چکیده:
The oppression of women, as the subordinate second sex, and the exploitation of the environment have been the focus of most ecofeminist studies. In this study, the authors will discuss the patriarchal injustice suppressing women and the environment in an 18th-century literary text, Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock (1719). Through the prism of cultural ecofeminism, this article makes an effort to illustrate the formation and also interrelatedness of two main long-held cultural dichotomies: the sexist-oriented privilege of male over female and the anthropocentric privilege of human over nonhuman in the microcosmic literary scope of the 18th-century English literature. From this regard, the feminist-oriented ecological issues will be discussed according to Val Plumwood’s distinction of cultural ecofeminism. Within this theoretical framework, we try to demonstrate how the elements of a patriarchal system shape all feminine subjectivities. The present article also shows how Nature herself, as an objection to the patriarchal culture, acts as the major supporter of women throughout The Rape of the Lock.
خلاصه ماشینی:
The Concurrence of Women and Nature in Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock: A Cultural Ecofeminist Read- ing1 Nahid Mohammadi*2 Anis Kalantari3 Received: 2019-01-26 | Revised: 2019-05-15 | Accepted: 2019-05-21 Abstract The oppression of women, as the subordinate second sex, and the exploi- tation of the environment have been the focus of most ecofeminist stud- ies.
In this study, the authors will discuss the patriarchal injustice sup- pressing women and the environment in an 18th-century literary text, Alexander Pope’s The Rape of the Lock (1719).
The present article also shows how Nature her- self, as an objection to the patriarchal culture, acts as the major supporter of women throughout The Rape of the Lock.
Keywords: The Rape of the Lock, Cultural ecofeminism, Women, Nature, Patriarchy, The 18th-Century English Literature Introduction As today, the cultural constructions of the 18th century, which are palpably re- flected in the literature of the era, were the main cause for the subordination of feminine subjects at that time.
Although The Rape of the Lock and its main female character with her chal- lenges in the patriarchal society have been the main issue for several feminist critics and researchers, it is an ecofeminist perspective of the text which can properly throw light on the roots of suppression imposed on the feminine sub- ject and the way she is backed by some other feminine agents from nature.
We can claim that the issues of women and nature together, their interrelat- edness, and the analysis of the cultural structures causing these two dominated sides in The Rape of the Lock have not been investigated in any forms of aca- demic research.