"Doing" ecocriticism: Oppressions of nature and animals in Philip Larkin's poetry. Issue 1 (2nd January 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Idrus, Mohd Muzhafar; Mukahal, Iyad
• Is Part Of: Comparative literature: East & West. Volume 5:Issue 1(2021)
• Page Start: 46
• Page End: 57
• Publication Date: 2021-01-02
• Subjects: Philip Larkin -- ecocriticism -- nature -- animal oppressions -- environmental literature; 菲利普·拉金 -- 生态批评 -- 自然 -- 动物压迫 -- 环境文学; 800
• DOI: 10.1080/25723618.2021.1943768
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2572-3618

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Far fewer studies have investigated Philip Larkin's ecological awareness. While the poet problematizes physical nature and animals, the universal, east-and-west concerns of (non) human beings have been predominantly one-dimensional. This paper analyzes Larkin's poetry, by paying specific attention to the poet's precognition of a looming disaster that ecocritics and environmentalists later came to conceptualize as "the ecological crisis." This article analyzes two poems by Larkin, chiefly, "Going, Going, " and "Take One Home for the Kiddies" in the context of natural environment and animal oppression. Larkin's arguments on the human manipulation of nature eventually disrupl ts the Man-Nature relationship. By focusing on these two of Larkin's poems, the wider application of rhetorical devices attests to the poet's sensitivity, delineating an unstable alliance between human and non-human world(s).