P.R.Harikumar

www.prharikumar.com

ECO –AESTHETICS: IN SEARCH OF AN ORGANIC WHOLE

 P. R. Harikumar

After the Second World War the human race became ready to redefine the meaningless promises of science and technology .One of the major issues they faced since then was the attitude towards nature and its complexities. As a result of this, every sphere of human knowledge took initiative to tackle the situation occurred after the defacement of science. In human consciousness a sense of interdependence and humility came into existence. The new turn in human vision influenced every field of human activity. Eco-aesthetics, eco-feminism, eco-politics, eco-criticism and eco-tourism are some of the crystal clear footprints of this new climatic change in human outlook.

Eco-aesthetics represents the union of the radical ecology movement, or what has been called ‘deep ecology’, and aesthetics. The word ecology emerges from the biological science of natural environmental systems. It examines how these natural communities function to maintain a healthy web of life and how they become disrupted, causing death to the plant and animal life. Human intervention is obviously one of the main causes of such disruption. Thus ecology appeared as a combined socio-economic and biological study in the late sixties of the last century to examine how human use of nature is causing pollution of soil, air, and water, and destruction of the natural systems of plants and animals. At the same time the term aesthetics stands for the study of man’s sensory knowledge of the beautiful and its expression in various artistic forms. It originated about 2500 years ago in Egypt, Babylon, India and China. It was greatly developed in ancient Greece and Rome. We can see various trends- materialistic, idealistic, humanistic and realistic - in the field of aesthetics in its age long history.

‘Civilization is Disease' is one of the possible lessons we read from the present crisis of human culture. Day to day affairs is going indifferent and each day new theories on earthly problems are brought in to rectify the errors in the book of human destiny. In this strange context the thinking self of the global community became more and more aware of the repercussions of a greedy culture like ours. Here the term ‘culture’ stands for the exploitation of nature by man for his unlimited consumerism. As a need of the hour, aesthetics came with a new concept of nature in which man is forced to reconsider his role in harmonizing life with nature for a bright future. Due to this new shift in human thought, however, some features of a counter-culture are formed. During this rethinking process the literature- a medium for expressing human condition in its complicated structure - became a vehicle of rhythmic and natural images of demureness. We can call this new step in Man Nature Relationship as Eco-Aesthetics. This can be defined as an attempt to study the creative expressions giving importance to its relevance in modern human life through the analysis of the images of soil, water and plants, which have a critical role in human existence. Eco-aesthetics basically bears some clear notions of bio-diversity and co-existence. It gives us, all the time, a chance to remember about an organic whole without which human being may be an empty bottle. Thus we can see the presence of a man who is so meek towards this organic whole as an intrinsic value in every human document written with the spirit of eco-aesthetics.

In the eighties and the nineties, Malayalam literature was also in the melting pot. In poetry, novel, short story and criticism we got commendable contribution from a set of authors who were very much aware of the challenges man faces in a world of uncertainty. All the writers who came together for a critical change in our vision presented a variety of ecological images -the images of soil, water and plants- in their works. Some of them pray for the dying earth (‘Bhoomikkoru Charamageetham’-O.N.V Kurup ; ‘Katevite Makkale’- Ayyappa Panikker ) and praise the selfless service done by the eco-system for us (‘Thulavarshappachcha’- Sugathakumari ; ‘Kadu’-D.Vinayachandran, ‘Yugalaprasadan’ - Vishnu Narayanan Namboodiri). Some other poets went to the dialectics and intricacies of human history and the primitive features in man as part of this in-depth involvement and search( 'Kattalan'- Kadammanitta Ramakrishnan, ; 'Kochiyile Vrikshangal'- K.G.Sankara Pillai). In novel, this attempt coincided with an exploration to the past and the creation of an imaginative future( 'Marubhoomikal Undaavunnathu'- Anand ; 'Madhuram Gayathi'- O.V.Vijayan ; ‘Alahayute Penmakkal’ - Sarah Joseph). Some stories by Sarah Joseph ( 'Attappady ', ‘Papaththara’ etc.) are read as the best examples in short story for this thematic change. The same stories also represent eco-feminism in which woman identifies with nature regarding her position in a patriarchal and male-defined society. In the field of criticism, Asha Menon ( ‘Herbarium’, ‘Jeevante Kayyoppu’ and ‘Thanu Manasi’ ) , K.C.Narayanan (‘Malayaliyute Rathrikal’), T.P.Sukumaran ( ‘Paristhithi Soundaryasasthrathinu Oru Mukhavura’) G.Madhusoodanan (‘Kadhayum Paristhithiyum’) and P.P.K.Pothuval ( 'Paristhithikkavithakku Oramukham') are some of the writers who could create a new sensibility that help the readers to understand the spirit of environmentalism. The flora and fauna depicted in green words in these works give some strong notions about a counter-culture to be formed for the survival of mankind. Here, I am forced to mention about the first poem written with a sense of eco-aesthetics in Malayalam. Surprisingly, ‘Kuttippuram Palam’ was written by Edasseri Govindan Nair in 1954 even then the concept of eco-aesthetics was not in the air. In this poem he is lamenting on the pollution ,alienation and the erosion of human values due to urbanization. He asks: ‘Oh, Mother Perar, will you also change into a miserable gutter eventually’.  Even now the poem brings forward some valuable notions for a fruitful discussion about the possibility of a counter–culture.

Eco-aesthetics is, in short, a step forward with an aim to construct an idea about an organic whole in which each and every creature has its own role. Through the imaginative discourses it creates a sensible atmosphere among the readers and helps them to read the invisible lines /truths written in the book of nature. Moreover, as a fighting force against the exploiting nature of present day culture, it envisages the distinctive features of a counter–culture that is the only way to a life–affirming situation in this lonely planet.