Ecological Activism and Earthcentric Psyche in Edward Abbey’s Fire on the Mountain and Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal Dreams

ABSTRACT

Ecological activism and Earthcentrism are the two major branches of Ecocriticism which focus on the nature-centered environment and the unbreakable relationship between man and earth. Ecological activism is the part of Ecocentrism which is the reaction against and the response of anthropocentrism. Anthropocentrism believes that human beings are the only and the primary creatures on earth which hold the absolute power and can exercise his power over every other creature (animate or inanimate). Ecocentrism believes that anthropocentric ideals are age-old concepts which are a ’human-centered’ in nature that de-limits human power and restricts the non-human world from equal rights. Eco-centrism sometimes also known as Bio-centrism displaces and undermines the anthropocentric concept, places nature in the center and calls for action which is termed as ecological activism. The earthcentrism focuses on the relationship between man and the earth and calls it divine and inseparable because man and earth are not ’I’ and ’You’ but ’Us’. The earthcerism places earth at the center and emphasizes that everything in the universe is related to earth. The ecocentrism and the earthcentrism have challenged the grand narrative of the post-modern society and the age-old concept of anthropocentrism and humanism. It has opened new ways to interpret the literary texts through the light of the relationship of the characters with the physical nature. The present paper will deal with the ecological activism, ecocentric ideals and earthcentric-psyche in the two post-modern American novels namely Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver and Fire on the Mountain by Edward Abbey.

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