Literature
and Nature: Perspectives, Issues and Concerns
This is my letter to the
world
That never wrote to me
The simple news that
Nature told
With tender majesty – Emily Dickinson
Dr. S.P. Singh connected effectively Nature and Literature illustrating his viewpoints
with reference to two books: Hungry Tide
composed by Amitabh Ghosh and The Folded
Earth by Anuradha Rao.
Ms. Sarbani Roy Choudhary expressed her views by quoting the
lines of P.B. Shelley, John Keats, Walt Whitman and Alfred Tennyson. She said
that Nature gives us real life. There is tranquillity in nature. She appealed
strongly to go back to nature.
Dr. Rajan Lal said that there is an eternal communion between Nature and Literature. He
quoted lines from Milton's Paradise Lost,
Shakespeare's As You Like It (Forest of Arden). He laid stress on stopping extreme
deforestation and urbanisation.
Ms. Mukta K. Gupta told that Good Literature is story-based. It comes
out through characters. She accepted that We are all a part of Nature.
Dr. Shrikant Kulsrestha said that Nature is preserver and
destroyer. Literature cannot be written without Nature. All the poets, whenever
they feel melancholy, they go in the shelter of Nature. He quoted lines from Ruskin
Bond, William Wordsworth, P.B. Shelley and Robert Frost.
Mr. Anand Rai explained the
theory of Stress Management and Behavioral Science. He defined the term
God according to Hindu mythology. He told that Art, Music and Literature
originate from Nature. In his concluding lines he expressed that we are
damaging Nature for our selfishness. He visualised the disastrous part of
Nature to disclose the mighty natural disaster in America.
Mr. Sabharwal said that there is
adjustment in Nature. If Sea level will rise, Siberia will become the green land.
Nature will adjust everything in its own way. Man should not bother about it.
Mr. Sudhir Gupta said that now-a-days
the whole Universe is extremely disturbed. In last 15 Years there has been
drastic change in environment. We cannot see Nature in open air. All the
natural objects have become too much poisonous owing to excessive climate
change. Naturality is converting to artificiality. We have destroyed Nature.
Dr. Chanda Singh quoted the
immortal and unforgettable lines of William Wordsworth, William Shakespeare and
D.H. Lawrence. She said that Order should not be disturbed in Nature. Nature
only can give us solace. We should maintain balance. She narrated beautiful
lines from Macbeth and Sons and Lovers.
Dr. Sanjay Mishra said that Eco-Criticism
is not appropriately used. All are philosophy based. He firmly accepted the
views of Amitav Ghosh's books. He added that Climate is automatically changing.
Co-existence should be maintained by all. Back to Nature should not be
hypocritical. Living in harmony is the only solution.
Dr. Santosh Kumar
Singh said that Nature is the real beauty of Literature. Literature's origin
is in human's heart sensitivity. Feelings are the productive elements of
Nature. Nature is Almighty. All religions worship various objects of
Nature in supernatural form. Nature is infinite and eternal. To attain the
climax of real happiness there should be co-existence and harmony between all
the four orders (Human Order, Plant Order, Animal Order and Mineral
Order). One must love nature from the heart.
Prof. Nibir K.
Ghosh moderated the vibrant discussion and thanked the members for their
insightful presentations in person and by those who shared their views online.
Keats’s
Nature: Transforming Transient into
Truth
Manju
Human
life is always surrounded with nature and every object of nature supports life
in numerous ways. Those lofty mountains holding their head high possessing
enormous honour, deep rivers flowing silently as if in deep contemplation,
chirping birds making effort to please everyone early in the morning and so on
influence mankind in multiple ways. Although for some of them it is meaningless
in spite of scientific discovery that plants have life; for others it possesses
a silent music provided we have those attentive ears to enjoy it as most of the
people are deaf in the noise of materialism. For a poet like John Keats
dazzling beauty of nature is a remedy for all the aches and pains. This earth
is full of woes yet everyone has a charm for life and wants to enjoy longevity
as nature keeps the soul bound to the body on the earth. John Keats, a
suffering soul beholds, “A thing of beauty is a joy forever.” He remained a
suffering soul throughout his life burning with a desire to fly somewhere yet
could not abandon the charms of life. It seems as if his ailing hand is always
held with the beautiful nature as he says “Therefore, on every morrow, are we
wreathing,/ A flowery band to bind us to the earth.” He dwells in delight by
riding on the blissful wings of a nightingale, enjoys permanence by being a
part of nature through his ‘Grecian Urn’ and looks up to nature when devoid of
ideas. Various poets portray nature as supportive to human life like William
Wordsworth by spiritualizing; P. B. Shelley intellectualizing it but Keats is a
poet who does not make any effort to intensify the beauty of nature. It seems
as his imaginative eyes are too dazzled with the intense beauty of nature to
proceed further.
