| Embedded in the fiction we read are ethical premises, systems of meaning, underpinning and justifying our treatment of the environment. This investigation of the environmental ethics implicit in the work of four contemporary novelists demonstrates the correlations between narratives, flawed and failed human relationships, and current ecological problems. The first chapter, "Ecocriticism and Environmental Ethics," provides historical background on ecocriticism, narrative ethics, and environmental ethics. Chapter Two, "The Ethics of Inheritance in Two Post-Colonial Landscapes," is a comparative analysis of Jean Rhys's novel Wide Sargasso Sea and Louise Erdrich's novel Tracks. Chapter Three, "Keeping the World: The Ethics of Husbandry in Graham Swift's Waterland," examines Swift's story of constant land reclamation in the Fenlands of England in the context of Michel Serres' call for a "Natural Contract" with the earth. Chapter Four, "The World on Fire: Ethics and Evolution in Cormac McCarthy's Border Trilogy," examines the implicit ethical system McCarthy creates that exists outside the anthropocentric law of the land, one that reflects a larger, more ecological sense of right and wrong.; Each of the novels portrays the relationship between the construction of nations and constructions of the self, and is concerned with the relationship between the nation state, the local community, and the individual. Conflicts over land ownership are evident in each of the novels, as are conflicts stemming from the impact of new technology and global economics on local land and communities. Each reading examines the associations between narrative constructions of physical places, memory, and individual and collective histories. The thematic concerns of each novel are addressed in terms of the interpretive process, the manner in which each narrative compels the reader to engage in various acts of judgment. The primary aim is to underscore the importance of re-thinking human meaning-making in order to redefine the ways we have established humanity's relationship to the global ecologic system. The premise is that by examining both the thematic concerns of novels and the means through which these themes are constructed, we can glean something of the destructive narrative patterns and practices that contribute to contemporary ecologic threats, imbalances, and crises. |
