Ecofeminism in the Poetry of Emily Dickinson and Maya Angelou

Abstract

Women instinctively feel drawn towards nature. They bear a unique kind of kinship with each other. Whenever women find it hard to endure their suffering, they tend to turn to nature for solace like two sisters/ friends trying to help each other cope with difficulties of life and come out of them. Since both of them have been exploited by the patriarchal system for its own various purposes, they can be viewed as the victims of the same oppressor. Women, despite all their beauty of body and brain, have been forced to yield to the malevolent male forces, while nature has been violated to promote culture. This binary of male/ female and nature/ culture has not gone down well with a majority of women writers. They claim equality with men as both are born equally.  They object to being brought up differently. This different upbringing exposes the meanness and hypocrisy of our society. They have voiced their concern about this unfair treatment of women and expressed their preference for the company of compassionate nature to that of callous men. The present paper seeks to define Ecofeminism and trace its evolution as well as endeavours to evaluate the elements of Ecofeminism in the poetry of Emily Dickinson and Maya Angelou.