Ecocriticism, Environmental Ethics, and a New Ecological Culture

Abstract

1. IntroductionIN THE THIS ESSAY I WISH T? OFFER A TENTATIVE PROGRAMME for development of fruitful cooperation between ecocriticism and environmental ethics. What could be envisaged as result of this cooperation would be idea and ideal of new ecological culture.To start with, I will submit working definitions of my key terms. doing this, I would also like to thumbnail agendas they include. As will become clear, I look at environment through dual lens - in hope that relationship between these two foci will yield some new insights.2. Definitions and Programmes They IncludeLet me first consider ecocriticism. An important statement made by Cheryll Glotfelty, founder of American Association for Literature & Environment (AS LE), describes focus of ecocriticism in following terms: While in most literary theory 'the world' is synonymous with society - social sphere - ecocriticism expands notion of 'the world' to include entire ecosphere.1The primary concern of ecocriticism, to use an agreed definition, is thus to study the relationship between literature and physical environment.2 One important feature attached to ecocriticism should not be disregarded: it was born from environmental crisis, awareness of which has affected many literary critics and scholars since 1980s.3 There has been growing number of ecocritical publications from last two decades of twentieth century.4A major motive underpinning ecocritical agenda is its insistence on critical awareness. In final analysis, purpose of ecocriticism is to study literary texts and other art-works, in order to generate more caring attitudes towards nature and whole biosphere. To be more specific, ecocriticism tends to make ethical appeals by pointing, for example, to failings in political and cultural practices. The overall concern of ecocriticism is with human survival on Earth. The basic assumption prominently expressed by quite few - but not all - ecocritics is that humankind will have to face up to an ecological holocaust if it does not abandon its exploitive direction.Environmental ethics could be defined as a set of principles, values or norms relating to ways in which we interact with our [natural] environment.5 If we look at this area of concern, we can easily recognize that there are some striking characteristics which ecocriticism and environmental ethics have in common.i. Like ecocriticism, environmental ethics sprang from environmental crisis. 'Environmental ethics' is essentially response to range of environmental problems which collectively make up 'environmental crisis'.6 So, one could say that environmental crisis has haunted literary critics and philosophers alike.ii. Like ecocriticism, or even more strongly, environmental ethics insists on our critical awareness of environmental problems.iii. Like ecocriticism, environmental ethics is working towards generating more caring attitudes towards nature and whole biosphere,iv. Like ecocriticism, environmental ethics is deeply concerned with question of human survival on Earth.So much for common features. Let us now point out couple of significant differences.i. Obviously, environmental ethics does not deal with literary texts and works of art. As branch of 'applied philosophy', environmental ethics focuses more directly on human behaviour. More precisely, it devotes attention to ways in which humans interact with physical /natural environment, both as individuals in their everyday behaviour, on one hand, and as social groups such as governments or business companies (with their farreaching impacts), on other.ii. Environmental ethics aims to identify and address wide range of environmental problems that have been caused by humans, and submit these problems to critical analysis. …