Volume 15, Issue 6 (2025)
LRR 2025, 15(6): 373-403 |
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Rashidi S. Text, language and environment: From Ecocriticism to EcoLinguistics. LRR 2025; 15 (6) :373-403
URL: http://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article-14-61687-en.html
URL: http://lrr.modares.ac.ir/article-14-61687-en.html
Assistant Professor, Department of art education. Farhangian University. Tehran, Iran , s.rashidi@cfu.ac.ir
Abstract: (2917 Views)
Literary theory as a whole examines the relationship between authors, texts, and the world. In most literary theories, "world" is synonymous with community - the social sphere. Environmental critique and green studies extend the concept of "world" to include the whole environment. If we agree with the first law of the environment, that everything has to do with something else, we must say that literature as a linguistic text does not float at a higher level than the physical world, as an aesthetic element, but literature actually plays a role in a complex world. It plays a world in which energy, objects and ideas interact. For this reason, today, language and how it is used can serve as a metaphorical and symbolic representation of nature, as well as have a critical orientation towards environmental crises. This article, which is a qualitative research, has dealt with the relationship between linguistic text and the environment through analytical methods, and by analyzing the intellectual and theoretical frameworks of environmental critique, has also considered the issue of environmental linguistics. Examples discussed in this article include examples of poetic literature and dramatic literature. In fact, the main issue of this article is related to the key question of how the linguistic text (literature) can deal with the environmental crises of the contemporary world beyond the classical methods of literary criticism. It is an important human issue to assume linguistic responsibility.
1. Introduction
Ecocriticism refers to the combination of ecology and criticism. That is, eco is taken from Ecology and Criticism, which is equivalent to criticism. Some translators and researchers have translated ecology into ecology and thus, ecocriticism has also been translated into ecological criticism. This is despite the fact that Bom means region, land, etc., and it is different from what is actually found in the sources and researches related to environmental criticism, and it is not a suitable equivalent for the content and goals of this type of criticism. As we will mention later, the issue of environmental criticism is beyond the discussion of the region or the region and the territory. In this type of criticism, all environmental factors and elements that have a mutual effect on each other and put the environment under the radius are also considered. Among the most important reasons for the formation of environmental criticism, we can consider the anthropocentric view in different periods, the environmental crises in the 20th century, the domination of technology over human life, and the transformation of natural structures. Since the 1980s, there have been many concerns and attentions towards the environment in Western countries, and today they have become an important topic in the world media. We believe that in order to participate in the issues and problems caused by environmental crises, by adopting different approaches to the issue of language and literature and their relationship with the environment, from the point of view of environmental criticism, we should examine the concerns of writers and critics and even raise a fundamental question that What is the duty of literature and art in the face of environmental crises? As a rule, the environmental ethical system should be formed in a global way so that when faced with environmental problems, its human consequences can be solved. Because we live in a global ecosystem with human differences between us. But we all have a responsibility regarding the environment.
Research Question(s)
How is nature represented in poetry?
What is the role of phisical contexts in the plot of the novel?
2. Literature Review
The beginning of this discipline is from the Anglo-American tradition, and its development started at the same time as entering the environmental field in the form of scientific discourse in 1960, and in fact, the beginning of supporting environmental ethics can also be seen from the 1960s, which was accompanied by the growth and promotion of environmental movements. (Holden, 2003). Since the topic of environmental criticism is more or less a new topic in Iran, the number of published research works is not very significant, however, I have written some scientific works related to this article and topic in the Literature Review section.
3. Methodology
This article, which is a type of qualitative research, has dealt with the relationship between linguistic text and environment with a descriptive-analytical method, and has examined the issue of environmental linguistics by analyzing the intellectual and theoretical frameworks of environmental criticism. The examples discussed in this article include examples of poetic literature and dramatic literature.
4. Results
Environmental criticism seeks to defamiliarize the environment and make writers responsible for their living environment as citizens. Along with urban studies, this critical approach also deals with the representation of urban spaces from different perspectives, and from a perspective, it calls for a human perspective on the shaping of the environment and culture for the experience of empathetic and ethical living of humans together. Human responsibility towards nature and environment is part of the moral approach of the linguistic text. At least implicitly, in the language text, it can be shown how the environment is taken for granted and unchangeable in some ways. Meanwhile, the environment is a changeable and dynamic process. If a linguistic text does not meet such predetermined standards, then the role of environmental criticism is to show how and where these conditions are not met. Practically, the ethical and political agenda of environmental criticism and the negation of humanism are the common features of different branches of environmental criticism and even environmental linguistics. Environmental linguistics and environmental criticism work in the form of modern criticism. In general, environmental linguistics and environmental criticism are fields that lead us to the field of posthumanism. Post-humanism considers how injustice and oppression of nature has caused numerous human and social problems. In other words, humanists use a radical approach to destabilize human dominance over nature. Environmental criticism has initially focused on linguistic texts. First of all, it deals with the naturalism of the poems of the romantic period and then with all the texts that represent nature. The main goal is to dissect and see such representations of nature and show how the hidden assumptions of these different human discourses fuel environmental problems. Activists of ecological criticism and ecological linguistics are very interested in demolishing or reconstructing the binaries of human/animal and human/nature. Today, language, text and environment have a dialectical relationship and literature can play another role in this communication cycle. In fact, in the context of environmental linguistics studies and environmental criticism, it is indicated how contemporary literature is able to react to the representation of the critical situation of the environment and also deal with this issue with a critical attitude of how language in literature has been able to make nature It becomes something artificial, unchangeable, abstract and dreamy, while the reality outside the literary world is a destructive and disturbing space. A series of critical reactions in the analysis of literary language and its relationship with the environment today and in the future can turn literature into a practical and active linguistic text, and environmental criticism can also criticize the hidden layers of romantic literature's exposure to the environment. Therefore, environmental criticism in literature has both purely analytical and critical aspects.
