Lady Lilith, painting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, 1863Ruth Ozeki’s All Over Creation and Ecofeminism
What is Ecofeminism?
Ecofeminism is the merging of ecocriticism (critical approaches that focus on environmental issues) and feminism (critical approaches that focus on women). There are many versions of ecofeminism, and each one has a slightly different twist on the subject.
Here are a few key Ecofeminist ideas:
* Much Western thought, especially Enlightenment thought, but also reaching back to Aristotle, emphasizes dualities like culture/nature, man/woman, reason/emotion, mind/body, God/man. In these dualities, the first term is privileged and then the second one is degraded. As you can see from the examples above, this leaves nature and women in a secondary position.
* The Enlightenment emphasized a Great Chain of Being, in which a hierarchy was established, with God at the top, and lesser beings falling in line afterwards.
* The Enlightenment also traded in earlier conceptions of nature as an organism to nature as a machine. This was, after all, the Age of Reason and the dawn of the Industrial Revolution when order and mechanization were revered.
* Ecofeminist scholars are reacting to the various dualities, hierarchies, and privileging of some kinds of knowing that persist long after the Enlightenment.
* Ecofeminist thought is sometimes in line with Deep Ecology, which is the belief that everything is interconnected and equal, that a change in one minute part of the ecosystem causes ripple effects elsewhere.
* Ecofeminists sometimes celebrate the identification of women with nature, and other times they distance themselves from this equation.
* Ecofeminism sees the oppression and/or degradation of nature and women to be intimately related.
Here are a few quotes from Ecofeminist scholars that illustrate these ideas:
Carol Adams: “Ecofeminism stresses relationship, not solely because it has been women’s domain, but because it is a more viable ethical framework than autonomy for transforming structures that are environmentally destructive.”
Ynestra King: “Capitalism, the preeminent culture and economics of self-interest, is homogenizing cultures and simplifying life on earth by disrupting naturally complex balances within the ecosystem...[in Western culture there is] a deep ambivalence about life itself, our own fertility and that of nonhuman nature, and a terrible confusion about our place in nature.”
Carolyn Merchant: “The image of the earth as a living organism and nurturing mother had served as a cultural constraint restricting the actions of human beings [...] As long as the earth was considered to be alive and sensitive, it could be considered a breach of human ethical behavior to carry out destructive acts against it.”
Winnie Tomm: “The view of both women and nature as raw material to be used according to the desires of others underpins exploitation of both.”
Susan Bordo: “By Descartes’s brilliant stroke, nature becamse definedby its lack of affiliation with divinity, with spirit. All that which is God-like or spiritual--freedom, will, and sentience--belong entirely and exclusively to res cognitans. All else--the earth, the heavens, animals, the human body--is merely mechanically interacting matter.”
Why use Ecofeminism to interpret literature?
Ecofeminism can help us understand how issues of nature and women are interwoven, and it can give us a new perspective on reading literature.
How does Ecofeminism apply to All Over Creation?
Ozeki’s novel is filled with symbols and images of nature and women--let’s make our own list! These symbols bring a greater depth to the novel than just an engaging plot.
Life, birth, death, passion are all prominent themes that are explored through female characters, the male characters who try to control them, and the children--both literal, figurative, and absent--that fill their lives.
Ozeki seems to be asking some big questions about these themes--what is the value of life? Who has power over life? Are some lives worth more than others? That she uses potatoes and issues of genetic modification to frame these questions places her novel squarely in the eco-lit camp. And we can make the case for this novel as a feminist statement as well--how many of the main characters are women? Who sets chains of events in motion?
Now, what particular characters, symbols, events, and/or places seem to lend themselves to an ecofeminist reading? Let’s test some Ecofeminist readings of the novel!
Here's a link to info and paintings of the Hindu Goddess Kali, who we see in Duncan's office towards the end of the reading. She's a great ecofeminist and multi-cultural symbol in the novel.
http://www.sanatansociety.org/hindu_gods_and_goddesses/kali.htm
What is Ecofeminism?
Ecofeminism is the merging of ecocriticism (critical approaches that focus on environmental issues) and feminism (critical approaches that focus on women). There are many versions of ecofeminism, and each one has a slightly different twist on the subject.
