The Symbiocene in “Ode to the West Wind”: reading Romantic poetry through an ecocritical lens
In the last thirty years, Romanticism has been approached from various nuanced lenses, and ecocriticism is one such perspective. The recent scholarship allowed a redemptive arc for the early 19th-century poetry, which was earlier disregarded because of its promises of aestheticism and overtly exagge...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Academic Association for Doctoral Students of English Philology
2023-12-01
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| Series: | Currents |
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| Online Access: | https://www.currents.umk.pl/files/issues/9/c9-faiz-symbiocene.pdf |
| _version_ | 1827397512123645952 |
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| author | Zainab Faiz |
| author_facet | Zainab Faiz |
| author_sort | Zainab Faiz |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | In the last thirty years, Romanticism has been approached from various nuanced lenses, and ecocriticism is one such perspective. The recent scholarship allowed a redemptive arc for the early 19th-century poetry, which was earlier disregarded because of its promises of aestheticism and overtly exaggerated fantasies. Most criticism of Romantic poetry focused on its anthropomorphic imagery. As a result, it delineated the peripheral non-human entities as mere embellishments or expressions.
Ecocritical studies of the early nineteen nineties, while acknowledging the non-human entities in the poesies of the Romantics, inevitably fell short in accounting for the dualities and concerns of both the agents by effectively erasing the human component from their discourses. The earlier Romantic ecological studies reminisce and idealize the past glories of nature without accounting for the desolating present and their altruistic view in disparaging the human agency.
This paper will attempt to place the above conflicting ideas by presenting the “Ode to the West Wind” in a ‘Symbiocene,’ a term coined by Glenn A. Albrecht to denote a new era countering the damaging Anthropocene. Additionally, it brings together the two seemingly divergent scales of investigation of human and non-human agencies in ecocritical studies. The paper will also discuss Percy Bysshe Shelley’s famous ode in the modern-day context of the deteriorating earth.
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| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T19:09:34Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-5412e3e12fcc47de972bd00510d5c9a7 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2449-8769 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T19:09:34Z |
| publishDate | 2023-12-01 |
| publisher | Academic Association for Doctoral Students of English Philology |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Currents |
| spelling | doaj.art-5412e3e12fcc47de972bd00510d5c9a72023-12-27T18:17:20ZengAcademic Association for Doctoral Students of English PhilologyCurrents2449-87692023-12-019106118The Symbiocene in “Ode to the West Wind”: reading Romantic poetry through an ecocritical lensZainab Faiz0Delhi UniversityIn the last thirty years, Romanticism has been approached from various nuanced lenses, and ecocriticism is one such perspective. The recent scholarship allowed a redemptive arc for the early 19th-century poetry, which was earlier disregarded because of its promises of aestheticism and overtly exaggerated fantasies. Most criticism of Romantic poetry focused on its anthropomorphic imagery. As a result, it delineated the peripheral non-human entities as mere embellishments or expressions. Ecocritical studies of the early nineteen nineties, while acknowledging the non-human entities in the poesies of the Romantics, inevitably fell short in accounting for the dualities and concerns of both the agents by effectively erasing the human component from their discourses. The earlier Romantic ecological studies reminisce and idealize the past glories of nature without accounting for the desolating present and their altruistic view in disparaging the human agency. This paper will attempt to place the above conflicting ideas by presenting the “Ode to the West Wind” in a ‘Symbiocene,’ a term coined by Glenn A. Albrecht to denote a new era countering the damaging Anthropocene. Additionally, it brings together the two seemingly divergent scales of investigation of human and non-human agencies in ecocritical studies. The paper will also discuss Percy Bysshe Shelley’s famous ode in the modern-day context of the deteriorating earth. https://www.currents.umk.pl/files/issues/9/c9-faiz-symbiocene.pdfromanticismshelleyecocriticismromantic ecocriticismsymbiosis |
| spellingShingle | Zainab Faiz The Symbiocene in “Ode to the West Wind”: reading Romantic poetry through an ecocritical lens Currents romanticism shelley ecocriticism romantic ecocriticism symbiosis |
| title | The Symbiocene in “Ode to the West Wind”: reading Romantic poetry through an ecocritical lens |
| title_full | The Symbiocene in “Ode to the West Wind”: reading Romantic poetry through an ecocritical lens |
| title_fullStr | The Symbiocene in “Ode to the West Wind”: reading Romantic poetry through an ecocritical lens |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Symbiocene in “Ode to the West Wind”: reading Romantic poetry through an ecocritical lens |
| title_short | The Symbiocene in “Ode to the West Wind”: reading Romantic poetry through an ecocritical lens |
| title_sort | symbiocene in ode to the west wind reading romantic poetry through an ecocritical lens |
| topic | romanticism shelley ecocriticism romantic ecocriticism symbiosis |
| url | https://www.currents.umk.pl/files/issues/9/c9-faiz-symbiocene.pdf |
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