1. Introduction
Ecocriticism refers to the combination of ecology and criticism. That is, eco is taken from Ecology and Criticism, which is equivalent to criticism. Some translators and researchers have translated ecology into ecology and thus, ecocriticism has also been translated into ecological criticism. This is despite the fact that Bom means region, land, etc., and it is different from what is actually found in the sources and researches related to environmental criticism, and it is not a suitable equivalent for the content and goals of this type of criticism. As we will mention later, the issue of environmental criticism is beyond the discussion of the region or the region and the territory. In this type of criticism, all environmental factors and elements that have a mutual effect on each other and put the environment under the radius are also considered. Among the most important reasons for the formation of environmental criticism, we can consider the anthropocentric view in different periods, the environmental crises in the 20th century, the domination of technology over human life, and the transformation of natural structures. Since the 1980s, there have been many concerns and attentions towards the environment in Western countries, and today they have become an important topic in the world media. We believe that in order to participate in the issues and problems caused by environmental crises, by adopting different approaches to the issue of language and literature and their relationship with the environment, from the point of view of environmental criticism, we should examine the concerns of writers and critics and even raise a fundamental question that What is the duty of literature and art in the face of environmental crises? As a rule, the environmental ethical system should be formed in a global way so that when faced with environmental problems, its human consequences can be solved. Because we live in a global ecosystem with human differences between us. But we all have a responsibility regarding the environment.
Research Question(s)
How is nature represented in poetry?
What is the role of phisical contexts in the plot of the novel?
2. Literature Review
The beginning of this discipline is from the Anglo-American tradition, and its development started at the same time as entering the environmental field in the form of scientific discourse in 1960, and in fact, the beginning of supporting environmental ethics can also be seen from the 1960s, which was accompanied by the growth and promotion of environmental movements. (Holden, 2003). Since the topic of environmental criticism is more or less a new topic in Iran, the number of published research works is not very significant, however, I have written some scientific works related to this article and topic in the Literature Review section.
3. Methodology
This article, which is a type of qualitative research, has dealt with the relationship between linguistic text and environment with a descriptive-analytical method, and has examined the issue of environmental linguistics by analyzing the intellectual and theoretical frameworks of environmental criticism. The examples discussed in this article include examples of poetic literature and dramatic literature.
4. Results
Environmental criticism seeks to defamiliarize the environment and make writers responsible for their living environment as citizens. Along with urban studies, this critical approach also deals with the representation of urban spaces from different perspectives, and from a perspective, it calls for a human perspective on the shaping of the environment and culture for the experience of empathetic and ethical living of humans together. Human responsibility towards nature and environment is part of the moral approach of the linguistic text. At least implicitly, in the language text, it can be shown how the environment is taken for granted and unchangeable in some ways. Meanwhile, the environment is a changeable and dynamic process. If a linguistic text does not meet such predetermined standards, then the role of environmental criticism is to show how and where these conditions are not met. Practically, the ethical and political agenda of environmental criticism and the negation of humanism are the common features of different branches of environmental criticism and even environmental linguistics. Environmental linguistics and environmental criticism work in the form of modern criticism. In general, environmental linguistics and environmental criticism are fields that lead us to the field of posthumanism. Post-humanism considers how injustice and oppression of nature has caused numerous human and social problems. In other words, humanists use a radical approach to destabilize human dominance over nature. Environmental criticism has initially focused on linguistic texts. First of all, it deals with the naturalism of the poems of the romantic period and then with all the texts that represent nature. The main goal is to dissect and see such representations of nature and show how the hidden assumptions of these different human discourses fuel environmental problems. Activists of ecological criticism and ecological linguistics are very interested in demolishing or reconstructing the binaries of human/animal and human/nature. Today, language, text and environment have a dialectical relationship and literature can play another role in this communication cycle. In fact, in the context of environmental linguistics studies and environmental criticism, it is indicated how contemporary literature is able to react to the representation of the critical situation of the environment and also deal with this issue with a critical attitude of how language in literature has been able to make nature It becomes something artificial, unchangeable, abstract and dreamy, while the reality outside the literary world is a destructive and disturbing space. A series of critical reactions in the analysis of literary language and its relationship with the environment today and in the future can turn literature into a practical and active linguistic text, and environmental criticism can also criticize the hidden layers of romantic literature's exposure to the environment. Therefore, environmental criticism in literature has both purely analytical and critical aspects.
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