Ecocriticism and Women Writers ― Environmentalist Poetics of Virginia Woolf, Jeanette Winterson, and Ali Smith

Virginia Woolf, Jeanette Winterson, and Ali Smith share an ecological philosophy of the world as one highly interconnected entity comprised of multiple and equal, human and non-human participants. This study argues that these writers' ecocentric views find expression through their literary forms and that their texts have an ecological significance in fostering respect for and understanding of difference, human and nonhuman.

Beginning with Woolf's work, these writers abandon the hegemonic master narrative and instead practice pluralistic, democratic, and non-authoritarian forms that are consistent with feminist ecology and erode patriarchal domination. Their texts have a world-transforming potential as they offer formal models that overcome dualistic thinking and unsettle traditional binaries. The value transformation they encourage is an indispensible groundwork for the new environmental philosophy and a prerequisite to progressive action and change.

Justyna Kostkowska is Professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University, USA. She teaches and publishes in Modern British literature and Twentieth Century women writers, especially Virginia Woolf, Jeanette Winterson, and Wislawa Szymborska. She is the author of Virginia Woolf's Experiment in Genre and Politics 1926-1931: Visioning and Versioning The Waves (2005).