워즈워스 시 가르치기와 생태의식의 확장

Teaching Wordsworth’s Poetry and Development of Eco-consciousness: Focused on the Theme of Child and Nature

The Romantic treatment of nature as a means to aggrandize the human has been identified and criticized as fundamental anthropocentricism by the mainstream ecocritics, who highlight the need to shift from “ego-consciousness” to “eco-consciousness.” It would be beyond human scope and, if possible, be of no significance to us humans, however, to separate the human ego from non-human nature and obtain a direct access to nature, unmediated by any human attempt. In this respect, the child in Wordsworth’s poetry is worth noting. The child is portrayed as a kind of nature before being divided and fixed into Man while the child is obviously a human being though yet young. Wordsworth’s yearning for the child can be interpreted as a significant cological search for the encounter with nature, never to the exclusion of human efforts. Class discussions of the theme of child and nature in Wordsworth’s poetry can offer students an opportunity to develop eco-consciousness in a manner that is neither fixed into nor free of human perspectives. First of all, a close reading of the texts is required for the discussions. Students are, then, encouraged to ‘experience’the poems rather than ‘learn’ them. In class, particular stress is laid on students’ own independent reading and understanding. Some remarkable possibilities of teaching poems for the development of eco-consciousness have been explored in this research. Devising effective methods for keeping class discussions more systematic, but still open and free would produce a more satisfactory outcome.