An ecocritical exploration in Stafford's 'Traveling through the Dark'

<p>Eco criticism studies the association of all<br>forms of plant and animal life with their<br>habitat. In doing so, it argues that we<br>exert a considerable amount of<br>exploitation on the environment around<br>us. Also known as Green Studies or<br>Environmental Criticism, this unique area<br>revolves around the depiction of nature in<br>the works of literature. According to<br>Cheryll Glotfelty, Eco critics like herself<br>‘studies the relationship between<br>Literature and the Physical Environment.'<br>Some of the major themes that can be<br>found while ecocritical reading a text are<br>the depiction of wilderness, the beauty of<br>nature and the countryside, etc. However,<br>another important factor that the Eco<br>critics have constantly criticized since<br>their inception in the 1970s is the<br>essentially anthropocentric view of the<br>Western canon. For example, in the<br>episode of creation in the Bible, God<br>gave man “dominion over the fish of the<br>sea, and over the birds of the air, and over<br>the cattle, and over all the earth” (Genesis<br>1.26). This argument lies at the core of<br>Eco criticism as they strive to make<br>human beings aware that they are not the<br>owners of the earth. The world is to be<br>co-habited, and nature should not be<br>exploited for incessant and exorbitant<br>needs.</p>