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International Journal of Humanities and Arts

Vol. 3, Issue 1, Part A (2021)

Nature and environmentalism: Post-colonial eco critical rereading of selected Nigerian poems

Author(s):

Divya MS

Abstract:
This paper is an attempt to discuss about ecology and environmentalism in the selected poems of Nigerian poets Wole Soyinka, Tanure Ojaide and Niyi Osundare in a Post-colonial Eco critical review. In literature, ecocriticism is a mode of aesthetics that deals with the nature of relation between literature and the natural environment. Its adherents investigate human attitudes towards the world as reflected in writing about nature. It is a diverse genre known by many names, including green cultural studies, eco poetics and literary analysis of the environmental. The study seeks to explore selected poems in Nigerian literature from an Eco critical perspective. The relationship between man, the environment and nature is documented in literature. Eco-critical insights are studied in the poetry of Wole Soyinka, Tanure Ojaide and Niyi Osundare. Literature resides where creation exists, and where nature exists, life exists. Literature is an imperative tool for having a historical understanding of the relationship between man and also for determining the way man treats nature in future. In the 1990’s, ecocriticism gained significant prominence in the Western academia as a domain of literary research. This does not, however, indicate that the literature of earlier periods ignored ecologically conscious concerns. Similarly, ecological scepticism seeks to explain how nature is expresses in literature and how the meaning of nature and the relationship between man and nature have changed over time as they are perceived in literature. In recent decades, the natural environment has progressively become threatened by man’s activities. The chosen poems are full of varied environmental details. The poets responded to their plight in distinctive perspectives through their poetry. Extreme ecological issues such as global warming, increased pollution levels, recurrent coastal flooding, tsunami and cyclones, earthquakes and floods have culminated from the incessant cutting of trees for human use and deforestation, the use of weapons and arms, radioactive elements in nuclear power plants, industrial pollution and many more. Not only has this disruption to nature caused a catastrophic change in the atmospheric conditions around the world, but the ozone layer, our earth’s defensive shield, has also been destructive. And now there is a growing and crucial need to conserve our environment and make our earth a better place to live. In Nigerian Literature, the study provides a more detailed introduction to the Eco theory from its beginnings to the present. It will also address the relationship between nature and culture, the gradual progression of ecocriticism, and its related concepts.

Pages: 01-05  |  1317 Views  533 Downloads

How to cite this article:
Divya MS. Nature and environmentalism: Post-colonial eco critical rereading of selected Nigerian poems. Int. J. Humanit. Arts 2021;3(1):01-05. DOI: 10.33545/26647699.2021.v3.i1a.20
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