RENEWED ECOLOGICAL PERCEPTION OF PLACE AND SELF IN THE NOVELS OF BARBARA KINGSOLVER

Abstract

This thesis aims at examining how one’s perception of the place affects not only one’s treatment of the environment but also one’s sense of self from an ecocritical approach in Barbara Kingsolver’s three selected novels: Animal Dreams (1992), The Poisonwood Bible (1998), and Prodigal Summer (2000). My research postulates that Kingsolver’s ecological insight is fostered by the human perception of their place in the environment. Her ecological view suggests that the human arrogant perception of the environment is the cornerstone of our ecological crisis as humans tend to perceive the environment as a meaningless “space” rather than a “place” endowed with meaning. This mis-perception of the land further leads to our maltreatment and eventually the deterioration of the environment. My analysis of Animal Dreams suggests that the protagonist’s homecoming lays the foundation for her changing perception from an alienating to more intimate one as she engages in the community’s environmental activism which exposes her to the place’s various dimensions and further heals her shattered self. In The Poisonwood Bible, I argue that the protagonists’ colonial ideology paves the way for the double dominations of both the land and the natives. Their encounter of the unpredictability and cruelty of the Congo’s environment gradually reveals the senselessness of their ideology and eventually debunks their beliefs. The protagonists’ disillusionment with their ideological beliefs allows them to develop their unique and more humble view of the environment. Lastly, my reading of Prodigal Summer proposes that the protagonists’ interactions with other people in the community, their traumatic experience, delicate sensitivity to the natural world, and their knowledge of ecological science play a significant role in constructing “ecological identity”. Their reconstructed ecological self galvanizes them to come to terms with their sense of loss and treat the land with more humble attitudes.