Ecophobic Reading of Literary Texts

Coined by Simon C. Estok, ecophobia is a prominent and new approach to ecocriticism and environmental ethics, mainly defined as irrational and groundless hatred of the natural world. The ecophobic reading investigates unwanted human biases towards the environment based on irrational fear and hatred of bio-environmental manifestations in literary works. Ecophobia originates from the duality of self/other, leading to xenophobia in the shadow of an irrational fear of the other, i.e., a woman, race, or other species, in this Coined by Simon C. Estok, ecophobia is a prominent and new approach to ecocriticism and environmental ethics, mainly defined as irrational and groundless hatred of the natural world. The ecophobic reading investigates unwanted human biases towards the environment based on irrational fear and hatred of bio-environmental manifestations in literary works. Ecophobia originates from the duality of self/other, leading to xenophobia in the shadow of an irrational fear of the other. Naturophobia, misogyny, racism, and speciesism occur in a context of xenophobia, and many human behaviors in the face of nature and other human beings arise from fear, and this xenophobia leads to domineering behaviors. After presenting theoretical foundations, the study sought to explain the ecophobic components in literary works and how to apply ecophobia in literary criticism. Ecophobia reads literary works anew, trying to improve this relationship by analyzing and examining the relationship between humans and nature in an ecophobic context and expressing the origins of these fears. The research result demonstrates that two distinct types of ecophobia in literary works can be identified. By displaying neglected environmental fears, those works can play a significant role in correcting human relationships with the environment and making us sensitive to our behavior with the Earth.