The subject of my thesis will focus on an ecocritical analysis of two 19th century novels: Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (1847) and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818). I would like to focus, above all, on the nature/culture dichotomy as it is quite latent in both novels.
In Wuthering Heights, the author constantly contrasts nature and culture. Represented on the one hand by Catherine and Heathcliff (governed by their passions) and on the other hand by the Linton family and Thrushcross Grange (representing social conventions). In the case of Frankenstein, the dichotomy is also notable, but, focusing on the one that concerns us, Victor represents culture insofar as he is a scientist. In contrast, the creature is associated with nature, as he believed himself to be amid nature, since his creator and civilisation reject him. It can be said that culture (Victor, man) tries to break into nature, as he tries to imitate it.
To carry out a correct analysis of these aspects, I would like to take The Ecocriticism Reader (1996) edited by Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm as a point of reference, as it raises not only the beginning of the term “ecocriticism” and its definition, but also formulates some questions that will be answered directly or indirectly during the analysis, such as, for example: “What role does the physical setting play in the plot of the novel?”, “how we can characterize nature writing as a genre?”, “do men write about nature differently than woman do?” (Glotfelty 13). Furthermore, to make a correct approach to the nature/culture dichotomy, I will focus on the article “Is Female to Male as Nature Is to Culture?” (1972) by Sherry B. Ortner in which she presents the logic behind the cultural thinking that presupposes the inferiority of women. In this article we find the basic questions to see the problematic of this dichotomy. The other point of support will be the article “Claves ecofeministas para el análisis literario” (2017) by Eva Antón in which she points out that we are in an ideology in which women are animalised and nature is feminised (Antón 48).
As we can read, gender issues are also raised, and the nature/culture dichotomy has often been approached from a gender perspective, identifying nature with women and culture with men, so it would be quite relevant to follow the current of ecofeminism. Above all, I am going to focus on the critical ecofeminism proposed by Alicia H. Puleo in “Claves ecofeministas para el análisis literario” (2017) by Eva Antón, who raises the following questions, based on Puleo’s theory, to be able to carry out an ecofeminist analysis by Eva Antón, who raises, because of Puleo’s theory, some questions such as: “how is the relationship of the human being with the natural environment represented in narrative fiction? Can differences be perceived in this relationship attributable to the sex-gender system? Does the studied narrative recreate the generic ascription in the nature/culture duality?” (Antón 54).
None of these questions is arbitrary, as the main aim of the thesis is to study the nature/culture dualism and the stereotype of relating it to masculine and feminine gender. But, in addition, as relevant enquiries, we must analyse how nature is represented and described in the two novels and its relation to the natural environment. I would like to focus, above all, on the use of the sublime in the descriptions of nature, since in both novels we see descriptions of the sublime: in Wuthering Heights a mountainous and cliff-filled landscape is described. All this together forms a shocking landscape full of awe, but at the same time, it is in these landscapes that Catherine and Heathcliff feel free. In Frankenstein, nature is also used as an expression of the sublime, in that it is presented with grandeur in contrast to the insignificance of the human being. For this, of course, we must start from Edmund Burke’s A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757), which uses descriptions of gender to explain the concept, although care must be taken in our study so as not to be counterproductive to the ecofeminist analysis. However, also relevant to our study is Kant’s intervention on the subject, who in the Critique of Judgement (1790) defines the sublime as something only comparable to itself and the beautiful is a quiet contemplation. This study of the sublime could be completed with Lyotard’s approach to the concepts “sublime” and “beautiful”, as he relates them to “understanding” and “reason”.
Having analysed these aspects, both the nature/culture dichotomy and the concept of the sublime (considering all the reviews already discussed), it would be appropriate to conclude the thesis with one of the most salient issues within ecofeminist analyses: and that is whether, in this perception, gender differences can be detected between female/male characters or between female/authors (Antón 54). The aim is to investigate how the two authors relate female characters to the natural environment and whether, in these narratives, stereotypes are reissued. To carry this out, my main support will be Eva Antón and her article “Claves feministas para el análisis literario” (2017) in which she points out that the authors develop critical thinking characters with respect to the heterodesignated figures and points out that the female authors do not reissue any stereotypes, such as the Angel in the House (Antón 64). The question is, through these designations, to analyse whether both Brontë and Shelley present female characters that respond to what Antón points out.
The aim of this last point is to overcome the ecological concern of the woman from being an angel of the home to an angel of the ecosystem. Apart from this, it is to try to give a new vision of the representation of nature through the concept of “the sublime” (we do not have to stop only at Burke’s). In addition, it would be interesting for future lines of research to analyse the ecofeminist aspect from the environmentalist ecofeminism, taking as a reference element the article “Ecofeminismo: un pensamiento ambientalista de corte feminista” (2017) by the authors Montilla, M., & Ledezma, G. Apart from feminist environmentalism, it can also be studied from essentialist feminism, taking as a reference article by Érika Carcaño Valencia “Ecofeminismo y ambientalismo feminista. Una reflexión crítica” (2008).