Reverberations of environmental crisis and its relevance in managing sustainability: an ecocritical reading of T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land

Abstract

The paper is an attempt to explore how the face of nature has undergone a transformation over the last few centuries and also how T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land has contributed in not only in exposing man’s callousness towards nature but also in raising a collective environmental consciousness among its readers. Living in an era of prolonged environmental crisis we find that examining natural—cultural have at last become a trend. Thus, ecological criticism deconstructs the relationship between nature, culture and literature. Keeping in view the environmental concerns of the present age, an ecocritical reading of The Waste Land provides various sources of wisdom contained in the different philosophies, cultures, traditions and myths so as to find an authentic and vibrant environmental discourse. It also describes the impact of globalization on the environment, culture, political systems, development and prosperity, and on human physical well-being in societies around the world.