Dr. Manju
teaches English in the Department of UILA, Chandigarh University, Gharuan,
Punjab.
Jack London’s The Call of the Wild
Saurabh Agarwal
It is a different side of nature that is portrayed in the
works of Jack London. His works take the reader to the snowy lands of artic
where the inhabitants are locked into a tussle with nature for survival. His
tales are the tales of icy savagery; landscape is devoid of vegetation, fierce
and treacherous with “the thermometer registering fifty below zero.” Here
nature has its own rules and “mercy was a thing reserved for gentler climes.” The Call of the Wild, set in Alaska in
“uncharted vastness, where no men were and yet where men had been” driven by
their lust for gold. It is a story of a dog named Buck, a pet dog stolen from
the comforts of a home and sold to be used as a sledge dog, seeks to survive in
this land for which “he” must defy his own nature. Finally, he must learn the
manner of “forgotten ancestors,” the wolves and their “ways came to him without
effort or discovery, as though they had been his always.” The Call of the Wild is a story where a being is tracing back the
roots to ensure his survival. It hints that nature is not all benevolence. Yet
it is nature itself which endows the living with the grit, courage and
ruthlessness to ensure that life goes on.
Mr. Saurabh
Agarwal is an entrepreneur based in
Agra.
Literature and Nature: Perspectives,
Issues and Concerns
Ritu Bali
The role of nature in
literature has always taken a great part in moulding, inspiring, motivating and
associating with the writers' mood. It has an immense cathartic effect in relativity
to negative and positive thought process, varying with the writers' emotions. It
has also been portrayed as perfect, pure and heavenly against the evil society
on the planet. On the other hand, nature in the Middle Ages becomes degraded, living
on the philosophy of the ejection of Adam and Eve from the paradise. In
contrast to it, the Renaissance writers showcased pastoral life to be idyllic,
virtuous and much better in contrast to the city life.
As the modern age
writers sprang into enlightenment, they refuted the old Wordsworthian theory of perfection
in Nature. They took natural environment as a piece of scientific study and
gave more importance to the inward nature or sensitivity of man. The
disintegrated man took over the romantic iconic figures. With
industrialization, wars and other issues, the smoke of the chimneys soon
engulfed the war-torn cities as they had hardly the mood or time to appreciate
the flora and fauna. The apt nests of the real modern life took the front seat
from the sweet solitude of the plains and hills. The inward and the outward
landscape of complete destruction took the scenario for the word pictures of
writers like Hemmingway. The dramatic and the perfect form from the Elizabethan age suddenly became a
substantially political, social form and transformed into
issues of female emancipation, social justice etc. as read in the works of John
Galsworthy and George Bernard Shaw.
The necessary world of
evil and the difficulties of the existence in the modern life gave importance
to contemporary commerce than the environmental beauty and its appreciation.
The age of satire invaded the old ages of fantasy, sentiment and bird gazing. Even
the traditional poetry changed its inward nature by losing its rhyme and
rhythm. Nature now no longer became an inspiration, though it could not be
negated altogether. The human tombstones of centuries of war, materialism,
industrialization, development, technology and many such are relevant examples
of the nature around us and how literature gets affected by it. Robotics,
science fiction, driverless cars and drones are the new nature power factor. Nature
today is a subject of global warming, human suffering through droughts, wars,
floods, hurricanes, nuclear tests and earthquakes. Ecological issues ride the
perspectives of Nature today struggling for a better tomorrow.