Here are a few key Ecofeminist ideas:
* Much Western thought, especially Enlightenment thought, but also reaching back to Aristotle, emphasizes dualities like culture/nature, man/woman, reason/emotion, mind/body, God/man. In these dualities, the first term is privileged and then the second one is degraded. As you can see from the examples above, this leaves nature and women in a secondary position.
* The Enlightenment emphasized a Great Chain of Being, in which a hierarchy was established, with God at the top, and lesser beings falling in line afterwards.
* The Enlightenment also traded in earlier conceptions of nature as an organism to nature as a machine. This was, after all, the Age of Reason and the dawn of the Industrial Revolution when order and mechanization were revered.
* Ecofeminist scholars are reacting to the various dualities, hierarchies, and privileging of some kinds of knowing that persist long after the Enlightenment.
* Ecofeminist thought is sometimes in line with Deep Ecology, which is the belief that everything is interconnected and equal, that a change in one minute part of the ecosystem causes ripple effects elsewhere.
* Ecofeminists sometimes celebrate the identification of women with nature, and other times they distance themselves from this equation.
* Ecofeminism sees the oppression and/or degradation of nature and women to be intimately related.
Here are a few quotes from Ecofeminist scholars that illustrate these ideas:
Carol Adams: “Ecofeminism stresses relationship, not solely because it has been women’s domain, but because it is a more viable ethical framework than autonomy for transforming structures that are environmentally destructive.”
Ynestra King: “Capitalism, the preeminent culture and economics of self-interest, is homogenizing cultures and simplifying life on earth by disrupting naturally complex balances within the ecosystem...[in Western culture there is] a deep ambivalence about life itself, our own fertility and that of nonhuman nature, and a terrible confusion about our place in nature.”
Carolyn Merchant: “The image of the earth as a living organism and nurturing mother had served as a cultural constraint restricting the actions of human beings [...] As long as the earth was considered to be alive and sensitive, it could be considered a breach of human ethical behavior to carry out destructive acts against it.”
Winnie Tomm: “The view of both women and nature as raw material to be used according to the desires of others underpins exploitation of both.”
Susan Bordo: “By Descartes’s brilliant stroke, nature becamse definedby its lack of affiliation with divinity, with spirit. All that which is God-like or spiritual--freedom, will, and sentience--belong entirely and exclusively to res cognitans. All else--the earth, the heavens, animals, the human body--is merely mechanically interacting matter.”
Why use Ecofeminism to interpret literature?
Ecofeminism can help us understand how issues of nature and women are interwoven, and it can give us a new perspective on reading literature.
How does Ecofeminism apply to All Over Creation?
Ozeki’s novel is filled with symbols and images of nature and women--let’s make our own list! These symbols bring a greater depth to the novel than just an engaging plot.
Life, birth, death, passion are all prominent themes that are explored through female characters, the male characters who try to control them, and the children--both literal, figurative, and absent--that fill their lives.
Ozeki seems to be asking some big questions about these themes--what is the value of life? Who has power over life? Are some lives worth more than others? That she uses potatoes and issues of genetic modification to frame these questions places her novel squarely in the eco-lit camp. And we can make the case for this novel as a feminist statement as well--how many of the main characters are women? Who sets chains of events in motion?
Now, what particular characters, symbols, events, and/or places seem to lend themselves to an ecofeminist reading? Let’s test some Ecofeminist readings of the novel!
Here's a link to info and paintings of the Hindu Goddess Kali, who we see in Duncan's office towards the end of the reading. She's a great ecofeminist and multi-cultural symbol in the novel.
http://www.sanatansociety.org/hindu_gods_and_goddesses/kali.htm
The painting at the top of this post is of Lilith, a powerful and mythical woman, said to be a lust-inducing demon, a chil killer, and, by some accounts, Adam's first (and rejected) wife.
1 comment:
Recently I wrote a blog entry offering a leftist critique of the ideology of “Green” environmentalism, deep ecology, animal rights activism, eco-feminism, and lifestyle politics in general (veganism, “dumpster diving,” “buying organic,” etc.). I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on the matter and any responses you might have to its criticisms.
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