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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 4 page paper explores the difference between ecocriticism and postcolonialism as discussed by Christine Gerhardt in her article “The Greening of African-American Landscapes.” Bibliography lists 3 sources.
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4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVecocol.rtf
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by Christine Gerhardt in her article "The Greening of African-American Landscapes." Discussion As noted, ecocriticism approaches literary analysis from a sensitive ecological perspective, and Gerhardt notes that recently, many
of these analyses have "turned their attention to the racial and ethnic specificity of Americas environmental literatures" (2002). Gerhardt believes that this shift may be critical and that it could
challenge both the texts and the way they are studied (2002). Specifically, Gerhardt argues that "for a discussion of nature and race in American culture, a dialogue between ecocriticism and
post-colonial studies is particularly well suited" (2002). This makes sense, because ecocriticism concerns itself with nature and postcolonialism (a term meaning what happens in a country after the colonizing power
pulls out) in almost every case deals with the exploitation of indigenous populations. In fact, "post-colonial theory provides very specific critical tools that help to explore the ways in which
black literature addresses intersections between racial oppression and the exploitation of nature" (Gerhardt, 2002). The viewpoint of blacks with regard to postcolonial culture is substantially different from that of whites,
and examining this literature can help provide a new understanding of the ways in which blacks interact with nature "within American culture" (Gerhardt, 2002). However, taking the postcolonial perspective means
that ecocritics need to rephrase their questions in order to "broaden the scope and subversive potential of the field" (Gerhardt, 2002). Gerhard argues that a dialogue in which ecocriticism is
informed by the tenets of postcolonialism will give the ecocriticism the ability to understand the contradictions and inconsistencies that come to the fore when the relationship between nature and African-Americans
is discussed (Gerhardt, 2002). Until this point, blacks in this dialogue have been positioned and defined by one of two systems that signify them as the "other"; either "human vs.
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