Merleau-Ponty's ‘Chiasm’ in Gary Snyder's Eco-Poems

Subject Areas : مطالعات نقد ادبی

BAHARE AARABI ¹ (PhD Student, Department of English Language and Literature, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran)
Negar Sharif ² (Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran)
Farid Parvaneh ³ (Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Qom Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qom, Iran)

Received: 2021-09-22 Accepted : 2021-12-18 Published : 2022-02-20

Keywords: Beat Generation, Embodied Perception, Chiasm, The Flesh of the World,

Abstract :

This research paper seeks to apply Maurice Merleau-Ponty’s eco-phenomenology to a selection of poems written by the American poet and environmental activist, Gary Snyder. 'Eco-phenomenology' is the point where philosophy and ecology meet. This almost new favored trend in the academia’s perspective deals with the environmental issues from a phenomenological viewpoint. Dismantling Cartesian dualism and proposing the philosophy of 'chiasm,' Merleau-Ponty has contributed substantially to environmental ethics and has proved himself an inseparable part of eco-phenomenology.The present article focuses on one of Merleau-Ponty’s underlying theoretical premises, ‘chiasm’ to provide Snyder’s holistic and non-hierarchical worldview as the basis of his eco-poems and environmental activities. The present research paper, as a qualitative, descriptive, and library-based one, conducts both a textual and contextual analysis to bring to light a new discourse in Schneider's poetry with the focus on the mutual participation between human flesh and the ‘flesh of the world’ at moments of perception.

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