Sense of Place Environmental and Ecological Justice An Ecocritical Analysis of Select Indian Novels

Abstract

The lengthy debate on the creation-evolution controversy has made it clear that humans are created from a handful of earth or evolved naturally just as any other species in the biosphere. Nevertheless, civilizations have made human to subjugate nature. According to the utility value, nature is racked in the hierarchy ladder. From being one of the species in the biosphere, humans center themselves and cast away other non-human beings to the margins. Even in literary works, nature is being portrayed as an element of aestheticism or as a factor of mystery and fear. Some of the natural processes which are beyond human s imagination are labeled as supernatural or a marvel. At the same time, there are literary works that advocate human oneness with nature and wild. Literary theory and criticism analyze literature based on text, culture, and society. Ecocriticism, one of the literary and cultural theories, explores the linguistic and literary representation of the physical environment. Beginning from appreciating arts that advocate wilderness preservation to being an activist movement that voices environmental and ecological justice, ecocriticism spread its wings wide in the field of literary criticism. Developed as an Anglo-American literary movement, ecocriticism is acknowledged in many other countries, including India newline