO BE ADDED
Akaitab Mukherjee
Amarjeet Nayak,
Anu T Asokan
Arularasi N
Arularasi. P
Bhaskar, K
Devika S.
Dr.R. Ramapriya
Enoch. R
Hariharan Dr. N. P..,
Hariharan N P
Indrajeedez
Jouhar.k
Jubimol.K.G
Kumaran Dr.S.
Lekshmi.S
Madhumathi P.,
Madhumathi P.,
Mahesh Sharma
Mark A. Shryock
Mir Nurul Islam
Murali Sivaramakrishnan
Poonam Dwivedi
Ragesh G.
Raja Rajeswari, G.
Ramani, Dr. N.
Reshmi Dr. K.
Rishikesh Kumar Singh
Sahaya Ilanchezhian M.
Sanjiv Kumar, Dr.
Sarannya V Pillai
Shyamala C.G
Sivakumar S
Stephen Heldt
Sujaritha S.
Tanveer Hasan
Usha V T. Dr
Venugopal Reddy Dr. K.
Vetri selvi R.S.
41
School of Humanities
Pondicherry University,
Pondicherry, India
Email:departmentpuenglish@gmail.com
42

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National Conference on New Bearings in Ecocriticism: ABSTRACTS

20th and 21st October 2011

20th and 21st October 2011

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:

[William Wordsworth (1770 –1850)]

Ecocritical theories—their relevance and continuity

The Ground beneath Our Feet: New Bearings in Ecocriticism

Prof. Murali Sivaramakrishnan

Practicing Deep Ecology in Everyday Life: Towards a Theory of Inclusiveness

Dr. Amarjeet Nayak,

Mir Nurul Islam,

After The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology, The Environmental

Green politics-Repercussions and Refugees analysis of The Hungry Tide

First Author: Dr. N. P. Hariharan.,

Second Author: G. Raja Rajeswari,

Eco – economics: a study of NHAI – Tamil Nadu

Prof. N.P. Hariharan (Professor of Economics)

S. Siva Kumar (Assistant Professor of Economics)

Ecological Movements and the Involvement of Women

This paper attempts to make a close analysis of ecological movements and in

Effectiveness of the Eco-tourism Brochures.

First Author: Madhumathi P

Second Author: Dr. N.Ramani

Feasibility of Eco-literature in Classrooms to Improve Reading Skills.

Reading is a passive skill in which consciousness is involves comprehending the meaning of

Contemporary Malayalam Green Poetry: The Voices of Resistance for Existence

The Everest Hotel: A Narrative through Seasons

Exploring Endangered Environment: Environmental Awareness in Modern Indian

Dr. K. Venugopal Reddy

Exploring environmental imagination and demonstrating its critical and macrobiotic

Ecocomposition: Theory and Perspectives on Pedagogy

Ecology of Dalit Literature: An Ecocritical Study of Poisoned Bread

Dr. Sanjiv Kumar,

An Emancipatory Space: Environment in Select Novels of Malayali Women Writers in

In Tune With Nature: Ecological Consciousness in Native American Fiction

Tracing Consonances and Dissonances in an Ecocritcal Dissection of William

Towards an Ecofeminist Poetics

Self and Nature in the Poetry of Jibanananda Das

Anindya Sunder Polley, Lisha Sinha

Perceptual Reciprocity, Emotion and Lived Experience: An Eco-Phenomenological

Ecofeminism : Significance of Earth based Spiritualities and Neopaganism

Reinterpreting Arthur Miller’s ‘Death of the Salesman’ Through Ecocriticism:

Ecofeminism in Amitav Ghosh’s “Sea of Poppies”

Ecocriticism and the Human Psychology

Rishikesh Kumar Singh

The term ‘Ecocriticism’ gets an impression of an entrant in Indian context. Nevertheless, an

A Critical Insight into Feminism and Eco-feminism

Anthropocentrism versus Biocentrism: The Levinasian Approach towards Nature

Literally defined as ‘‘human-centeredness,’’ anthropocentrism as it is commonly understood

“Criticism is always and already self-referential” [italics Derrida’s]

This is a brief attempt to read, rather self-reflectively/referentially/consciously a group of

Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams: An Ecocritical Perspective

Eco-critical study of Frost's ‘Mending Wall’

My apple trees will never get across

Eco Critical Understanding of the Impact of Nuclear Power Plants in India

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