"Symbiosis or Death": - Rhodes University

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4 relatively new science has caught our imagination. This is, at least, a start. I believe it is the concept of interrelationship which has piqued human curiosity. An ecological awareness is based on the human ability to commune with the natural world. We need to foster this capacity for ‘communication’ because it leads us to ask where we belong in the greater scheme of things. These questings concerning have been expressed in human art since the beginnings of human civilization and the miraculous ecological web of life should be part of our ponderings. Ecology has, in the latter part of the 20 th Century, been annexed by literary theorists who have found that an ecologically informed approach can offer a more incisive interpretation of literary texts. This approach has been dubbed ecological literary criticism (ecocriticism) and it is the theoretical basis for this thesis. While scientific ecology sees humankind as a biological organism, literary (or philosophical) ecology ponders the position of humanity as both part of and apart from nature. Consciousness has set us apart from the rest of the natural world in such a way that we do not instinctually co-exist with other organisms. Furthermore, humanity abuses the environment for its own gain. The conundrum of why humans are the only animal which fouls its own nest implicitly informs Livingstone’s poetry and causes him to call man the “clown of creation” (LZ 46), a foolish and uncouth ignoramus who does not know his place within the natural framework. I argue that Livingstone, particularly in A Littoral Zone, seeks to remind his human readers that our survival as a species depends on our understanding that the Earth is our greater home and that we need to both find and know our place within it. The Greek roots of the word ecology (oikos as home or dwelling place and logos as relation) point to this relationship with one’s home or dwelling place. The preceding seems to presuppose that Livingstone was a deep ecologist (see p 18 for a discussion of deep ecology). This is only partly accurate. His poetry is too gritty and ecologically pragmatic to be labelled deeply ecological. Yet, his reverence for nature (see the section “What is nature?” p 76) and the Earth is communicated (between the lines). I argue that he is a Romantic materialist who uses the best of the Romantic tradition – an appreciative awe of nature and a belief that the human imagination is crucial – and combines this with an acute scientific awareness (see also p 58). The material view pervades his poetry through the use of precise scientific words (for example: bacillus, isotopes, homoeostasis, crystallogenesis, genetic blueprint, latency,
5 cilia, spirochaetes, mitochondria, geoid) and the underlying scientific theories of, for example, Darwinism, the biological function of cells, and geophysiology (the scientific name for Lovelock’s Gaia hypothesis (see footnote on p 36). His scientific understanding of the way nature works is perhaps most explicitly demonstrated in his use of evolutionary theory (see p 82). This is evident in his first volume, A Skull in the Mud, and in the poem of the same name, but is most explicitly explored in A Littoral Zone. In this work Livingstone puts humanity in the no-man’s-land of the littoral zone and shows that humankind has lost a sense of belonging or place on the Earth. Evolution and ecology are inextricably linked (see p 131 for a fuller explanation). Douglas Livingstone as poet is both quixotic champion of the abused Earth and prophet of ecological doom. His poetry implies that he saw himself as a misguided ecological knight errant. But, as a microbiologist, he spent 30 years fighting water pollution off the Durban coastline. A Littoral Zone is the poetic account of his scientific work and is a bioregional narrative (see p 8). Douglas Livingstone’s poetry is difficult. Initially I thought it was too difficult, that its lyricism could be intuited but never adequately explained. I still believe this is true. But I no longer believe that it is inaccessible. Perhaps it is the difficulty of Livingstone’s poetry which has resulted in both a narrow political interpretation of his work and a paucity of critical material on A Littoral Zone. In 2002, nearly a decade after this collection was published, Duncan Brown was the first to offer an environmental interpretation of A Littoral Zone. Apart from this, there has been no explicitly ecologically oriented interpretation of Livingstone’s work. His most prolific critic, Michael Chapman, concedes (in the introduction to The New Century of South African Poetry) that Livingstone may be read ecologically. He does not say it as plainly as this and, curiously, puts his references to ecology in scare quotes: The focus on Livingstone’s last collection, A Littoral Zone (1991), lends emphasis to his concern with the ‘ecologies’ of our existence. Given the freer climate of the 1990s it may be possible to move beyond arguments as to whether Livingstone’s derisive comments about polit-lit in the politically tense 1970s inevitably branded him a politically incorrect human being. While not ignoring the political past it is arguably more agreeable today to view a ‘green’ Livingstone. (2002: xxiii) Livingstone’s refusal to be drawn into the political arena and Chapman’s insistence that he should be is documented both in Chapman’s critical work and in interviews he conducted with Livingstone. This thesis attempts to show that Livingstone was never a
Page 1 and 2: "Symbiosis or Death": An Ecocritica
Page 3 and 4: Swallow) and so obviate its certain
Page 5 and 6: Contents Abstract .................
