Nature portrayals in a society perspective : an ecocritical study of The Story of Gösta Berling and Blackwater

The purpose of this master thesis is to examine how the relationship between humans and nature is expressed in the imaginative literature. My aim is to identify ideological reproductions in the analyzed works. Therefore I have chosen one work from late 19th century and one from late 20th century. This makes it possible to examine the contextual anchorage of the found ideological expressions. The study’s theoretical framework is primarily based on ecocriticism, and especially on Greg Garrard’s and Kate Soper’s thoughts. The method used is critical ideology analysis. The result shows that nature and culture is paradoxical and highly ideological conceptions. In The story of Gösta Berling, an anthropocentric and religiously oriented notion of nature is dominating, though there are some elements of an early deep ecology to be found. In Blackwater we can see a more rational and objective notion of nature as dominating, even if we sometimes can see a shallow romanticism of nature expressed by the characters, where also some groups of humans that are considered to be “closer to nature” is romanticized (for example minority groups). This is explained by the works historical contexts, where The story of Gösta Berling is written in a time of early modernism, where nature is not fully conquered, and therefore seen as mystical and sometimes as a threat to humans. Blackwater was written in a postmodern time where nature is demystified and fully conquered, and strictly speaking no “pure” and untouched nature is left to be found anymore