Die ekokritiek is ‟n relatief nuwe veld in die literatuurstudie, maar met groter bewussyn van die ál dringender omgewingskrisis het akademici sedert die 1990‟s meer aandag daaraan begin gee. Kort ná die vestiging van ekokritiek as legitieme studieveld, het die vertakking stedelike ekokritiek sterk begin uitbrei. In dié vertakking word gelet op omgewingskwessies wat in stede voorkom weens die aard van ‟n stadsomgewing.
In hierdie mini-verhandeling word ‟n oorsig oor die ekokritiek en in die besonder die stedelike ekokritiek gebied en twaalf gedigte wat in Johannesburg as milieu het, word aan die hand van die stedelike ekokritiek bespreek. Daar word gewys op die verskille tussen ‟n biosentriese beskouing en ‟n antroposentriese beskouing van die natuur en die mens se plek daarin. Wanneer daar vanuit die ekofeministiese kritiek gelees word, kom konseptuele raamwerke te voorskyn waarin daar ‟n dualistiese wêreldbeskouing is van kultuur as “manlik” en die natuur as “vroulik”. Die ekofeminisme wys ook die vertikale organisasie van die werklikheid uit, waar ‟n mindere morele waarde aan die laer entiteit verbind word. Ekofeministiese en ekogeregtigheidskritiek hou verband met mekaar aangesien daar in albei benaderings gekyk word hoe magstrukture in ‟n omgewing gebruik word om dele van ‟n bevolking te beheer en te domineer. Vanuit ‟n psigo-ekokritiese oogpunt word onder meer gelet op mense se verbrokkelde verhouding met die natuur en die gevolge daarvan. Die raakpunte tussen die postkoloniale kritiek en die ekokritiek word in die mini-verhandeling uitgewys en pastorale, antipastorale en postpastorale tekste en lesings van tekste word ondersoek.
Die twaalf gedigte word bowenal gelees vir omgewingsmatigheid – dus vir wat elke gedig te sê het oor die omgewing.
Ten slotte word in die verhandeling gewys op die geleentheid vir omgewingsaktivisme wat die literêre ekokritiek bied.
Ecocriticism is a relatively new field of study in literary studies, but with greater awareness of the increasing urgency of the environmental crisis it has, since the 1990s, received more attention from literary critics. Shortly after the establishment of ecocriticism as a legitimate field of study a new subfield developed, that of urban ecocriticism. In urban ecocriticism the focus is on environmental issues emerging from the specifics of an urban environment .
This mini-dissertation presents an overview of ecocriticism and specifically urban ecocriticism and uses urban ecocriticism as reading strategy to discuss twelve poems set in Johannesburg. The dissertation looks at differences between the biocentric view and the anthropocentric view of nature and man's place in it. Conceptual frameworks emerge in an eco-feminist reading, showing the dualistic view of culture as “male” and nature as “female” as well as the vertical organization of a culture, where a lesser moral value is attached to the lower entity .
Eco-feminist and eco-justice criticism overlap as both approaches explore how power structures are used to control and dominate sections of a population . In a psycho-ecocritical reading people 's fractured relationships with nature and one another are examined. Interfaces between postcolonial criticism and ecocriticism are identified, and pastoral, antipastoral postpastoral texts and readings of texts are examined.
The twelve poems discussed in this dissertation are above all read for environmentality, for what each poem says about the environment, ideas about the environment and the effect of the environment on the poetic subjects.
Finally the opportunities for environmental activism presented by literary ecocriticism are mentioned.
