Cultural Nature in Andrew Marvell’s The Mower Against Gardens
Jalal Farzaneh Dehkordi,
Parisa Pooyandeh
Issue:
Volume 3, Issue 2, March 2018
Pages:
33-36
Received:
1 June 2018
Accepted:
10 August 2018
Published:
6 September 2018
Abstract: There has always been a dichotomy between ‘nature’ and ‘culture’ in literary theory and criticism, the outcome of which is but preference of one over the other. In this study, a poem by Andrew Marvell is chosen which best exemplifies the play of these two terms which result in merging this binary opposition in a way that defining one concept is conceivable in terms of the other. In view of the fact that culture functions a basic and inevitable role in literature and considering Baroque reasoning of the seventeenth century in mind, impact of culture in Marvell’s The Mower Against Gardens on the basis of Terry Eagleton’s definition of culture is noticeable. In this regard, analysis of the poem embraces consideration of the speaker’s tone and consciousness as well as the poet’s viewpoint toward historical and cultural indications of the time, exposing how nature and culture affect each other without being conflicting to each other. The present paper aims to prove impact of culture with ample extracts of natural descriptions of the poem and disclose that ‘nature’ and ‘culture’ are applied interchangeably. In this study, the dominant cultural, socio-political and religious ideas and their impact on Marvel’s poem are taken into account. Application of Eagleton’s definition becomes possible through differentiation between the poet’s and the speaker’s idea toward nature and existing dialogism between the artificial and the natural in the poem.
Abstract: There has always been a dichotomy between ‘nature’ and ‘culture’ in literary theory and criticism, the outcome of which is but preference of one over the other. In this study, a poem by Andrew Marvell is chosen which best exemplifies the play of these two terms which result in merging this binary opposition in a way that defining one concept is con...
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