Abstract
Humans have enjoyed the place of central stage and the only speaking subject in American fiction. American fiction
seems very much replete with debates surrounding American dream, racism and other social and political issues.
Ecology is present in passive backdrop in American fiction. However, nineteenth century saw a shift in thematic
concerns of American fiction. Ecology appeared as one of the emerging concerns for American writers. Eugene
O’Neill’s Desire under the Elms brought attention to nature in the realms of theatre. This paper attempts to discuss
the nature of ecology in the play. It explores how O’Neill presents nature in this play and what sort of agency he
grants to nature and physical environment. This paper further analyses how far O’Neil considers the
communication between humans and nature significant. This paper analyzes O’Neil’s play using the theoretical
framework of ecofeminism. The concept of ecofeminism was first introduced by a French feminist named Françoise
d'Eaubonne in 1974. It emphasizes that Men’s desire to possess nature like their desire to possess women objectifies
nature and de In present age when world is confronted with emerging environmental crisis, this study becomes very
significant. Its high time to address the issues regarding the treatment of nature and environment in literary
discourse. The main focus of this research is to see the representation of nature similar to the representation of
women with theoretical strains of ecofeminism and its relation to the human world.
Sadia Saleem, Wajeeha Arif, Hasnain Saleem. (2021) Possessing Nature: An ecofeminist study of Eugene O’Neill’s Desire under the Elms, Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan, Volume-58, issue 3.
-
Views
516 -
Downloads
63
Article Details
Volume
Issue
Type
Language
