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‘Rising in and for our life-source, Earth’, ecopoetry as engaged, embodied, co-created expression of ecocentric consciousness

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Moore, Helen (2024) ‘Rising in and for our life-source, Earth’, ecopoetry as engaged, embodied, co-created expression of ecocentric consciousness. PhD thesis, University of Gloucestershire. doi:10.46289/MOAI8470

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Official URL: https://eprints.glos.ac.uk/14790/

Abstract

In writing this thesis, I am seeking to demonstrate the independent, significant, and original contribution to knowledge and scholarly research within the field of ecopoetry that the Collection makes; and in doing so, I broadly illustrate the core aims of my creative work, which are:  To inspire social change through innovative socially and ecologically engaged ecopoetry  To reveal how embodiment, imagination and perception contribute to paradigm shift  To express the co-creative aspects of human and more-than-human relations Beginning with personal reflection to trace my path towards ‘ecopoetry’, I move on to survey contemporary ecopoetry and its roots, demonstrating how the sustained ethical-political engagement evident within the Collection combined with my deployment of multiple perspectives, the trans-scalar imaginary, co-creation with the more-than-human world, and an innovative approach to form, have created a pioneering contribution to the field, particularly in the UK. Through an exploration of my ecocultural identity, I illustrate how my adoption of the epithet ‘ecopoet’ around twenty years ago served as a compass to orientate myself towards a more ecocentric worldview, despite the ‘boundary patrol’ to which I was subject. Drawing on ecopsychology to define consciousness, and a broad spectrum of ecocritical analysis, I discuss how the Collection reveals a decolonizing approach to ‘Nature’ and portrays a rewilding of the self, enabling an embodied approach that permits cocreation. With its unique breadth of perspective and subject-matter, the Collection has anticipated developments in ecocriticism and serves to revitalise perception of the interconnected crises in a globalised world, and to develop a deeper identification with the evolving planet. This retrospective analysis also reveals dimensions of eco-social justice and regenerative ‘naturecultures’ beyond apocalyptic tropes, and it shows how my use of organic ecopoetic structure and form reflect embodiment, taking ecopoetry in innovative directions.

Item Type:

Thesis (PhD)

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