Abstract
As the bedrocks of the French imperialism in North America, the fur trade and the logging industry led to a drastic depletion in the populations of fur-bearing animals, particularly that of the beaver, and massive deforestation on the continent. Examining Annie Proulx’s Barkskins from an ecocritical point of view, this article seeks to investigate the novel’s representations of the detrimental impact of anthropocentrism. We will show that the prevalence of anthropocentrism in New France resulted in the over-harvesting of beavers to procure precious pelts for European markets, where fur clothes were in vogue during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In this scenario, French merchants went from rags to riches at the cost of losing myriads of beavers. On the other hand, our study will also address the indirect endorsement of biocentrism by the indigenous North Americans, who refrained from inflicting irreparable damage on nature in a vast territory in which the European settlers relentlessly cut ancient trees to make their fortunes. Hence, the focus of this article is the distinction between the perspectives on the natural world held by French settlers and Native Americans in Barkskins.
Highlights
As an award-winning novelist and short story writer who has significantly contributed to the portrayal of the environmental and ecological crises induced by Euro-Americans in North America, Annie Proulx reflects in her outstanding literary works the concern for environmental degradation through her focus on the chopping of ancient trees, the over-hunting of wild animals, and the consequent loss of biodiversity in North America
This paper addresses the representations of environmental catastrophes induced by the detrimental measures taken by human beings in the natural world in Barkskins, a long saga in which the narrator regrets the loss of a bountiful paradise
In contrast to European settlers, Native Americans refrain from inflicting severe damage on living beings as they make no attempt to disturb the ecological integrity of the natural world in Barkskins, for they do not rely on nature as a source of income
Summary
As an award-winning novelist and short story writer who has significantly contributed to the portrayal of the environmental and ecological crises induced by Euro-Americans in North America, Annie Proulx reflects in her outstanding literary works the concern for environmental degradation through her focus on the chopping of ancient trees, the over-hunting of wild animals, and the consequent loss of biodiversity in North America. To investigate Barkskins from an ecocritical standpoint, this article will focus on the adverse impacts of European settlement on the beaver population during the fur trade It will point out the prevalence of anthropocentrism among the French settlers and traders who consider North America to be a bountiful paradise with infinite natural resources that could be exploited to get rich. The anthropocentric assumption of man’s superiority over non-human living beings is compared to the biocentric perspective of the Native American attitude towards the natural world
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