DEEP GREEN LITERATURE: A STUDY OF ROBINSON JEFFERS'S LAST COLLECTION
د. اسيل الركابي | Aseel Alrikabi
01/04/2019 القراءات: 449
The present research devotes a wide space to deal with the Deep Green Ecology, the subject of the study.
Environmental ethics concerns with the moral relationship that connects humans with the natural environment. As a reaction to the human-centered perspective, which situates humans as the only significant creatures and marginalizes the role of the non-humans, Environmental Movement emerges. In 1972, Arne Naess, a Norwegian philosopher, recognize two types of Environmentalism. One he called Deep Ecology and the other was Shallow Ecology.
Nevertheless, the perpetual techno-industrial progress that becomes the basic religion of the modern world seems to be a mere disillusionment. Wars as well as the rising of the environmental crises makes Robinson Jeffers's prophetic visions become true. Hence, Jeffers's theory of ''Inhumanism'' becomes a focus of attention after the environmental problems that are caused by the techno-industrial progress. As a reaction to human-centered perspectives, which situate humans as the only significant creatures and marginalize the role of non-humans such as animals and planets, Robinson Jeffers's theory of ''Inhumanism'' emerges.
According to Jeffers, most people are blind to the outer world especially people who are dependent upon the modern conveniences, such as technological inventions. The poet suggests that human race has to think maturely not like ''an egocentric baby or insane person,'' and that human decentralization is neither misanthropic, nor falsehood; rather, it is a means to maintain sanity. He advises humankind not to be self-obsessed and to think with a reasonable detachment because such conduct neutralizes man's fanaticism and satisfies his need to rejoice in beauty. From his perspective, humans are neither superior to other beings, nor essential to the universe. Individual maturity begins with letting go self-regard that concentrates on the human ego. Jeffers admits that the entire human potency is wasted inwardly at a time when humanity must turn its awareness to the outside world.
Like other iconoclast writers, Robinson Jeffers's works suffered from neglect, which led the readers to step down from reflecting on his literary works. Among these literary works exposed to neglect are Jeffers's last collection, The Beginning and the End and Other Poems Collection (1963), including 48 poems divided into four series in addition to three uncollected poems.
The poem, ''The Beginning and the End,'' (The Root of All Things, Series I) presents a conspicuous example of Jeffers's philosophy of ''Inhumanism.'' While his early works are austere and naturalistic, Jeffers's later works are philosophical. The poet's growing philosophical opinion culminates in his The Beginning and the End and Other Poems Collection.
In iconoclastic tone, Jeffers personifies the earth in its revolution against the inhuman world of man like an angry volcano whose ''molten metal'' bursts rigidly from the bottom of earth furious at the civilization of man. The poet describes the angry Mother Earth, leaving the world with the rest of the planets and their lord the sun: ''The unformed volcanic earth, a female thing/Furiously following with the other planets/ Their lord the sun'' (''The Beginning and the End,'' 1-3). Jeffers predicts the end of the universe because of the industrial capitalism describing a world that is sterile and lifeless stripped of any form of life. It is a world where planets, galaxies, and animals do not exist. He assimilates anthropocentrism to patriarchy. They are both validated by the same ''conceptual logic,'' that is, both anthropocentrism and patriarchy support domination over women and nature. By chemic-industrial progress, environment is polluted and no ''blithe air'' is left, rather '' [m]en breathe and live, but marsh-gas, ammonia, sulphured hydrogen'' (''TBE,'' 9-11). For Jeffers, environmental pollution is a manifestation of male domination. Man attempts to impose his will on the world by persuading others to see the world as he sees it. Truth, reasoning, and morality are just a reflection of male domination.
As a supporter of Deep Green Ecology, Jeffers defies the idea of man's domination over the universe. Like the Greek philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, Jeffers thinks that patriarchal power is destructive. It includes war, anthropocentrism, religious and political powers, etc. While Nietzsche praises the ''free spirits'' that struggle to be free from the prejudice of others and to inquire their own presumptions, Jeffers considers nature as a woman-earth figure adorning ''her beautiful skin'' with ''basalt and granite'' (''TBE,'' 5) while the lighter components float over her surface. He assimilates the atmosphere of earth to the female emotions as a symbol of life and magnifies the status of woman describing her emotional nature as a fount of life.
Deep Green Ecology Robinson Jeffers environmental poetry
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