Environmental Justice Turn In Ecocriticism Theory

The 20 th century Western literary theory has been influenced by contemporary aesthetic studies,modern art practice and various cultural philosophical trends,and has experienced linguistic turn and irrational turn.In the confrontation between humanism and scientism,ecocriticism has risen rapidly,and new academic dimensions and academic space have been opened up.The involvement of social dimensions in environmental literature marks the beginning of the shift in ecocriticism theory.At the same time,the theoretical boundaries of ecocriticism have been expanding,and social issues such as vulnerable groups,ethnic minorities and environmental justice that have been neglected by academic circles have gradually entered the field of researchers.Under the influence of environmental ethics,social ecology,and ecofeminism,environmental justice ecocriticism has gradually formed..The environmental justice turn of ecocriticism theory has a solid theoretical foundation.Environmental justice ecocriticism draws on environmental ethics to cultivate practical character,absorbs social ecology to establish group orientation,bases on ecological feminism to expand gender perspective,and re-corrects its natural,social and gender perspectives in the practice of diversified literary criticism.Environmental justice ecocriticism draws on the cultural poetics of New Historicism,learns the differential thinking of post-structuralism,absorbs the political and cultural criticism strategies of Marxism,actively explore the internal relationship between social and cultural intervention and literary criticism,constantly enrich the connotation of ethical criticism and political criticism..The environmental justice ecocriticism draws on the theoretical discourse and critical methods of diversification to lay a methodological basis for its theoretical turn and discourse innovation.Environmental justice ecocriticism has experienced three stages of germination,development and establishment.In the nascent stage,Murphy borrowed "dialogue" and "carnivalization" to green Bakhtin's discourse theory and reflect on Western cultural hegemony.In the development stage,Buell and Heise use environmental imagination as the theoretical fulcrum to coordinate the relationship between urban and rural areas,environmental justice and nature protection,and guide the transition of ecocriticism from the ecological center stage to the social center stage.In the establishment stage,Joni Adamson and Reed integrated various theoretical resources,absorbed environmental ethics and social ecology concepts,and finally established the paradigm of environmental justice ecocriticism.Environmental justice ecocriticism pays attention to the form of environmental injustice that lies in literature,culture and even works of art.The discussion of this issue must be related to environmental racism and environmental colonialism.The multi-dimensional evolution of environmental justice ecocriticism is rcharacterized by feminist ecocriticism,post-colonial ecocriticism,climate criticism,anthropological ecocriticism,and urban ecocriticism.Based on the analysis of environmental texts and cultural phenomena,environmental justice ecocriticism studies the environmental experience of different groups from the diachronic and synchronic dimensions through gender,race and class vision,analyzing the strong culture of the West and the ecological situation of non-Western nations and disadvantaged groups,exploring ecologically sustainable ways of living.The theoretical innovation of environmental justice ecocriticism is characterized by the creative absorption of environmental justice research.It explores the social factors that cause environmental crisis from the social cultural dimension that environmental injustice can generate,and explains the influence of these social and cultural factors on the construction of ecocritical discourse.In the post-human era,the study of the relationship between people and non-humans,environment and technology is more complicated in the field of ecocriticism.The "material turn" has come and marked the new turn of ecocriticism.Under the influence of material culture research,ecocriticists try to explore the material narrative,material vitality,material energy and other issues in literary activities,thus opening a new stage of ecocriticism research.