Ecocriticism and the Stance of Arab Critics: Its Presence and the Limits of Method and Application

Abstract

This study aims to examine the problematics of the term ecocriticism and its methodological boundaries, as well as the extent of its clarity and its relationship to concepts associated with the environment and environmental awareness in literary discourse. It also seeks to explore the stance of Arab critics toward ecocriticism, whether they regard it as a critical method, a trend, or a critical practice. The study further attempts to identify environmental transformations in selected Arabic critical studies and how these are represented in literary texts. It highlights the role these transformations play in directing critical reading toward a deeper understanding of the relationship between literature and the environment. Additionally, the research analyzes a number of critical studies in order to reveal the methodologies adopted by Arab critics in their textual analyses and to identify the analytical mechanisms they employ. The study concludes that the diversity of Arab critics’ positions on ecocriticism stems from their differing perspectives on it. It also finds that environmental transformations are not limited to the presence of the environment within the text but extend to broader environmental discourse. Moreover, the research shows that Arab critics employ a variety of analytical approaches to uncover environmental representations in literary texts. The study consists of an introduction and a preliminary section addressing environmental discourse as a critical framework concerned with analyzing representations of the relationship between humans and nature. This is followed by four chapters: the first examines terminology and conceptualization in ecocriticism; the second discusses the stance of Arab critics toward ecocriticism; the third addresses analytical mechanisms and methodological approaches; and the fourth explores environmental transformations in the Arabic critical corpus.