Neither a mother nor an other: nature’s literary emancipation in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and Louise Erdrich’s Tracks

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2022-6

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Özcan, Rabia Elif

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Deriving from the comparative analyses of William Golding’s Lord of The Flies (1954) and Louise Erdrich’s Tracks (1988), this thesis discusses how ecocriticism and ecofeminism may, in particular cases, pose a discriminatory anthropocentric perspective despite bearing an eco-centered principle. Nature is mostly susceptible to being both otherized or/and motherized in these texts, that are constructed around an anthropocentric view. The novels represent the dialogue between human beings and nature through survival struggles in a colonialist context. However, the different representative discourses they adapt indicate human-centered perspectives and/or gender attributions in ecocritical and ecofeminist reading. Hence, this thesis argues that ecocritical and ecofeminist approaches may partly demonstrate anthropocentric essentialism, which necessitates an alternative empathetic approach towards nature. As a reading technique, the textual analyses make a close reading of the human-non-human transformations vis-a-vis the suggested hypothetical term “naturamorphism.” This term is presented as a thought experiment, explained as a transformation and reversal of anthropomorphism. Thus the thesis explores the literary construction of otherization in the novels from a feminist ecocritical perspective to fill the potential deficiencies of ecofeminist criticism and ecocriticism. As a conceptual framework, Val Plumwood’s master-other hierarchy provides the basis for analyzing the human/nonhuman relationship in the novels. Besides, in the light of Kristeva’s theory of the semiotic chora and the abject, the thesis presents an alternative reading of the “context” nature as a “text.” Thus, with the premise that nature is neither a mother nor an other, the thesis suggests the concept of naturamorphism, and investigates its applicability in practice.

Subject Keywords

Nature, Ecocriticism, Naturamorphism, Anthropomorphism, Feminist ecocriticism

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https://hdl.handle.net/11511/97733

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Graduate School of Social Sciences, Thesis

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Citation Formats

R. E. Özcan, “Neither a mother nor an other: nature’s literary emancipation in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies and Louise Erdrich’s Tracks,” M.A. - Master of Arts, Middle East Technical University, 2022.