Appunti Letteratura Inglese, Prof. Keir Douglas Elam

–

Martina Pittalis UNIBO –

LETTERATURA INGLESE ELAM 9CFU

Green Shakespeare: introduction, chapter 1, chapter 3 (As you like it), chapter 4 (The tempest),

conclusion.

Shakespeare ocean: introduction, chapter 1, chapter 6 (Twelfth Night), chapter 7 (The Tempest),

coda.

+ fogli che ci ha dato a lezione.

NO THE WINTER’S TALE

Essay: 10 pages; problems or question in ecocriticism; one or more plays in language problems.

Compare Shakespeare play with another play or with a particular version or film version; question of

gender; historical context, the impact of the play.

SEND THE ESSAY 1 WEEK/ 5 DAYS BEFORE THE EXAM (GIVE TO HIM A PRINTED

COPY).

The tempest is a lay with music (interest in music for essay).

In recent years there has been a notable growth in ecological approaches to literature, including early

modern literature and drama. One of the focuses of ecocriticism over the past two decades has been

Shakespearian drama. There are divergent approaches to the subject: some studies try to examine

Shakespeare and his contemporaries in the light of an ecological awareness ante litteram. Other

critics, on the contrary, see in early modern English literature and drama an idealized and ahistorical

representation of nature. There is a further difference of critical opinion concerning ‘green’ and ‘blue’

approaches to Renaissance texts. ‘Blue’ ecocriticism regards the important role of the sea and the

ocean in Elizabethan and Jacobean texts, while ‘green’ approaches sometimes contest ‘blue’ readings

as excessively optimistic.

This course, setting out from a cultural and theoretical overview of the relationship between literature,

drama and the environment, will examine Shakespeare’s plays, in their literary and historical

contexts, and their engagement with green and/or blue ecological issues. Two of the main plays that

‘romantic’ comedies that dramatize the

will be discussed, As You Like It and Twelfth Night, are The Winter’s

environmental questions of the time (land and sea respectively), while the other two,

Tale and The Tempest, are late romances that likewise address terrestrial and maritime nature

respectively. Attention will also be devoted to the ‘environmental’ work of Shakespeare’s English

predecessors and contemporaries, among them Edmund Spenser and George Peele, and to early

modern discussions of green and blue ecology. 1

–

Martina Pittalis UNIBO 07/10/2019

The course: Ecological approaches to early modern drama and in particular Shakespeare

(Shakespeare text + Elizabethan and Jacobian Text).

‘Green and blue Shakespeare’: Ecological approaches to early modern literature and drama:

look at the way in which we can study text of the early modern literature (XVI sec.) in sense of

contemporary ecological and ecocritical concern. We are going to looking at some Shakespeare plays

and other plays and text which are contemporary of Shakespeare looking at the way in which today

we call ecological problems but at time call nature.

Early mother means the end of XVI century (Elizabethan period) and the beginning of the XVII

century (Jacobian period) = more or less the period of Shakespeare and his contemporaries.

The ways we can study literary text from an environment point of view without doing only violence,

but to see what kind of environment interest in nature and ecosystem in Shakespeare days, including

in early modern literature drama. We are talking about relative new development in writing and

critical theory (the last 20 years). Shakespeare is one of the areas where ecocriticism is particular

focus. There are different approaches to study texts from ecological point of view. Some people say

that is anachronistic (is not possible), that is forcing and distorting literature. Elam thinks that it not

true and that these texts can help us to illuminate, trying to face the ecological crisis that we have in

our own world. There are divergent approaches to the subject: some studies try to examine

Shakespeare and his contemporaries in the light of an ecological awareness ante litteram. Other

critics, on the contrary, see in early modern English literature and drama an idealized and ahistorical

representation of nature.

So there are two different approaches:

• Yes, Shakespeare and his contemporaries can be studied from an ecological point of view

• No, it is not possible.

There are a lot of studies called GREEN STUDIES OF SHAKESPEARE : means the necessity of

using nature to prove the environment.

BLUE STUDIES OF SHAKESPEARE: refers mainly to the sea and to the ocean. in Shakespeare

and other Elizabethan plays there are a lot of interest in the sea because in England the sea was very

important (explore the new colonies, problems regarding sealing the ocean). It is called blue because

the ocean is blue and is an optimistic/ positive value, colour.

There is not one singular approach but there a lot of schools and different opinion.

We will looking at 4 plays by Shakespeare: related with the environment, the nature, the land, the

forest, the fields, the animal spices and also the relationship of women and man with nature:

• As You Like It: play of the end of the XVI century, a romantic comedy and it is centred in

the forest of Arden. It is a play that is particular concerned in the GREEN WORLD, the

world f nature, trees, plants and the natural environment.

• It’s set on

Twelfth Night: 1601, it has to do with the sea, the ocean, the dangerous of the sea.

an imaginary land which is on the sea (romantic comedy).

