“Natural Objects in Youssef Ziedan’s Azazeel: An Environmental Perspective”
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18533/journal.v5i3.926Keywords:
Ecocriticism, Natural Objects, Natural Selection, Biological Determinism, Youssef Ziedan’s AzazeelAbstract
This article provides a new reading of Youssef Ziedan’s Azazeel by examining natural objects (trees, seas, rocks, predators, birds, and landscapes respectively) and applying ecocriticism and Freudian as well as Jungian insights. The study of natural objects yields interesting results: For instance, in Azazeel, trees symbolize peace, security, natural home [oikos], surrogate good mother, and immortality. The sea, in contrast, pretends to be a good mother generating a sense of security and tranquility but is a terrible mother, deceptive, cunning, and fatal. The article explains the murders of Hypatia and Octavia, the actions of Cyril and his followers, Hypa’s reflections and actions from an environmental/ecocritical perspective. The final analysis reveals the way culture tries to separate the human from the non-human although they are supposed to be part of one harmonious ecological system and the need to stop seeing nature as dead/passive if we want to save planet earth from an environmental apocalyptic catastrophe.References
Bradshaw, D. (Ed.) (2003) A Concise Companion to Modernism. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
Cirlot, J. E. (1962) A Dictionary of Symbols. Trans. Jack Sage, New York: Philosophical Library.
Clark, T. (2014) The Cambridge Introduction to Literature and the Environment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cronon, W. (1996) ‘The trouble with wilderness; or Getting back to the wrong nature’, in W. Cronon (ed.) Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature, London: Norton.
Daiches, D. (1969) Critical Approaches to Literature. London: Longmans, Green & Co. Ltd.
Darwin, C. [1871] (1981) The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex. Chichester: Princeton University Press, 2nd ed. 1874. London: John Murray.
Davion, V. (1994) ‘Is ecofeminism feminist?’, in K. Warren (ed.) Ecological Feminism, London: Routledge.
Fudge, E. (2000) Perceiving Animals: Humans and Beasts in Early Modern English Culture. London: Macmillan.
Garrard, G. (2007) Ecocriticism. Oxford: Routledge.
Glotfelty, C. and Fromm, H. (eds) (1996). The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology. Athens: University of Georgia Press.
Guerin, W. L., Labor, E. G., Morgan L., and Willingham, J. R. (1979) A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. New York: Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc.2nd edition.
Harrison, R. P. (1992) Forests: The Shadow of Civilization. London: University of Chicago Press.
Heise, U. K. (2008) Sense of Place and Sense of Planet - The Environmental Imagination of the Global. New York: Oxford University Press.
Kennedy, X. J., Gioia, Dana (2009) Literature- An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. New York: HarperCollinsColledgePublishers.
Kerridge, R. (1998) ‘Small rooms and the ecosystem: Environmentalism and DeLillo’s White Noise’, in Kerridge, R. and Sammells, N. (eds) Writing the Environment, London: Zed Books.
Kemal, Y. “Literature, Democracy and Peace: The 1997 Peace Prize of the German Book Trade: Acceptance Speech.” October 19, 1997. http://www.unionsverlag.com/info/link.asp?link_id=222&pers_id=104&pic=../portrait in Brandabur, Clare, “Life, Death, and Memory: Ecological Dimensions in the Work of Yaşar Kemal” published in 2006 in the proceedings of the conference entitled “The Endangered Planet in Literature November 2005” held at Dogus University/Turkey.
Kermode, F. & Hollander, J. (eds.) (1973) The Oxford Anthology of English Literature. Vol. II. New York: Oxford University Press.
King, Y. (1989) ‘The ecology of feminism and the feminism of ecology’ in J. Plant (ed.) Healing the Wounds: the Promise of Ecofeminism, London: Green Print.
Merchant, C. (1990) The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology and the Scientific Revolution. San Francisco: Harper and Row. Originally published in 1980.
Moran, J. (2007) Interdisciplinarity. New York: Routledge, Replika Press Pvt. Ltd.
Pepper, D. (1993) Eco-Socialism: From Deep Ecology to Social Justice. London: Routledge.
Roy, A. (1997) The God of Small Things. London: Flamingo.
Said, E. [1978] (2003) Orientalism. London: Penguin Group.
Shakespeare, W. (1968) Hamlet. London: Longman Group Ltd.
Soper, K. (1998) What is Nature? Oxford: Blackwell.
Thoreau, H. D. (1983) The Maine Woods. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press. First published in 1864.
Venefica, A., “The Meaning of Stones”, http://www.whats-your-sign.com/the-meaning-of-stones.html Web.18.2.2016
Warren, K. (ed.) (1994) Ecological Feminism. London: Routledge.
White, L., Jr. (1996) ‘The historical roots of our ecologic crisis’, in C. Glotfelty and H. Fromm (eds) The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology, Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.
Wilson, E. O. (1978) On Human Nature. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Wilson, E. O. (1994) The Diversity of Life. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Zeidan, Y. (2012) Azazeel. (Trans.) Jonathan Wright. London: Atlantic Books Ltd.
Ziedan, Y. (2013) Azazeel. (Arabic Text) Cairo: Dar Al-Shorouq.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).