Eco-feminist Concerns in Temsula Ao’s Writings Synopsis submitted to Madurai Kamaraj University for the Award of the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ENGLISH By C. SARANYA (Reg.No. P4546) Under the Supervision of Dr. Sheela P. Karthick M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D., B.Ed., PGDELT Associate Professor of English The Madura College (Autonomous), Madurai-625011 Madurai Kamaraj University (University with Potential for Excellence) Madurai-625021 December 2018 Eco-feminist Concerns in Temsula Ao’s Writings - A Synopsis - Women have vital role in conservation and management of sustainable eco-system. Since time immemorial women are traditionally involved in protecting and conserving their natural resources. If we talk of natural resource management from a global perspective, whom do we find in the forefront of the race for protection and preservation of the resources. The answer comes very naturally, it is the women. - Mukherjee 4 Nature can be preserved by women effectively. Women have close association with natural resources in day-to-day life. Women’s perspectives about nature are different from men’s perspectives. Women give importance to protect nature by their priority and choice in which men fail. Eco-feminist analysis offers a scope for examining the intricate relationship between women and nature. Hence, the present study focuses on eco-feminist concerns in Temsula Ao’s writings. Women are the embodiment of human existence who need to be worshipped like Goddess and treated well in the society. Any social construction gives many roles of women such as daughter, mother, sister 1 and in-law of a family. Apart from performing various roles as a creator of life, a servant maid for her entire family, a care taker for her husband and in-laws, a good teacher for her children within a family they have social responsibilities also. Nature is the soul of life. It determines the survival of living organisms on earth. It is an inevitable substance for life. This implies the advent of Ecology in literature. Ecology is defined in such a way that animals, people and other living organisms in the planet are related to each other and with their environment. Abundance of resources has been existing in nature in the form of rivers, mountains, forests etc. Ecologists feel about nature which has lost its wealth in due course of time. As a result, in order to protect nature ecological writers focus on natural resources in their writings. Hence, the emergence of ecocritical studies in literature. Eco-feminism is one of the branches of Ecocritical theory. Eco- feminism is a social movement that regards the oppression of women and nature as interconnected with each other. Eco-feminism emerged in 1970s and focus political, ideological and economical issues related to environment and women. In Eco-feminist literature, environmentalism and feminism are interlinked. 2 The term Ecofeminism was coined by the French writer, Francoise d’ Eaubonne in her book, Le Feminisme ou la Mort (1974). It was developed by Ynestra King and became a movement in 1980. The first eco-feminist conference--“Women and Life on Earth: Ecofeminism in the 1980’s” was organized at Amherst, Massachusetts, US. Eco-feminist writers argue about the traditional male-centered approaches that involve exploitation and domination and degradation over women which echo in environment. There are two basic perspectives in eco-feminism. One is, essentialist eco-feminism and another one is, constructionist eco-feminism. Essentialist eco-feminism believes that there is a connection between women and nature due to the similarities of motherly qualities. The qualities like kindness, caring, affection, wisdom, sympathy and empathy are given only by women and nature. Both are giving birth to life in the earth. Women give birth to child and nature gives birth to trees and plants. Ultimately, both women and nature are considered as creator of life and sources of fertility. On the other hand, constructionist eco-feminism believes that the connection between women and nature is constructed by society especially the patriarchy. Women and nature are considered as mothers in ancient times. Later, this image is changed and both of them are 3 degenerated and exploited. The social construction gives power to men to dominate women and nature. In order to protect women and nature from patriarchal subjugation, eco-feminists organise ecological movements. Ecological movements are led by women in the west as well as in India. The two important western eco-feminist movements are the Love Canal Movement in the U.S and the Greenham Common Movement in Britain. In these two ecological movements women protested against the patriarchy and moved towards the concerns for their children and natural environment. Similarly, in the two Indian ecological movements, the Bishnois and the Chipko Movement, village women participated and fought for the protection of trees. Chipko movement is referred