Page 7 and 8: Acknowledgements To Andrew Stevens
Page 9 and 10: ix Humankind’s abuse of nature an
Page 11 and 12: Introduction It was a Hogsback poet
Page 13: 3 USA and was the first to apply th
Page 17 and 18: 7 Durban in 1964 to take up the pos
Page 19 and 20: 9 as the Earth. The poetry demands
Page 21 and 22: Perhaps in moments of - shall we sa
Page 23 and 24: 13 married? This chapter will explo
Page 25 and 26: 15 This is an idealistic position b
Page 27 and 28: 17 Here, the “planet” and “a
Page 29 and 30: value. Julia Martin repeatedly stre
Page 31 and 32: 21 The puzzle of ecology, then, is
Page 33 and 34: 23 historic social conflicts. Langu
Page 35 and 36: 25 ‘There remains,’ wrote Heide
Page 37 and 38: 27 discourse, but as a fundamental
Page 39 and 40: the contradictions of consciousness
Page 41 and 42: 31 Shelley refers to imagination an
Page 43 and 44: 33 The freedom of birds - Keats’
Page 45 and 46: 35 universe as mere mechanism” bu
Page 47 and 48: 37 My 1963 comically chivalrous res
Page 49 and 50: 39 research has followed two main p
Page 51 and 52: 41 is definitive, not only for its
Page 53 and 54: Chapter Two Douglas Livingstone: Hi
Page 55 and 56: 45 admired by poets of all poetical
Page 57 and 58: 47 in the publication of Sjambok an
Page 59 and 60: 49 conflict: “I don’t think any
Page 61 and 62: 51 long-term implications of this t
Page 63 and 64: 53 urbanisation. He adds that in th
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55 be seen as a stylistic pastorali
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57 (173). Livingstone, too, speaks
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59 to find a closer identification
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61 notes the “universality” of
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63 The first chapter of Chapman’s
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65 It should be mentioned, however,
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the stones, slaked battles, seas; t
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69 while I claim the undertone is a
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71 conjuring up a bizarre psycholog
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Yet the overriding relationship we
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75 The next collection, Sjambok and
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77 reflects the major variations of
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79 This new idea-system… I shall
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81 … we are the architects of our
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83 our anthropocentrism. This deepe
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The first sputnik blipped above me
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87 way of finding our sense of plac
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89 poem, indicates that overcoming
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91 constancy” where living things
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93 dissolves” (line 46). He is le
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95 / their daily crust on farm and
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97 lightning” (line 14). The fig
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99 life-forms. The poem ends on an
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101 nature. As demonstrated in the
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103 planting and regeneration. In
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105 inhabitants, also cleansed and
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107 The poem is divided into four p
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109 position. Wilson defines biophi
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111 humanity has no future place on
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113 omnipotent power is disastrous
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115 Because he suffers from, or is,
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We are an animal that needs to use
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119 his scientific work lies in the
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121 "metallic man" (line 6) who com
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123 It [A Littoral Zone] might with
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125 Livingstone” (1997). David Le
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127 and decreases the pressure on p
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129 suggests that much of Livingsto
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Chapter Five From Darwinism to Desp
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133 conundrum also plagues Livingst
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135 anything Livingstone has writte
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137 The sestet explores the result
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139 [W]hile human survival may be c
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141 The poem uses the coelacanth, a
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143 examines evolution at cellular
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145 (Dennett 86) which “propel”
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147 reconnecting with the Earth and
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149 ignorant or arrogant to see thi
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151 This densely layered poem explo
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153 is best to leave nature to do i
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155 this reverence is an even great
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157 continuation of a species. The
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159 The remnants of the San people
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161 In the third stanza he sees the
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163 implication is that the San sha
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165 is his anger extended to humank
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167 “Carnivores” and social des
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Chapter Six “Seeking life, seekin
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171 symbolise cosmic evil, but rath
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173 The snake here symbolises self-
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175 of Looking at a Black Snake”
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177 The dead snake lies on the beac
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[A] constant image is that of the c
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181 with a duiker doe - the visitor
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183 life force (signified by the su
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185 This poem describes the first s
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187 The poem works with the idea of
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189 itself and so managed to captur
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191 The title of the poem alludes t
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193 resolve humankind’s psychomac
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195 The above ‘conventional’ lo
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197 opera, Lohengrin so that the po
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199 redolent of the happier moments
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I conclude this chapter with an exa
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203 perceived by my senses, but not
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205 resolution through atonement, w
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207 they “meld / in manic songs o
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209 A brief review will be useful.
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211 appears as thanatos” (207). T
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Conclusion The coming together of t
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“An appraisal of sewage pollution
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Appendix B continued 217
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Primary Texts Bibliography Livingst
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Clouts, Sidney. "The Violent Arcadi
Page 233 and 234:
Hillman, James. Dream Animals. San
Page 235 and 236:
One’s Reality: A study of the wor
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