Author Bio:
Asra Jafarey is a recent master’s graduate in Literature and Modernity from the University of Edinburgh. Her research interests include affect theory, global South literature, ecocriticism, and the study of women and Islam, with a focus on how these themes intersect in contemporary cultural and environmental contexts.
Abstract:
This article explores Elizabeth Bishop’s poetry through the lens of ecological and
postcolonial dynamics, uncovering the power relations between the observer and the observed. Introducing the concept of Eco-curiosity, defined as a focused engagement with the ecological other, the analysis examines the politics of the gaze in The Fish, The Moose, Arrival at Santos, and Brazil, January 1, 1502. Bishop’s sharp attention to visual details reveals imperial subtexts and highlights the hierarchies embedded in human-animal and human-environment interactions. Drawing from critical frameworks such as postcolonial ecocriticism, Bishop’s poems engage a resistance to simplistic binaries like anthropocentrism
versus ecocentrism, while simultaneously critiquing and participating in colonial narratives. Reflecting her position as a socio-economically privileged white woman, her work challenges traditional boundaries of identity and power. Through nuanced portrayals of both ecological and cultural subjects, her poetry transcends the limitations of language and perception, offering a self-reflexive approach to understanding the ecological other. Ultimately, this analysis positions Bishop’s ecopoetics as a powerful framework for reimagining ethical relationships between humans, animals, culture, and the environment.
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Wonderful essay