ECO-POETICS OF CHARLES OLSON: AN ECOCRITICAL STUDY ON “THE KINGFISHERS”

This paper interprets Charles Olson’s poem, “The Kingfishers” (1949) through ecocritical lenses. Although not counted necessarily as an environmentalist, ecopoet or nature writer, many of Olson’s works can be scrutinized within the frame of Ecocriticism, which as a literary theory and critical approach emerging in the Western academia by the 1990s, is mainly defined as the “study of the relationship between the literature and the physical environment” (Glotfelty and Fromm, eds., 1996: xviii). Progressing towards an eco-centric universe rather than anthropocentric in alternative ways that will help continue interaction among species and lead to organic sustainability, Ecocriticism both as a method and practice aims to revitalize the literary conception and representation of human and non-human universes. On the other hand, what triggers Olson’s ecopoetics has been parallel to some of the basic tenets of Ecocriticism: Olson’s works demonstrate his critique of the Western logocentric thinking that undermines, exploits and silences nature as the non-human other. Moreover, his acknowledgement of the primordial cultures of Americas as well as his preoccupation with the fauna and flora of his hometown, Gloucester-Massachusetts serves as an example of “bio-regionalism” in connection with the larger spectrum. Thus, this paper handles the poem “The Kingfishers” with an ecocritical approach in trying to exemplify the ecological awareness in Charles Olson. The entanglement between verse and universe interpreted within Ecocritical discourse will be discussed in terms of subtitles such as “poetry as dwelling,” “bio-regionalism” and “the concept of interconnectedness and theory of rhizome” all of which render service to the ecocritical emphasis on the “sustainability of literature.”