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CHAPTER II THOERETICAL FRAMEWORK
ECOCRITICISM
A. The Definition of Ecocriticism
Ecocriticism is the study of the relationship of the human and the non- human, throughout human cultural history and entailing critical analysis of the
term „human’ itself.
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The term of this green branch of literary studies is varied. In The Comedy of Survival: Studies in Literary Ecology 1972 Joseph W. Meeker
introduced the term literary ecology to refer to “the study of biological themes
and relationships which appear in literary works. It is simultaneously an attempt to discover what roles have been played by literature in the ecology of the human
species.” Meanwhile, the term ecocriticism was possibly first coined in 1978 by William Rueckert in his essay “Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in
Ecocriticism”. By ecocriticism Rueckert meant “the application of ecology and ecological concepts to the study of literature.” He concerned specifically with the
science of ecology.
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Cheryll Glotfelty explains further on The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmark in Literary Ecology, that in tandem oikos and kritos
mean “house judge”. A long- winded gloss on ecocritic
might run as follow: “a person who judges the merits and faults of writings that depict the effects of culture upon nature, with a view
1
Greg Garrard, Ecocriticism. New York: Routledge, 2004, p.5.
2
Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm, The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmark in Literary Ecology, USA: The University of Georgia Press, 1996, p. xx
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toward celebrating nature, berating its despoilers, and reversing their harm through political action.” The Greek oikos, household, and in modern usage refers
both to “the study of biological interrelationships and the flow of energy through organisms and inorganic matter.”
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So the oikos is nature, a place Edward Hoagland calls “our widest home,” and the kritos is an arbiter of taste who wants
the house kept in good order, no boots or dishes strewn about to ruin the original décor.
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B. History of Ecocritical Movement
Kategori