Re-Imagining Nature: Ecocritical Readings of Contemporary English Literature in the Age of the Anthropocene

Abstract: This paper will look at how the modern English literature is re-conceptualizing nature in the Anthropocene, the suggested epoch where human agency is the geological driver[1][2]. On the basis of an ecocritical framework, the study investigates the representations of human-nature relations, environmental crisis, and nonhuman agency in the selected works of the twenty-first century to demonstrate how these works deal with the problem of environmental crisis. Introduction provides the definition of the Anthropocene and its implications to the research of literature, whereas the Literature Review provides a review of critical theories (e.g., scale, eco-cosmopolitanism, climate fiction), on which the analysis is based. The Methodology spells out the qualitative ecocritical reading of text. Thematic patterns in the Results are defined, such as fragmented narratives, deep-time perspectives that indicate the reality of the Anthropocene[3]. One characterizes the increase in climate fiction at a very high rate, and a table is a summary of ecocritical themes in exemplary novels. These findings are interpreted in the Discussion in the context of the Anthropocene theory and the Conclusion highlights the importance of literature in building environmental consciousness. Keywords: Anthropocene, ecocriticism, contemporary literature, climate fiction, human-nature relations.