| Popis: |
The rift in the relationship between human beings and the natural world necessitates healing. The anthropocentric perspective inscribed in much of the Western codification of the nature/culture dynamic is based on the misplaced idea of the pre-eminence of humankind over the rest of the natural world, which has resulted in largely dismissive and/or downright destructive actions perpetrated within the confines of a dominator mindset (Eisler 2002) and the (often wilful) disregard for or lack of self-awareness in regards to the environmental interlinkages, effects, and interdependencies which tie the human and the non-human (Milstein & Castro-Sotomayor 2020). This article seeks to investigate this specific topic by examining how this conflicting relationship is challenged, redrawn and restored in The Grassling by Elizabeth-Jane Burnett. The ecopoetic memoir, centred around a sense of grief both personal and environmental, employs the trans-corporeal (Alaimo 2010) device of a metamorphosed human/plant hybrid (the eponymous Grassling) to bridge, and ultimately heal the human/non-human fracture. |
