Feminist ecocriticism: the new ecofeminist settlement

Abstract

Taking into account the material feminist theories of "agency," "matter," and "body," this essay examines to what extent material feminisms and trans-corporeality can be productive models for conceptualizing feminist ecocriticism, an anti-phallogocentric ecocritical theory that analyzes the complex dynamics of material agencies across human and nonhuman bodies. By contesting gendered dualities and bodily boundaries, it opens up new ecocritical pathways to deconstruct the sexist, speciesist, and homo-phobic discourses of nature which served as a rhetorical strategy to associate female and queer human beings with animals/nature. Feminist ecocriticism is also a form of literary criticism that examines these issues in literary texts. Richard Powers novel Gain provides a palpable example as it highlights the permeability of bodily natures