Crimes Against Nature: Ecocritical Analysis of Ojaide’s The Activist and Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born

• Main Authors: Alpaslan Toker, Safiya Jega
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: Editura Universităţii Aurel Vlaicu Arad 2019-05-01
• Series: Journal of Humanistic and Social Studies
• Subjects: Ecocriticism; environment; human beings; destroy; Ojaide; Armah
• Online Access: http://www.jhss.ro/downloads/19/articles/3%20Toker.pdf

Human being’s interaction with nature is generally verbalized in various forms, and literature is definitely one of these forms. As one of the recurrent themes in writing, nature has managed to attract the attention of numerous writers especially the novelists. The literary interest in nature and environment has resulted in the emergence of ecocriticism which studies the relationship between literature and environment. This new method of ecocriticism has proven itself to be useful in highlighting the spreading environmental issues in today’s globalized world. For this reason, this theory, a holistic approach to literature seeking to examine the relationship between man and his environment, has been employed to determine the depth and extent of damage that human beings inflicted on their natural environment. Therefore, the paper attempts to explore and analyze human beings’ tireless efforts to damage or destroy their environment towards the satisfaction of their insatiable desires in the light of two invaluable pieces of literature: Tanure Ojaide’s The Activist and Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born.