Echoes of Earth and Woman: An Ecofeminist Reading of Tagore and Atwood

Abstract

The present paper attempts an ecofeminist reading of Rabindranath Tagore’s Red Oleanders and Margaret Atwood’s Surfacing to understand how the two texts illustrate the intertwined oppression of women and nature within a patriarchal, anthropocentric setup. The paper investigates the manner in which these works conduct a comprehensive study of feminine existence and the natural world within the capitalist and commodification frameworks in an ecofeminist perspective. In Red Oleanders Tagore reveals dehumanising logic of industrial modernity in the form of the mining kingdom where mechanisation, surveillance and profit turn people and nature into commodities and life-centered ecological and ethical opposition to authoritarian power is expressed through the figure of Nandini. Likewise, Surfacing follows a psychological and ecological journey of a woman into the Canadian wilderness, where the process of disconnection with technological culture is being used as a way of re-establishing the sense of identity and establishing a non-exploitative relationship with the wild. Based on a close textual analysis, this paper maintains that both texts perceive nature as a moving and challenging matter, in agreement with feminine subjectivity, ethical renewal and environmental consciousness.