Human-animal relationships and ecocriticism: a study of the representation of animals in poetry from Malawi, Zimbabwe, and South Africa

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dc.contributor.authorMthatiwa, Syned Dale Makani
dc.date.accessioned2011-11-21T12:28:55Z
dc.date.available2011-11-21T12:28:55Z
dc.date.issued2011-11-21
dc.descriptionPh.D. Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, 2011en_US
dc.description.abstractThis study analyses the manner in which animals are represented in selected poetry from Malawi, Zimbabwe and South Africa. It discusses the various modes of animal representation the poets draw on, and the ideological influences on their manner of animal representation. It explores the kinds of poetic forms the poets employ in their representation of animals and examines the manner in which ecological or environmental issues are reflected in the poetry. Further, the study determines the extent to which the values expressed in the poems are consistent with, or different from, current ecological orthodoxies and the ways in which the metaphors generated in relation to animals influence the way we treat them. The study shows that in the selected poetry animals occupy a significant position in the poets’ exploration of social, psychological, political, and cultural issues. As symbols in, and subjects of, the poetry animals, in particular, and nature in general, function as tools for the poets’ conceptualisation and construction of a wide range of cultural, political, and philosophical ideas, including among others, issues of justice, identity, compassion, relational selfhood, heritage, and belonging to the cosmos. Hence, the animal figure in the poetry acts as a site for the convergence of a variety of concepts the poets mobilise to grapple with and understand relevant political, social, psychological and ecological ideas. The study advances the argument that studying animal representation in the selected poetry reveals a range of ecological sensibilities, as well as the limits of these, and opens a window through which to view and appreciate the poets’ conception, construction and handling of a variety of significant ideas about human to human relationships and human-animal/nature relationships. Further, the study argues that the poets’ social vision influences their animal representation and that their failures at times to fully see or address the connection between forms of abuse (nature and human) undercuts their liberationist quests in the poetry.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10539/10813
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subjectecocriticismen_US
dc.subjectzoocriticismen_US
dc.subjectecophilosophyen_US
dc.subjectanimalen_US
dc.subjectidentityen_US
dc.subjectbelongingen_US
dc.subjectresistanceen_US
dc.subjectecologyen_US
dc.subjectinscription of identityen_US
dc.subjectsocio-political changeen_US
dc.subjecturban and rural landscapesen_US
dc.subjectpredationen_US
dc.subjectcompassionate representationen_US
dc.subjectallegorical representationen_US
dc.titleHuman-animal relationships and ecocriticism: a study of the representation of animals in poetry from Malawi, Zimbabwe, and South Africaen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
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