Concept Note

Ecocriticism was inaugurated around 1980s as a result of environment revolution that had begun around 1960s after the publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. It gives importance to the relationship between human beings and nature, how are human beings affecting nature and vice versa. With time, it impacted in various other disciplines as well thereby evolving as an umbrella term. As an earth-centered approach, it intersected environment and culture and calling for collaboration between natural scientists, writers, literary critics, anthropologists, historians, and more.

In a broader perspective, Ecocriticism guides us to examine the world around us and critiquing the mannerisms of society in the treatment of nature. The theory helps in analyzing any text with an eye on nature portrayal by the author and the ecocritical trope within the text. Through this, various questions can be answered like how is nature represented in this text? How is the setting of the text related to the environment? How are metaphors and images used to represent nature? How do we see issues of environmental disaster and crises reflected in popular culture and literary works? How do the roles or representations of men and women towards the environment differ in this play/film/text/etc.Where is the environment placed in the power hierarchy? How is nature empowered or oppressed in this work? What parallels can be drawn between the sufferings and oppression of groups of people (women, minorities, immigrants, etc.) and treatment of the land? With answering these questions, we can understand the connecting ideas related to Ecocriticism: Ecofeminism, Ecopoetics, ecological imperialism and the like.

Since ever country has its literature and they have conditioned our understanding of nature as well. Ecologists have tried to motivate people to be sympathetic and respectful for mother- nature. This theory has motivated writers to motivate people against the time when the consequences of human actions would be damaging the planet’s basic life support system. This awareness brings in us a desire to contribute to environmental restoration, not only as a hobby but as a representative of literature. Ecocritics encourage others to think seriously about the aesthetic and ethical dilemmas posed by the environmental crisis and about how language and literature transmit values with profound ecological implications.

There are various novels from various writers belonging to different countries who have chosen ecological themes like David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas, Jon McGregor’s If Nobody Speaks of Remarkable Things, and Ian McEwan’s Solar. Even among Indian writers, Amitav Ghosh’s Hungry Tide, Kamala Markandaya’s Nectar in a Sieve, Raja Rao’s Kanthapura, and many more.

For the convenience of the scholars, some topics have been listed below but they are only suggestive and the scholars are free to choose their areas of interest within this wider framework. The subthemes are as follows:-

• Ecological Imperialism
• Women and nature: similarity and differences
• Environmental challenges and responses
• Ecopoetics
• Ecocriticism and Folklore
• Eco-consciousness in classic literature

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Important Dates

20th May- Full Paper

June 1 – Intimation of Acceptance

Authentic, scholarly and unpublished research papers are invited from scholars/ faculty/ researchers/ writers/ professors from all over the world. The book will be published with an ISBN by a renowned publisher.