Greening the Earth, Greening Literature: A Theoretical Underpinning of Ecocriticism

Abstract

In the past three decades, ecology has acquired a significant place across disciplines from environmental science to humanities. Increased interest in ecological concerns across disciplines has sowed seed for the rise of Ecocriticism, an emerging academic field within literary studies. Here, “Greeting the Earth, Greeting Literature” refers to ecological implication to literature in order to generate awareness in human beings to save our planet Earth. Ecocriticism is a study of the relationship between literature and physical environment. The present paper is intended to explore the theoretical underpinning of ecocriticsm and to deal with its origin, gradual development and major trends. Ecocriticism critiques the cultural norms of the society which paves way for the environmental degradation. The paper presents a critique of the “Anthropocene,” an epoch that exposes disastrous impact of human activities on our planet Earth and its ecosystem. It calls for a paradigm shift from the human-centric approach to ecocentrism.