Abstract

SMITH, Carien. An Ecocritical-philosophical perspective on the short story "Katvoet"(Riana Scheepers): Humans and nature. Tydskr. geesteswet. [online]. 2018, vol.58, n.2, pp.310-329. ISSN 2224-7912.  http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2224-7912/2018/v58n2a7.

The purpose of this article is to present an ecocritical-philosophical analysis of Riana Scheepers' short story "Katvoet" (2009). In previous work I have analysed this text with reference to aphenomenological framework (LitNet Academic 13(2):227-252). However, in my view the story offers more possibilities for interpretation. In particular, it may be fruitfully explored in ecocritical terms. To this end, I draw on Alaimo, Hekman, Bennett, Buell, Burton-Christie, Garrard, Iovino, Love, Morton, Warren, as well as some of the prominent Afrikaans academics in the ecocritical field, namely Susan Smith and Susan Meyer. Ifirst outline the differences between the ecocritical framework informing the current as opposed to my earlier phenomenological study. I employ this framework to challenge some of the general Western philosophical ideas that ground Western thought (according to Karen Warren 2015, 2009): 1. the idea that rationality is the ultimate characteristic and faculty of human beings which makes them distinct and superior to animals; 2. the conception of human beings as rational beings with the ability to think logically; 3. a belief in basic binary oppositions, such as mind and body, woman and man, subjectivity and objectivity, culture and nature, and rationality and emotions; 4. the belief in an ontological difference between human beings and animals (Diehm 2003:32-3; Warren 2015; Warren 2009). Ecocriticism and its various manifestations in literature is further discussed. Thereafter the analysis of the short story "Katvoet" is presented in accordance with the above conceptual framework. In the story, the basic assumptions that ground the Western philosophical ideas are critically analysed as they are presented in the story, in order to determine to which degree these ideas are being challenged. What seems to be essential arising from this analysis is that the basic binary oppositions, traditional Western philosophical ideas, the concept of nature and the basic anthropocentric thinking that dominates literature are challenged in this story.

Keywords : Ecocriticism; Riana Scheepers; woman; animal; nature; culture; rationality; body; mind; nonhuman; agency; Katvoet"; Morton; Buell.

        · abstract in Afrikaans     · text in Afrikaans     · Afrikaans ( pdf )