It seems I am a little behind my peers here; this post will be more of a statement of goals than anything. I have some catching up to do!
When I first began to consider ecofeminism, I immediately thought of Jean Rhys’s novel Wide Sargasso Sea. When I first read this text, I was viewing it mainly through a Lacanian lense, as well as a postcolonial lense. But I think what I learned about the text through these perspectives lends very well toward an ecofeminist reading as well. The Caribbean landscape is described in great detail, both by native Antoinette, who loves it, and her new British husband Rochester, who finds it as as unassimilable and impossible to master as his new wife. The natural landscape adds to the sense of difference between the two, and Rochester’s growing dislike of it rises along with his hatred of Antoinette. Certainly, for Rochester, nature and woman, or at least non-English woman, are “radically the Other” (my emphasis) as Lacan says in “A Love Letter”[i] (150). Rochester’s ultimate failing is in his inability, or in one instance, his refusal, to be lost in nature—to submit his patricarchal power over to nature. The question I will keep in mind while examining this text, whether Rhys gives the landscape and ecocentric treatment, or simply uses it as a tool for furthering his tale, just as the vilified Rochester uses Antoinette as a tool for regaining his sense of mastery and his father’s approval.
Along with this, I am interested in understanding ecofeminism in Latin America today. I will be reading Ecofeminism in Latin America by Mary Judith Ress and looking for contemporary ecofeminist Latin American primary texts.
My other interest lies in viewing modernist texts, particularly the work of Virginia Woolf, through an ecofeminist lense. Certainly, Woolf goes to great lengths describing nature, but I hope to be able to more critically analyze whether her technique gives an ecocritical treatment of nature, and furhter whether this has an ecofeminist element as well. I am thinking primarily of Woolf’s essay “The Death of the Moth” (1942)[ii]. In this text,Woolf chronicles her growing understanding that a nondescript day moth, despite not being “properly…a moth” (409) is just as vital and as suseptible to death as she. Human and nature are put on a level field—a field of fleeting life and insignificance.
I will also be perusing the texts Jay Jay and Blake are reading for their course, and hope to be able to add to the conversation on those. In addition to all of this I will am beginning writing my thesis, so please forgive me if my posts are sparse!
Until next time—
Laura
Hi Laura,
ReplyDeleteI am excited to read what your find. I am so absorbed in early American texts that I know nothing about Latin American works. I wonder how they will speak to each other in terms of ecocentrality. Perhaps, we could eventually see a bigger picture in terms of the Americas and the environment.
Laura,
ReplyDeleteThe novel _Wide Sargasso Sea_ sounds absolutely amazing! I had never heard of it before, so I quickly looked it up and discovered it's a prequel to Charlotte Bronte's _Jane Eyre_. From what you described above, there is a strong connection between women and women's bodies and the landscape/nature in the text. I hope you keep us updated if you decide to further explore this novel.
I have sadly never read Virginia Woolf's essay "The Death of the Moth" but you have my interest piqued. Woolf is briefly mentioned in Josephine Donovan's essay "Ecofeminist Literary Criticism: Reading the Orange" in the anthology _Ecofeminist Literary Criticism: Theory, Interpretation, Pedagogy" edited by Greta Gaard and Patrick D. Murphy.
I'm looking forward to more of your posts Laura, and best of luck with your thesis!
-Jay Jay