Juxtaposing Gender and Nature in Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye

Abstract

Ecofeminism constitutes one of the fundamental features of Ecocriticism/Ecological Study in postcolonial discourse. It is primarily intended to study/examine the connections between women and nature with special emphasis on their unavoidable interconnectedness with environment. From the postcolonial perspective, it can also be viewed as an attempt to address the issue of subjugation of women, nature and environment with special reference to environmental injustices as against preservation of Environmental Ethics. Rousseau's concept of environmental ethics can be correlated with the concept of environmental justice which is more explicitly linked to racial politics- the reason why scholars tend to emphasize environmental racism in African American fiction with special reference to Toni Morrison. Ecofeminism is grounded upon the conception that the ideology which recommends oppression of women on the basis of race, class, gender, sexuality etc. is exactly the same ideology which sanctions the oppression of nature. Women, environment and nature are therefore, three important segments of ecofeminism. In the light of the above, the present paper purports to examine Toni Morrison's novel The Bluest Eye through ecofeminist lens by mostly concentrating on the ideals of Ecofeminism.