I am looking at how irony and satire links the environmental movement to modern feminist, surrealism, and post-modern texts. I am specifically interested in how the idyllic contrasts with the realistic in the environmental movement, thus creating a complex binary between real and surreal concepts. I would like to argue that like nature itself, literature uses the binary of idyllic/realistic in order to create some greater truth that reveals the messiness of the human experience. Using a modern lens, one can read romanticized visions of nature as self-indulgent and unrealistic, and this category of environmental literature works against the notion that art can enact policy or social change. Does some environmental art exist just for art’s sake? Or is it pushing a specific political or social agenda to actually better the environment and correct environmental injustices? Common themes I am interested in: how the female body is romanticized as being an ecofeminist symbol, while it is much more than simply a natural symbol; how art can function as both a social critique and as a beautiful entity; how all meaning is derived from an ironic outlook on life—making meaning through satire. I will use a deconstructive and psychoanalytical lens.

X: Irony and satire in environmental art

Y: How does the environmental movement create tension between the realistic and idealistic? How does this binary result in a meaningful critique of society and its representation of nature/the female body? 

Z: Through irony/satire, one is able to address the shortcomings of all humans and accept the greatness and vastness of nature in order to create a sustainable reading experience where the environmental movement is both critiqued and lifted. In creating tension/irony around environmental art, it forces people to question the social implications real-life environmental injustices have (systemic racism etc). This “care for the earth, care for the self” mentality (permaculture) ultimately leads to social change (or it at least raises questions around social issues) 

Other interests: creating satirical collages (visual art) to accompany my project

Possible primary texts:

Angela Carter: The Magic Toyshop

Sisters of the Earth (anthology) 

Pleasures of Nature (anthology)

Secondary Source:

Szerszynski, Bronislaw.  (2007) “The Post-Ecologist Condition: Irony As Symptom and Cure.” Environmental Politics, vol. 16, no. 2, 2007, pp. 337-355, DOI: 10.1080/09644010701211965

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09644010701211965?needAccess=true