Nature on Trial: Probing Cosmic Warfare in Akwanya’s Pilgrim Foot and Leopardi’s “Dialogue between Nature and an Icelander”

Abstract

In his religious and philosophical persuasion, Amechi Akwanya seeks to reconceptualize the concept of human suffering, an idea that is validated in the representation of cosmic warfare in the first sequence of his poetry collection, Pilgrim Foot: A Collection of Poems. Interestingly, this sequence of Akwanya's poetry shares common philosophical ideation with Leopardi's "Dialogue between Nature and an Icelander" in their interrogation of the history of human experience, an observation not yet captured by critical scholarship. Thus in its attempt to cover up this critical space, this article seeks to juxtapose Akwanya's poetry and Leopardi's dialogue to illuminate how art subjects Nature to cross-examination for her alleged hostility toward man. Working within the framework of the Hegelian concept of cosmic contradiction, of the end having already been determined at "the beginning," and Nietzsche's Heraclitean theory, the paper offers a critical examination of not only Nature's burden of guilt in human plight but also how art serves as an outlet for transcending cosmic warfare.