Vernon Walter Gras
580 California St., Suite 400
San Francisco, CA, 94104
Literary Theory and Ecology: Some Common Problems and a Solution
2001, Human Ecology Review
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Abstract
At first glance, present literary theory (poststructuralism) and ecology seem to be going in opposite directions. Roland Barthes, for example, used the words "to naturalize" to describe the falsification of historically motivated conventional truth. For Barthes, culture is always a semiological system. Forget nature. Ecology, on the other hand advocates a return to nature. The looming catastrophe that awaits us is due to anthropocentrism. Our relation to nature is bogus; we must get back to a more genuine relationship with nature by paying attention to nature's requirements. Each position opposed in their use of nature seeks emancipation from the bondage of a misperception. However, it does not take long for a postmodern literary theorist to feel comfortable in the "natural" abode of the ecologist. Both seek emancipation from an inadequate cultural habitation inherited from the past. Both agree that a naive "objectivity" or absolute is not available. But the literary theorist has to solve the problem of proliferating points of view and trivialization of standpoints. Ecology has to solve the essentializing of the new holistic paradigm as promoted by the deep ecologists. Using the lessons learned from feminist literary theory -a progress from essentialism (C. Spretnak and C. Wolf) to deconstruction (J. Butler) to dialogism (L. Alcoff and T. Lauretis) -ecology can also embrace dialogism as illustrated by William Cronon, Michael Pollan, and Carolyn Merchant. That ecology could also replace worn out patriarchal religions is a needed and hoped for prospect though still only speculation. F. Capra's The Web of Life (1996) embodies that prospect in an appealing non-idolatrous way.
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