The Concept of Nature in Literature: Analysis of Doris Lessing's "The De Wets Come to Kloof Grange" (ePub)

Essay from the year 2009 in the subject Didactics - English - Literature, Works, grade: 2, University of Münster, language: English, abstract: Ecocriticism is still on its academic margins. Nevertheless, depending on the text one
deals with, nature plays a vital role in understanding and analyzing literature.1 The
present essay focuses on the views of nature in the short story "The De Wets come to
Kloof Grange" by Doris Lessing.2
The Dictionary defines nature as "everything that exists in the world
independently of people, such as plants and animals, earth and rocks, and the weather"3.
Yet, in order to analyze nature in its literary context, it is important to point out that
culture has a great impact on nature and its understanding.4 To analyze the view of
nature, it is vital to recognize that the nature-culture distinction is not always absolute
and clear cut.5 There is nature, and culture, and states partaking in both. Barry
introduces the "outdoor environment [...] [as a] series of adjoining and overlapping
areas which move gradually form nature to culture"6. To answer the question how
nature is displayed within the story and hence to be able to draw a conclusion from
these particular views of nature, different areas will be used to classify nature in its
cultural context. Taking Barry's classification7 into account, the view of nature in the
story "The De Wets come to Kloof Grange"8 will in the following be associated with
three distinctive areas. Area one is referred to as the scenic sublime. It includes, for
instance, forests, mountains and rivers. Moreover, there is area two, the countryside,
which implies hills, fields, woods, etc. The greatest impact of culture can be found in
area three, the domestic picturesque. It describes such things as parks and gardens.