• it is set on an island, in the Caribbean and it’s dominated by the force of the

The Tempest:

sea, there is a storm, and the relationship between nature and man.

• The Winter’s Tale: it is set on the land. It discusses nature, agriculture.

2

–

Martina Pittalis UNIBO

Gabriel Egan, Green Shakespeare: From Ecopolitics to Ecocriticism: introduction of ecological

studies of Shakespeare.

Shakespeare’s Ocean

Dan Brayton, : An Ecocritical Exploration: blue study of the plays.

→

Interest in environment or ecological criticism begins in the 1960s new awareness the way the

chemical industries (cars etc), of the antropo scene. There was a new era in history, in which the

world, environment, nature elements were influences the damage of the intervention of the man.

The antropo-scene is a new geological era were man an industry promotion activities determined the

future the world. We are not only passive victims of the nature. For the first time problems regarding

→

pollution. The kind of substances used in agriculture pesticide are damaging the atmosphere.

→

There awareness new ecological culture, which had not existed until the 60s.

Silent Spring, Rachel Carson, 1962→ It is the first important book to have influence our awareness

of environment and that prove. It is the first important denunciation. There are a lot of evidence about

in particular United State about the use of pesticide used by the chemical industries. She attacks these

things. She made people aware not only of the dangerous but also that they can do something, that

book could make a difference. The chemical industry was forced to change some of the pesticide

through the politic. →

ECOCRITICISM the word begins in the 1970s and become official as a word in a book by

William Rueckert, Literature ad Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism (1978). He suggests the

ecological concept, the kind of interest which had been arise in the all debate.

→

LITERATURE one of the way people can became more aware of environment problems, can be

a source of information and explanation regarding nature. Study literature form an ecological point

of view. →

William Rueckert he tends to be optimistic. Literature could make a positive contribution to

ecology and ecological culture and to improve the world: look at the way the romantic poets are

concerns in nature (they are really informed about nature; they have a daily contact with nature).

Literature could be one of the great sources of representation nature which is represented by the poets

(today we have lost contact with nature). This is a positive idea of literature in which nature is a

positive value. →

The Ecocriticism Reader, Cheryll Glotfelty (1996) the first anthology about all aspect of ecology

and it is an extremely influential book.

TWO WAVES OF ECOCRITICISM:

• →

FIRST WAVE (eighties and nineties): emphasis on nature writing as an object of study

and as a meaningful practice (Buell). Central to this wave is the environmental crisis of our

age: it is the duty of the humanities and the natural sciences to raise awareness and invent

solutions for a problem that is both cultural and physical. A primary concern in first-wave

ecocriticism was to “speak for” nature, thus giving ecocriticism gained its reputation as a

political mode of analysis. This wave kept the cultural distinction between human and

nature, promoting the value of nature.

→

They are interest in nature writing they study the poems which describe nature and have

interest in nature. The first writers take in interest in ecology things and the thing to do is to

3

–

Martina Pittalis UNIBO

study the literature text which is about nature, where nature is a positive value. The idea of

→

these first book optimistic face in ecocriticism because they were convinced that literature

can be one way of contributing to changing the world, it is possible change the world by

writing about it , bring people to think about it. Literature is an essential part in order to prevent

the destroy of our world. Nature becomes a kind of protagonist of poems/plays.

→

The real concern is between nature and human, the way we related to nature the distinction

between human nature and nature (green world). the problem is how they respect, concerns,

promote nature rather than destroy it. This is an optimistic view of nature and it’s an activist

→ it’s part of general environmental movement in which people was

idea of ecocriticism

convinced that it was possible to intervene.

• →

SECOND WAVE (present) deconstructing long-standing distinctions between the human

and the non-human, questioning these very concepts. The boundaries between the human and

the non-human, nature and non-nature are constructions, challenged by ecocritics. This wave

brought with it a redefinition of the term ‘environment,’ expanding its meaning to include

both ‘nature’ and the urban.

The optimistic view has changed. This wave is much more radical and questioning they take

nothing for granted. The opposition between human and not-human, nature and not-nature has

been taken in question. These distinctions are seen as cultural construction, they are not

natural, we have imposed these distinctions. The environment used to be as an outside but

now it includes cities, the urban landscape and include us, we are part of the environment of

the animal kingdom. It is much less positive.

“Nature a shared sense of the ways in which ‘nature’ has been used

sceptical” ecocriticism:

to legitimise gender, sexual and racial norms (so homosexuality has been seen as 'unnatural',

for example; scepticism about the uses to which ‘ecological’ language is put in ecocriticism;

it can also involve a critique of the ways cultural norms of nature and the environment

contribute to environmental degradation.

→ nature is no longer a positive value, it Is not what Shakespeare describes in his plays,

→

something which is beautiful, harmonious and man don’t interfere with nature BUT the

concept of nature it itself a kind of construction. Nature is an idea used to consolidate

conventional opposition like gender, sexual, racism. Which decided what is nature and what

is not unnatural? nature writing can be conservative, damaging because it is a barbary tradition

of world. In reality this is not what the contemporary world is like.

