Ecology From Within: Ecocriticism and Allegory in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Word for World is Forest

Abstract

This essay reads Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel The Word for World is Forest to explore whether there is a connection between Cartesian dualism, allegorical reading, and environmentalist thought. To answer this the essay employs the philosophy and theoretical writings of Timothy Morton, namely The Ecological Thought and Ecology Without Nature. The method used is a close reading of the novel and the critical texts concerned with it. The dissertation shows how a static and unchanging understanding, wether of concepts, ideas, or people can lead to a damaging power relationship, and how this can be connected to René Descartes through early ecocriticism, environmental discourse and allegorical readings. The dissertation also synthesizes a way to move beyond an allegorical and environmentalist reading, to instead become ecological reading.