Ecocritical Reflections on Pastoral Trope - Henna Muliyana

Nature precedes men and exists in folds of literary works ever since literature came in existence and even before that. However, acknowledgement to nature as a living entity was not given until recently due to the consistent climate crisis often known as imbalance in seasons, floods, forest fires, animals extinction, epidemics and numerous other natural calamity that emerged because of perpetual interference of human beings in natural world. Nature has always been a framing tool for literary piece which needs a serious thought considering present crisis in our wider home i.e. Earth. Pastoral has contributed significantly in shaping construction of nature ever since industrial revolution in Romantic age. Its meanings and values keep on changing according to the society, historical context, and industrial developments. It is a trope that is acutely embedded in western culture, not only that it has a wide history and cultural omnipresence which is a serious concern of ecocritics. By using select instances of pastoral poetry this paper traces nuances of pastoral trope’s sojourn through history and how its meaning and representations alters as the time changes and what is its importance for environmentalists.