Dr. Ritu Bali
is a poet, writer, painter based in Muscat, Oman
No Neglectful Attitude Now!
Rajan
Lal
From now on if not
before, we are to be more and more watchful in the context of environmental
issues. Now, we need constant vigilance and self-motivation related to
ecocritical approaches and issues through literature: how to save our “Mother
Earth and Environment” consisting of
flora and fauna by making the neglectful and unconcerned world aware of the
ongoing ecological threats and challenges caused by constant and increasing use
of plastic, fertilisers, germicides, vermicides, pesticides and deforestation
and by promoting urbanisation because of our derelict and disregardful attitude
towards nature. We are complementary to each other and dependent upon. I must
assert, “No Nature! No Life!”
The late 20th
century has woken us up to the threat of ecological disorder. The most critical
and engulfing environmental problems that humankind faces as a whole are:
nuclear war, depletion of valuable natural resources, population explosion,
proliferation of exploitative technologies, conquest of space preliminary to
using as a garbage dump, pollution, and extinction of species such as sparrow
and tiger extinction and others. In such a context literary and cultural
theories have begun to address the issues of natural extinction as a part of
academic discourse.
What and how many
ecocritical issues and concerns we are talking about were already taken into
account by the 19th century American transcendentalist and nature
poet and author, Ralph Waldo Emerson in his
works on nature. Co-existence has been a major issue in his works. He
emphasises that the everything has its beauty and significance in its proper
context and habitat and that nothing is good and beautiful in its seclusion or
lonely state. The truth above all in this neglectful attitude is that all things
are necessary for each other. Emerson believes in all-inclusiveness, the
perfect whole. “Each and All”, a
nature poem by Emersion, is a beautiful one of transcendental beauty and
fundamental unity behind apparent diversity. The poet says that God has placed
everything in the world in its proper place and background. The thing and its
background shouldn’t be disturbed or segregated from each other, otherwise its
beauty and natural charm would decline. Let’s see: “All are needed by each one;/
Nothing is fair or good alone.” I, therefore, “NO NEGLECTFUL ATTITUDE NOW!”
Dr.
Rajan Lal is Lecturer in English at Govt. Inter College, Agra.
Return
to Nature: Eco-Criticism and Beyond
Nibir
K. Ghosh
The global
ecological crisis that we are now confronting is unprecedented in human
history. The terrifying scale of this crisis and our increasing awareness that
it has emerged out of deliberate human policies to interfere with Nature itself
has virtually compelled us to realize and understand that we can no longer take
Nature for granted. John May in The
Greenpeace Story rightly
says: “When the last tree is
cut and the last fish killed, the last river poisoned, then you will see that
you can’t eat money.” In a similar vein Al Gore had remarked: “Climate change
is the most dangerous challenge we’ve ever faced, but it is also the greatest
opportunity we have had to make changes.” It is a grim reality that
Earth’s life support system has been subjected to tremendous stress resulting
in calamities and catastrophes related to the ozone layer, droughts, famines,
floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, global warming, acid rain, nuclear waste dumps,
water pollution, unavailability of drinking water, inadequate sanitation and loss of forest cover etc. If we take into account just the
recent timeline of calamities like the Nepal earthquake, wildfires in the
American West, the Chennai floods, heat wave death toll in Andhra and
Telengana, the Air Quality Index (AQI) threatening quality life in Beijing and
New Delhi, besides the fury of Nature in myriad forms and shapes in various
countries, we are bound to realize that our planet’s basic life support systems
are under extreme duress. Beginning with Rousseau’s advocacy of “Return to Nature”
and relating it to the modern eco-critical discourse, the Keynote will examine
ground realities to explore ways and means to address issues and concerns
related to our endangered environment.
I plucked your flower, O world!
I pressed it to my heart and the thorn pricked.
When the day waned and it darkened,
I pressed it to my heart and the thorn pricked.
When the day waned and it darkened,
I found that the flower had faded, but the pain
remained.
- Rabindranath
Tagore, The Gardener
All members congratulated
Mukta K. Gupta on the launch of her maiden creative effort, Be Like Benjamin, at the beginning of the meeting.
