K@ta: A Biannual Publication on the Study of Language and Literature (Jan 2015)
Ecocritical Reunion of Man and Nature in The Ruined Cottage
Abstract
While the previous researches on Romanticism, especially Wordsworth (1770-1850), and Ecocriticism are quite far-ranging, the inherent ecocritical echoes of Wordsworth’s oeuvre are yet to be surveyed. This study is an endeavor to examine the ecocritical aspects of William Wordsworth’s The Ruined Cottage (1797-ca.1799) with the aim of bringing into focus the inner link between Nature and Ecocriticism in the above-mentioned poem. With that issue in mind, the researcher intends to take the viewpoints of the Yale School critics, the New Historicists, and those of the ecologists into consideration to prove the previous critics’ inability in rendering a thorough reading of The Ruined Cottage and will examine the poem through the lens of Ecocriticism by focusing on the correspondence between the gradual withering of Nature and the gradual demise of Margaret’s soul in order to reach a comprehensive examination of the poem in the end.
