"Symbiosis or Death": - Rhodes University

Abstract
As the quotation in the title of this thesis indicates, Douglas Livingstone states that unless
humankind can learn to live in mutuality with the rest of the natural world, the human
race faces extinction. Using the relatively new critical approach of ecological literary
criticism (ecocriticism) this thesis explores Livingstone's preoccupation with "symbiosis
or death" and shows that the predominant theme in his ecologically-orientated poetry is
one of ecological despair. Countering this is a tentative thread of hope. Possible
resolution lies in the human capacity to attain compassion and wisdom through the
judicious use of science, creativity, the power of art and the power of love. Livingstone's
ecological preoccupation is thus informed by the universal themes which have pervaded
literature since its recorded beginnings.
The first chapter examines the concepts of ecology and literary ecocriticism,
followed by a chapter on the life and work of Douglas Livingstone, and a review of the
critical response to the five collections of poetry which predate A Littoral Zone, his final
work. The remaining four chapters offer an analysis of his ecologically-orientated poetry,
with the majority of the space given to an examination of A Littoral Zone. The following
ecological themes are used in the analysis of the poems: evolutionary theory,
humankind's relationship to nature, ecological equilibrium, and ecological destruction.
The latter two themes are shown to represent Livingstone's view of the ideal and the real,
or the opposites of hope and despair. The analysis interweaves an argument with the
existing critical response to this collection.
This thesis demonstrates that Livingstone's crucial message – the need for
humankind to attain ecological sensibility or “the knowledge of right living” (Ellen
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