Ecocriticism And Environment: Rethinking Literature and Culture by Edited by Debashree Dattaray

Author:Edited by Debashree Dattaray [Dattaray, Edited by Debashree]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Primus Books
Published: 2019-02-13T00:00:00+00:00

8

Ecofeminism and its Discontents

Reading The Flowering Tree

Meenakshi Malhotra

The essay is an attempt to read and analyse a Kannada folktale from what could broadly be termed an ecofeminist perspective. It seeks to enter the debate on ecofeminism and environmental feminism through a feminist reading of the folktale The Flowering Tree translated and commented upon by A.K. Ramanujan.

While there is no singular approach which can be labelled as being ecofeminist, there is nevertheless a dominant paradigm underlying popular understandings of ecofeminism, shaped particularly by and sharing some of its concerns with those of radical feminism. The essay would also look at the analysis of the tale from the perspective of Ramanujan, a well-known mythographer, folklorist, poet-critic and translator of many Kannada folk tales, and try to draw out the implications of his comments. In addition, it would look at critiques of ecofeminism and possibilities offered by newer models of environmental feminism to explore the possibility of the emergence of newer ways of reading the tale.

Ecofeminism

The essay gives an outline of the basic tenets of ecofeminism, stressing on some particular insights upon which Ramanujan’s reading is premised. The basic premise of ecofeminism is that both women and nature stand in a relationship of subordination to men within the patriarchal order, which sanctions and legitimizes the domination of men. Further, patriarchy’s hierarchical, dualistic and oppressive mode of thinking has harmed both women and nature. Since women have been ‘denaturalized’ and nature has been ‘feminized’, it is difficult to know where the oppression of one ends and the other begins (Tong 2009: 238). The liberation of both, therefore, has to be a joint project. In the words of Rosemary R. Ruether:

Women must see that there can be no liberation for them and no solution to the ecological aims within a society whose fundamental model of relationships continues to be one of domination. They must unite the demands of the women’s movement with those of the ecological movement to envision a radical reshaping of the basic socioeconomic relations and the underlying values of (modern industrial) society. Ecofeminism was a response to a sense of crisis of modern industrial societies. (Ruether 1996)

The term ‘ecofeminism’ was coined by Françoise d’ Eaubonne and owes its origin to various fields of feminist inquiry and activism (d’Eaubonne 1974). Greta Gaard, a major theorist of ecofeminism, discusses its origin in peace movements, labour movements, women’s health care and the anti-nuclear environmental and animal liberation movements.

The various dimensions of ecofeminism in the Indian context have been articulated largely by Vandana Shiva. At the same time, other voices have joined the debate and shaped some of its aspects. Therefore, while critically analysing the story, it also seeks to clarify that the ecofeminist perspective is not a unitary, monolithic perspective, but incorporates other shades of opinion and nuances that reflect divergent views and opinions, which have been termed as environmental feminism.

When the folk tale was read through the prism of debates between different understandings of ecofeminism within the Indian context and environmental feminism and what

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.