Non-human nature as a subject in A mercy (2008) by Toni Morrison and The year of the flood (2009) by Margaret Atwood

Abstract

(...) This paper, then, interrogates the notion of “subject” resorting to the perspective of ecocriticism. In order to do so, Chapter II presents the main theoretical framework discussing the notion of subject and intersubjectivity. Particularly, we focus on those paradigms that explain the mechanisms that exclude non-human nature from the idea of “subject” (Plumwood 2003). Then, we concentrate on those paradigms that attempt to decenter “humans” from their privileged position in systems of ideas, and on those approaches which consider non-human nature as a participant in intersubjective interactions (Wolfe 2010; Murphy 2013). Accordingly, we focus on those characters that seem to apply a particular logic of inclusion of non-human nature in the concept of “subject”. Our aim is to show: firstly, how these characters consider non-human nature as a subject ideationally; secondly, how they experience intersubjective interactions with non-human nature; and finally, how their personal self-construction is influenced by their own embodiment as well as their interactions with both social and non-human environments.