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Introduction
Literature is one of the art forms that human beings have created to express the objective reality and the emotions and feelings people experience due to or because of the latter. The feeling of patriotism is one of the feelings that people experience and reflect in their literary works. Another one is the feeling of ecological awareness in respect of ones motherland. Australian literature is characterized by the numerous works dedicated to the topics of patriotism and ecological awareness. The works by such authors as Kiernan (1980) and Rose (2001) are brilliant examples of the research done in this direction of the Australian literature, and this paper will present the analysis of the main points of their works, Sydney or the Bush. Some Literary Images and Connecting with Ecological Futures respectively, to see how patriotism and ecological awareness are highlighted in the Australian literature.
Sydney or the Bush. Some Literary Images
Synopsis
The first reading under analysis is the article by Kiernan (1980) titled Sydney or the Bush. Some Literary Images and first published in the book Twentieth Century Sydney: Studies in Urban and Social History edited by Roe (1980). The major topic of this work is the ecological awareness of the Australian writers and poets as expressed in the paradoxical relations between the fast and comprehensive urbanization of Australia in the late 19th century and the substantial attention that the Australian authors of the period paid to the consideration of rural scenes in their works:
It has frequently been observed, as something paradoxical, that although Australia from the 1890s was one of the most highly urbanized countries, its literature appeared to be preoccupied with the countryside. This paradox was noted by contemporaries as well as by later commentators (Kiernan, 1980, p. 149).
Thus, being highly urbanized and modernized, Australian people preserved their loyalty to their native land and customs (Kiernan, 1980, p. 153). Literature could not be the only social phenomenon to focus on rural lives, landscapes, etc. The society was hesitating in their choices between the rural ways of living they were adjusted to and the modern urban lives embodied in the symbol of Sydney as the metropolitan area (Kiernan, 1980, p. 151). Thus, the concepts of Sydney and the bush, as contrasted against each other, reflect the nature of the Australian society and literature of the late 19th century. To exemplify this point, Kiernan (1980) refers to a range of authors and their ideas on the Sydney or the Bush dilemma.
Lawson, Blake, Lane, and others are considered in their attitudes towards past rural life of Australia or towards relocating that past within the city itself (Kiernan, 1980, p. 149). Although depicting the rural, bush, life as a rather disorganized and uncomfortable phenomenon, these authors agree that it is a better alternative than a structured urban lifestyle, which makes the poor and unemployed feel dirty and mean and degraded by contrast and despised (Lowson (1893) as quoted in Kiernan, 1980, p. 150). What this means is that loyalty to ones land is more important in the outcome than the material goods and modern conveniences, especially if the latter does not ensure a better life for the people of Australia.
Based on the ideas of the paradoxical relations between the urbanization of life and the rural focus of literature, what can be regarded as the factor that finally shifted the social commitment from bush living to convenient urban life?
Connecting with Ecological Futures
Synopsis
The secondary reading offered for the analysis in this paper is the article compiled by Deborah Bird Rose (2001) for her participation in The National Humanities and Social Sciences Summit. The title of the article, Connecting with Ecological Futures, reflects directly its major topic. Rose (2001) is mainly concerned with the necessary shift in the public mind about the environmental issues of today. The current situation with ecological awareness and environmental protection is referred to as crisis by Rose (2001), and actions are demanded from mankind to overcome it:
The concept of crisis alerts us to the existence of the major changes which are running out of control. Most scholars assert that the driving forces in out of control processes are primarily social and cultural, although environmental processes have their internal dynamics that can turn into runaway systems. Major ecological change, much of it in crisis, is situated across the nature/culture divide. Our academic division between arts and sciences compounds the problems of that divide, inhibiting the work we need to be doing to address the crisis (Rose, 2001, p. 1).
Moreover, as contrasted to the article by Kiernan (1980), culture is viewed as a rather negative phenomenon in its impact upon the nature and environment. The reason for it is the so-called Enlightenment thinking , whose essence lies in the concepts of the supremacy of a human being over nature (Rose, 2001, p. 5). Accordingly, culture is viewed by Newton and others as a copy of nature which should be placed above nature itself:
The social and cultural implications of atomism constitute pillars of Enlightenment thinking: the transcendence of reason (mind over matter, culture over nature), the disembedded (and disembodied) subject, and faith in the existence of a site of objectivity which exists beyond historical and cultural contingency (Benhabib (1992) as quoted in Rose, 2001, p. 2).
Therefore, what Rose (2001) sees as the way out of the situation when human beings perceive nature as their resource is the shift of the thinking traditions. The very traditional educational system should be changed to include the so-called earth science , which does not separate human beings from the rest of nature but examines them as a single entity (Rose, 2001, p. 3).
Keeping in mind the current ecological crisis and the need for change, what can be the factor to shift the public attitude towards nature and increase the environmental awareness in the Australian people?
Conclusions
To conclude, Australian literature is characterized by numerous works dedicated to the topics of patriotism and ecological awareness. The works by such authors as Kiernan (1980) and Rose (2001) are brilliant examples of the research done in this direction of the Australian literature. While the former author considers culture and the art of literature as environment-friendly phenomena, Rose (2001) is more cautious about such ideas and considers culture as a rival of nature, which should be equaled to nature but not placed above it.
Reference List
Kiernan, B 1980, Sydney or the Bush. Some Literary Images, in J Roe (ed.), Twentieth Century Sydney: Studies in Urban and Social History, Hale & Iremonger in association with The Sydney History Group, pp. 148 165.
Rose, D 2001, Connecting with Ecological Futures, The National Humanities and Social Sciences Summit, pp. 1 14.
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