Human-Nature Connection: Eco-ethical Reading of Louise Gluck’s The Wild Iris

Abstract

Relationship connotes a power relation of one reaping the benefits at the expense of the other; where connection demands mutual respect and benefits on both sides. In a transactional and utilitarian view, nature has been conceptualized as a source on which humanity consumes. However, ecofeminists believe that there is another way possible that offers mutual coexistence and respect. This brings us to understand nature is neither a source nor only a victim; it is an entity that deserves ethical behavior from human beings. This paper finds a sense of such ethicality in Louise Gluck’s poetry collection ‘The Wild Iris’ (1992) where her use of images reinvents human-nature connectivity through humanity’s realization of its mortality and the natural world’s infinite spiritual renewal and potential for regeneration. Reading her poetry from an ecofeminism perspective by applying the insights of Val Plumwood, this paper claims that environmental ethics is a profit-loss calculation, thus representing humanity’s relationship to nature, where eco-ethical reading demands subtle ways of forging interconnection between humans and nature.