to as women’s movement. It shows ecological insight, political and moral strength of women. Vandana Shiva, an environmental feminist, was a participant of Chipko Movement. She explains that oppression will continue in the Western worldview because it devalues, what she terms, the feminine principle. In her book, Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Survival in India (1988) Vandana Shiva writes: 4 The everyday struggles of women for the protection of nature take place in the cognitive and ethical context of the categories of the ancient Indian world-view in which nature is Prakriti, a living and creative process, the feminine principle from which all life arises. Women’s ecology movements, as the preservation and recovery of the feminine principle, arise from a non-gender based ideology of liberation, different both from the gender-based ideology of patriarchy which underlies the process of ecological destruction and women’s subjugation, and the gender-base responses which have, until recently, been characteristic of the west. (Introduction xv-xvi) Temsula Ao (1945- ) is a retired Professor of English in North Eastern Hill University (NEHU) at Shillong in Meghalaya. She is a winner of Padma Shri (2007) and Governor’s Gold Medal (2009) from the Government of Meghalaya. She has received Sahitya Akademi Award in 2013 for her short story collection, Laburnum for My Head (2009). Ao has so far published five poetry collections, Songs That Tell (1988), Songs That Try to Say (1922), Songs of Many Moods (1995), Songs from Here and There (2003) and Songs from the Other Life (2007). 5 These five collections of poems have together been published by Heritage Publishing House under the title, Book of Songs: Collected Poems 1988- 2007 in the year 2013. Her non-fiction includes a book on Henry James entitled Henry James and the Quest for an Ideal Heroine (1988) and another titled Ao-Naga Oral Tradition (2000). Her first short story collection is These Hills Called Home: Stories from a War Zone (2006) and her next collection is Laburnum for my Head: Stories (2009). She has continued with Once Upon a Life: Burnt Curry and Bloody Rags: A Memoir (2013), and her recent novel is Aosenla’a Story (2017). Temsula Ao emphasises the idea that nature and women should be liberated, for they face many failures, disappointments, losses, suppression, and struggle a lot to overcome that through their strong determination. Their determination and longings give strength to fight for their self-identity and recognition. As a Naga woman, Temsula Ao has concern for her region and natural circumstances of land, forest, animals, hills, and mountain. She remembers the beauty of nature in the hands of women through her poems. In her short stories, she projects woman as protector of nature safeguarding the whole human habitation by her knowledge. In her writings, Temsula Ao represents women who have the tendencies to 6 protect nature, who encompass with individuality, who are brave enough to fight for their liberation and who have intelligence to secure their men and village by their instinctive knowledge. Thus, Temsula Ao rebuilds the role of women in Ao-Naga society through her writings. Temsula Ao projects two paradoxical lives of Ao-Naga women in her works that are victors and victims. She also emphasises how ordinary women deal extraordinary situations and how in due course of their life sacrifice and survive among struggle, for the sake of future generation. The present thesis examines the select works of Temsula Ao’s poetry collection Book of Songs: Collected Poems 1988-2007 and her two short story collections These Hills Called Home: Stories from a War Zone (2006) and Laburnum for My Head: Stories (2009) from an eco-feminist point of view. Ao’s Book of Songs: Collected Poems 1988-2007 contains 146 poems which deal with the themes of natural elements, human life, old age, loneliness, death, and mythological elements of Ao-Naga community, their culture, tradition and origin and history of Ao-Naga region. Ao’s These Hills Called Home: Stories from a War Zone (2006) consists of ten short stories namely “The Jungle Major”, “Soaba”, “The Last Song”, “The Curfew Man”, “The Night”, “The Pot Maker”, 7 “Shadows”, “An Old Man Remembers”, “The Journey”, and “A New Chapter”. These stories locate Naga territory during the time of Indian Independence. Naga rebels fought for their liberation from India which has made the place filled with conflicts and insurgency. During these conflicts the major victims are women and children who need to lead their dreadful life. In these ten short stories, Temsula Ao depicts how women emerge though they are being silenced as voiceless, how they tackle their life amidst brutality done by armed forces, how they support financially as a backbone of the family and how they preserve nature and protect environment from the environmental degradation. Most of the women characters in Ao’s stories endure between political and social environment.