DOI: 10.5176/2251-3566_L316.73
Authors: James Lu
Abstract: As expressed in his poem “The Future of Forestry,” C. S. Lewis’ poetic lamentation over the erosion of the environment, however passionate, did not make him an “environmentalist” as defined today. Nonetheless, in The Cambridge Companion to C. S. Lewis (2010), Malcolm Guite believes that “[r]eaders of poems like Lewis’ `The Future of Forestry’ will recognize an early voice of ecological protest” (304). In several other poems Lewis also treats the destruction of nature as an urgent issue confronting not only people in England but all humanity in the world. Because there has been a “hypothesis” that Christians tend to be indifferent to or at best ambivalent about environmentalist movements (Trulove and Joireman, 806; Boyd, 36), and since C. S. Lewis is widely read as a Christian writer, his poetry demonstrating an attitude towards environment bears special significance. For one thing, it offers an interesting and unique case study for ecocriticism.
After two waves of echo-consciousness in literary studies, the first from 1980s through 1990s and the second from late 1990s through the first decade of the 21st century, ecocriticism, still a fairly new theoretical movement, seems to have lost its momentum and direction. As early as 2006, Serpil Oppermann pointed out that “largely confined to the theoretically discredited parameters of literary realism, ecocriticism today finds itself struggling with hermeneutical closure….” The only remedy, he posited, would be “a postmodern ecocritical approach” that “positions itself at the cross-roads of an ecocentric postmodern theory and environmental philosophies.” Recently, noting that its initial goal of awakening readers to environmental concerns has largely been accomplished, Charles E. Bressler, along with other scholars, raised a serious question: “What now is ecocriticism’s task?” That question implies that only with limited success ecocriticism has yet to cease struggling for a clear or new direction. Apparently, nor has Oppermann’s postmodern ecocritical theory found a home or made much difference.
For sure, so long as global environmental crisis persists, let alone worsens, ecocriticism, as a shared belief or theory or trend or thought or approach or methodology or simply strategy, will continue to exist and function. To reenergize their cause, ecocritics, in my opinion, ought to first of all recognize a crucial weak, if not completely missing, link in their theory and practice: the aesthetic, philosophical, social, political value of religious spirituality. Not only do ecocritics generally try to steer clear of any biblical references when analyzing socioeconomic or geopolitical causes and consequences of environmental damages, they also tend to downplay the importance of spirituality even when interpreting the eco-conscious expressions of the British Romantic or American Transcendental poets. Take, for example, Charles TEKE’s article “John Keats and Nature, an Ecocritical Inquiry.” The author insists, “Though Keats’s poetry indicates the difficulties of tracing a clear line between aestheticism and spirituality, the arguments here are more inclined to aestheticism and philosophy rather than spirituality.” But the matter of fact is that ecological issues are neither merely contemporary or modern or medieval nor only political or social or economic. They are transcultural, transhistorical, and ultimately spiritual or infinitely biblical, for after all God created the Universe including the Earth--home of mankind. From this bold and broad perspective, it is fair to argue that unless ecocritics rise to such a high level, ecocriticism will continue to lack energy and clarity of ultimate purposes. To say the least, ecocritics should realize that secular and Christian concerns about environment in many areas intersect; that turning to the biblical, they may find a natural path towards unprecedented success. C. S. Lewis’ poems such as “The Future of Forestry” and “Here the Whole World” best illustrate the aesthetic intensity of Christian ecocritical consciousness in literature. I will interpret the poems to demonstrate that Christian spirituality provides not only inspiration for eco-conscious poets to write, but also powerful exegesis of any literary work expressing concerns about the conditions of natural and human environment.
Keywords: ecocriticism C.S.Lewis poetry literature environment nature Christianity spirituality English American postmodern
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