In Shakespeare there is kind of questioning about gender and in particular in As you like it and Twelfth

→

night the question of gender and the natural world (forest/sea) is one of the most important issues

in the play.

There is no one definition of ecocriticism and it depends on our point of view.

“’ecocriticism’ [can be defined] as [a] study

One of the possible definitions is by Lawrence Buell:

of the relationship between literature and the environment conducted in a spirit of commitment to

environmentalist praxis”. He writes on the time of the change of point of view.

→ at the centre of ecocriticism is the relationship between literature and environment. If you

di ecocriticism its because you have interest in the way people behave. Ecocriticism is not going to

be neutral. There is some kind of idea of commitment. Ecocriticism is necessary as a political but also

ethical activity (we care).

→

Ecocriticism literature as to be about life, not be separate from us, form our activities.

4

–

Martina Pittalis UNIBO

Some possible ecocritical questions:

How is nature represented in this text? (the representation of the environment).

How has the concept of nature changed over time? (the representation of Shakespeare of environment

is different of our own representation?).

How is the setting of the play/film/text related to the environment? The Shakespeare last romances

which is setting in the natural world, is this setting important to the representation of the environment?

What is the influence on metaphors and representations of the land and the environment on how we

treat it?

How do we see issues of environmental disaster and crises reflected in popular culture and literary

works?

How are animals represented in this text and what is their relationship to humans?

How do the roles or representations of men and women towards the environment differ in this

play/film/text/etc?

Where is the environment placed in the power hierarchy?

How is nature empowered or oppressed in this work? 08/10/2019

The question of value, of the usefulness of literature drama in representing nature as a beneficial

in making us more sensitive to what’s happening to the clime.

effect

The ecocriticism reader (1996): what is ecocriticism? Is the study of the relationship between

literature and the physical environment.

They see ecocriticism as a new school, and they compare it to Feminism and Marxism. This definition

was true in 1996 but in some way, it is still true today.

Ecocriticism is not focus on an anthropo-centre but on Earth-centred approach to literary studies.

It says that we have completely rethink the canon.

How much literature can be sent to the earth-centre literature. It is quite selective and concerns also

text which apparently are not earth-centred but see in what way we can find explicitly or implicitly

idea of the environment. So, look familiar text in a new way trying to find these issues.

There is more literature about these problems and in the tragic situation we are why this is not the

first issue?

Compare to early modern literature was more earth centred and there is far more contact with the

earth and the sea and far more knowledge of the environment. So, actually, if we want to take a earth-

centred approach then early modern literature is not such a bad place to look. In Shakespeare plays

It’s main

there is a lot of interest with what today we call ecology. in XX centuries have lost contact

with the earth. 5

–

Martina Pittalis UNIBO

How is nature represented in this sonnet/plays?

The more radical/sceptical will say that these novels is not useful to the cause of saving and make

and it’s wrong to

better the planet, but it can be a mistake be superior in the relationship in the earlier

shouldn’t assume that,

text and we because the 60 centuries text may not talk about global warming,

the pollution and this does not mean that they have nothing to say.

In Shakespeare the female characters have different relationship with nature?

All of the play there are female protagonist who have particular sensibility and interest and benevolent

effect on nature more than male characters. They use nature in order to make ethics improvement in

It’s a very important

their society. What is the relationship between gender and environment?

issue.

In order to talk about environment, to understand the problems we have today we need to have a

scientific approach/knowledge. Scientists need more input.

Need to be aware to scientific concepts/language od environmental + should be more open to

scientific discourse and try to make possible to learn.

Ecocriticism is a critic of the more recent approach to environment.

PASTORAL:

One of the accusations which is made against literature (classical and renaissance) is the idea of giving

a pastoral description of the world, of the nature.

In recent years is seen as a negative term because it has to do with the idea made by some that nature

in literature is not represented in a realistic way.

PASTORAL: ECOCROTICISM, GREG GARRARD (2004)

He uses the term pastoral in a negative way. He has a political approach to ecology.

Pastoral is a bad thing, why? Romantic period is the time in which there are most interest in the

natural world (describing, understanding, representing the natural world). He is talking about

renaissance pastoral and the idyllical representation of nature has conditioned us. Even the science of

ecology in the early stages of development are influenced by pastoral. Everything is too pastoral. The

pastoral has lent his language to politicians to carry out the environment policy. The language

pastoral is harmful because put a screen before what is really like, it is not realistic. We have to be

aware and fight against what Garrard calls pastoral ecology.

He mentions three different kind of pastoral: for example, the escape from the city to the

countryside. In the pastoral tradition there is no labour/work. Shepherds have not to work: the

opposite to what happen in agriculture.

RAYMOND WILLIAMS: most influenced writer, the first person who write about culture in a

modern way.

The country and the city, 1975: It is jus