<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>A.S. Byatt has expressed deep misgivings regarding the role which the human species has played in mis/shaping the natural world due to the wilful blindness which guides human behaviour in this respect. In fact, Byatt has focussed on the destruction of the planet caused by greedy and environmentally-unaware human beings in fictional texts such as <italic>Ragnarök: The End of the Gods</italic> (2011) or “Sea Story” (2013), as well as in critical pieces such as “Thoughts on Myth” (2011). Hence, I am particularly interested in investigating how Byatt’s texts have been shaped by environmental concerns, as expressed in both her fiction and her critical work. My reading of Byatt’s ecopoetics will therefore be set within the theoretical framework of ecocriticism. Finally, I will also examine Byatt’s argument that in a way her early fictional work was “a questioning quarrel” with her former Cambridge teacher F.R. Leavis’s, whose “vision and values” she nevertheless “inherit[s] and share[s]” (<italic>Passions of the Mind</italic>, 2) in light of Leavis’s discussion of “the organic community” as proto-ecocritical writing.</p></abstract>

A.S. Byatt has expressed deep misgivings regarding the role which the human species has played in mis/shaping the natural world due to the wilful blindness which guides human behaviour in this respect. In fact, Byatt has focussed on the destruction of the planet caused by greedy and environmentally-unaware human beings in fictional texts such as Ragnarök: The End of the Gods (2011) or “Sea Story” (2013), as well as in critical pieces such as “Thoughts on Myth” (2011). Hence, I am particularly interested in investigating how Byatt’s texts have been shaped by environmental concerns, as expressed in both her fiction and her critical work. My reading of Byatt’s ecopoetics will therefore be set within the theoretical framework of ecocriticism. Finally, I will also examine Byatt’s argument that in a way her early fictional work was “a questioning quarrel” with her former Cambridge teacher F.R. Leavis’s, whose “vision and values” she nevertheless “inherit[s] and share[s]” (Passions of the Mind, 2) in light of Leavis’s discussion of “the organic community” as proto-ecocritical writing.

“I Have This Kind of Grief for the Earth”: A.S. Byatt’s Ecopoetics in <italic>Ragnarök</italic>, “Thoughts on Myth” and “Sea Story”

American, British and Canadian Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

“I Have This Kind of Grief for the Earth”: A.S. Byatt’s Ecopoetics in , “Thoughts on Myth” and “Sea Story”

A.S. Byatt has expressed deep misgivings regarding the role which the human species has played in mis/shaping the natural world due to the wilful blindness...

“I Have This Kind of Grief for the Earth”: A.S. Byatt’s Ecopoetics in Ragnarök, “Thoughts on Myth” and “Sea Story”

Published Online: Mar 01, 2021

Page range: 44 - 67

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/abcsj-2020-0016

Keywords
A.S. Byatt, contemporary fiction, ecocriticism, F.R. Leavis, the organic community, the narrator’s fixed gaze, proto-ecocritical writing, “Sea Story”, verbal painting

© 2020 Alexandra Cheira, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

“I Have This Kind of Grief for the Earth”: A.S. Byatt’s Ecopoetics in Ragnarök, “Thoughts on Myth” and “Sea Story”

Published Online: Mar 01, 2021

Page range: 44 - 67

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/abcsj-2020-0016

KeywordsA.S. Byatt, contemporary fiction, ecocriticism, F.R. Leavis, the organic community, the narrator’s fixed gaze, proto-ecocritical writing, “Sea Story”, verbal painting

© 2020 Alexandra Cheira, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
A.S. Byatt, contemporary fiction, ecocriticism, F.R. Leavis, the organic community, the narrator’s fixed gaze, proto-ecocritical writing, “Sea Story”, verbal painting