An Ecocritical Study of Percy Bysshe Shelley's Selected Lyrical Works
Název práce v češtině: | Ekokritická studie vybrané lyrické tvorby Percy Bysshe Shelleyho |
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Název v anglickém jazyce: | An Ecocritical Study of Percy Bysshe Shelley's Selected Lyrical Works |
Klíčová slova: | Ekokritika|anglický romantismus|životní prostředí|příroda|Percy Bysshe Shelley|udržitelnost |
Klíčová slova anglicky: | Ecocriticism|English Romanticism|Environment|Nature|Percy Bysshe Shelley|Sustainability |
Akademický rok vypsání: | 2023/2024 |
Typ práce: | bakalářská práce |
Jazyk práce: | angličtina |
Ústav: | Ústav anglofonních literatur a kultur (21-UALK) |
Vedoucí / školitel: | Mgr. Miroslava Horová, Ph.D. |
Řešitel: | skrytý![]() |
Datum přihlášení: | 26.03.2024 |
Datum zadání: | 26.03.2024 |
Schválení administrátorem: | bylo schváleno |
Datum potvrzení stud. oddělením: | 03.04.2024 |
Datum a čas obhajoby: | 04.09.2024 00:00 |
Datum odevzdání elektronické podoby: | 07.08.2024 |
Datum proběhlé obhajoby: | 04.09.2024 |
Odevzdaná/finalizovaná: | odevzdaná studentem a finalizovaná |
Oponenti: | PhDr. Zdeněk Beran, Ph.D. |
Zásady pro vypracování |
This thesis will argue that Shelley’s idea of a sustainable revolution is based on nature. The term “nature” refers to both human nature (love, emotion) and the natural world (the environment). Nature functions as a balanced system. A society built on the unnatural (violence, immorality) is unsustainable, because its very foundation is unstable. A society based on nature is therefore key to establishing long-lasting social reform. According to Shelley, change should above all be natural for it to be sustainable long-term. Violent revolutions ultimately fail, tyrannical governments meet their end, because they are distanced from nature due to their immorality. In his essay, “A Defence of Poetry”, Shelley argues for a morality based on love, empathy, and connection. These emotions are inherently natural; they are therefore morally sound. A society unable to love becomes a hollow shell unable to connect with the natural world, immoral, and therefore unsustainable. This thesis will discuss Shelley’s ideas of sustainable revolution in the short lyrics “Ozymandias” and “Ode to the West Wind”, and the dramatic poems Prometheus Unbound and The Revolt of Islam. Using ideas presented in these texts, supported by arguments in Shelley’s essays “A Defence of Poetry” and “On Love”, this thesis will attempt to demonstrate that Shelley advocated for the rebirth of humanity through environmental conservation. Writing at a time when the environment was, for the first time, being threatened by mass industrial processes, Shelley’s engagement with political and philosophical issues opens his work up to an ecocritical interpretation. This is especially relevant in contemporary discourse, when ecocritical narratives are prevalent and awareness of the need for environmental conservation is so widespread. Nature and humanity are so inextricably linked that the suffering of one means the suffering of the other. Human corruption, as an outside influence, disturbs the equilibrium of a naturally sustainable environment, polluting landscapes and damaging ecosystems. A society devoid of empathy lacks the sensibility to treat the environment as a living system, instead commodifying it as a pool of resources at their own disposal. In doing so, humanity, through immorality, restrict their own nature. If nature cannot be free, neither can humanity, resulting in a cycle of immorality and destruction. Shelley therefore argues for a self-identification more closely tied to nature that would ultimately ensure long-lasting freedom. |
Seznam odborné literatury |
Primary sources: Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “Ozymandias”. Selected Poetry by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Alma Books Ltd, 2022. 59. Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “Ode to the West Wind”. Selected Poetry by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Alma Books Ltd, 2022. 105-107 Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “The Revolt of Islam”. Project Gutenberg. Accessed March 21, 2024. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/4800/pg4800-images.html Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “Prometheus Unbound”. Project Gutenberg. Accessed March 21, 2024. https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/4800/pg4800-images.html Secondary Sources: Cameron, Kenneth Neill. “The Political Symbolism of Prometheus Unbound.” PMLA 58, no. 3 (1943): 728–53. https://doi.org/10.2307/458831. Duffy, Edward. “Where Shelley Wrote and What He Wrote For: The Example of ‘The Ode to the West Wind.’” Studies in Romanticism 23, no. 3 (1984): 351–77. https://doi.org/10.2307/25600499. Garrard, Greg. “Introduction”. The Oxford Handbook of Ecocriticism. Edited by Greg Garrard. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. 1-24. Hutchings, Kevin. “Ecocriticism in British Romantic Studies”. Literature Compass, 4 (2007): 172-202. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1741-4113.2006.00417.x Isomaki, Richard. “Love as Cause in Prometheus Unbound.” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 29, no. 4 (1989): 655–73. https://doi.org/10.2307/450605. Morton, Timothy. “Shelley’s Green Desert.” Studies in Romanticism 35, no. 3 (1996): 409–30. https://doi.org/10.2307/25601182. McGill, Mildred Sloan. “The Role of Earth in Shelley’s ‘Prometheus Unbound.’” Studies in Romanticism 7, no. 2 (1968): 117–28. https://doi.org/10.2307/25599703. Pite, Ralph. “How Green Were the Romantics?” Studies in Romanticism 35, no. 3 (1996): 357–73. https://doi.org/10.2307/25601179. Rajan, Tilottama. “Deconstruction or Reconstruction: Reading Shelley’s Prometheus Unbound.” In The Supplement of Reading: Figures of Understanding in Romantic Theory and Practice. Cornell University Press, 1990. 298–322. http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctt207g6qj.16. Rigby, Kate. “Romanticism and Ecocriticism”. The Oxford Handbook of Ecocriticism. Edited by Greg Garrard. New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. 60-79. Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “A Defence of Poetry”. Project Gutenberg. Accessed March 21, 2024. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5428/5428-h/5428-h.htm#link2H_4_0005 Shelley, Percy Bysshe. “On Love”. Project Gutenberg. Accessed March 21, 2024. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5428/5428-h/5428-h.htm#link2H_4_0005 |