An Ecological Elegy under Colonial Violence: The Counter-Pastoral Narrative and Ecocriticism in Doris Lessing’s The Grass Is Singing
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This paper investigates Doris Lessing’s novel The Grass Is Singing in terms of the counter-pastoral narrative and the debilitating impact of colonial violence. The novel shows the colonized subalterns’ subjugation and suffering inextricably linked to the depletion of their larger environment. By drawing on postcolonial ecocriticism in analyzing the colonial farm as an enclosed anthropocentric space, this paper examines the ways in which the control of the natural environment, the domination of indigenous people, and the struggle over geographical space influence and mutually reinforce each other. Lessing’s novel as an ecological elegy mourns for the dehumanization of human beings and the deterioration of the natural world, both of which are inseparably intertwined. In exploring the significance of Lessing’s novel as a form of ecological elegy, this study delves into the complex interweaving of nature, socio-sexual politics, and power in Lessing’s The Grass Is Singing and reveals the sinister, invisible operations of hegemonic ideologies behind a seemingly “accidental” incident, the murder of Mary Turner by her black servant Moses.
Abstract
This paper investigates Doris Lessing’s novel The Grass Is Singing in terms of the counter-pastoral narrative and the debilitating impact of colonial violence. The novel shows the colonized subalterns’ subjugation and suffering inextricably linked to the depletion of their larger environment. By drawing on postcolonial ecocriticism in analyzing the colonial farm as an enclosed anthropocentric space, this paper examines the ways in which the control of the natural environment, the domination of indigenous people, and the struggle over geographical space influence and mutually reinforce each other. Lessing’s novel as an ecological elegy mourns for the dehumanization of human beings and the deterioration of the natural world, both of which are inseparably intertwined. In exploring the significance of Lessing’s novel as a form of ecological elegy, this study delves into the complex interweaving of nature, socio-sexual politics, and power in Lessing’s The Grass Is Singing and reveals the sinister, invisible operations of hegemonic ideologies behind a seemingly “accidental” incident, the murder of Mary Turner by her black servant Moses.
참고문헌 (20)
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