About


Welcome to Green Literature! We are a group of young people who all study at Tallinn University, and we have come together to introduce you to our LIFE project. What is LIFE, you ask? Well, the acronym stands for “Learning in Interdisciplinary Focused Environment.” Nature is a topic that is discussed a lot, in both negative and positive light. Due to various reasons our nature and environment need to be protected, and through our blog, we aim to spread awareness of multiple issues our nature faces. We will combine those ecological issues with multiple literary pieces, and through the literature, we will try to emphasize the idea that our nature needs to be protected at all costs.

The topics that we are going to write about in this blog vary, as well as the authors whose pieces we are going to analyze. We have Russian, English and American literature, as well as some French literary works. We talk about some exhibitions, trips we went to as a team, movies, art installations and through all of this we talk about what can be done to minimize the negative effects on our environment.

The “green” that we are going to write about in our upcoming posts, is the nature in general – starting from plants and flowers, and ending with animals who live in the wild. The main title of our project, Leaf to Leaf, emphasizes the idea that all people live together, and we are all responsible for one another. It is our job to protect nature, and it is our actions that affect the environment, for better or worse.

We hope that you stick around to our blog, and continue to learn more about the connection between literature and nature.



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Once upon an ecocritical analysis: fear and domination of the wild in “Little Red Riding Hood”

Image
Crane, Walter. Red Riding Hood. 1875. Nature and culture are intertwined but traditionally, in literature, we see them in binary opposition to one another (Adler, 2014). According to ecocritical theorist Peter Barry, however, there exists a "gray area" in between the two. In this space, nature and culture coexist and interact. Barry argues that "for the ecocritic, nature really exists, out there beyond ourselves, not needing to be ironized as a concept, but actually present as an entity which affects us, and which we can affect, perhaps fatally, if we mistreat it". Thus, in literature, we can find examples of nature not as a set of metaphorical meanings, but as reflections of the natural world. By analyzing these representations, what we are left with are actual depictions of the relationship between humans and nature. This is where fairy tales come into play. In fairy tales the story often begins when the main character leaves the safety of its home, i
More info »

Estonian epic poem ''Kalevipoeg''

Image
One way nature is portrayed in literature is through epic poems that describe how our world came about. In Estonian folkore there is a book called ''Kalevipoeg'' that is in this genre. In Estonia, specifically in Tallinn, there is a lake called Ülemiste and a passage in Kalevipoeg describes how this lake appeared. A woman named Linda was grieving over the death of her man, whose name was Kalev. While burying him under some stones Linda got tired and accidentally dropped one of the boulders. She was too exhausted to pick it back up so she sat on it and started crying. Her sadness was so big and she cried for so long that her tears formed the Ülemiste lake. In real life you can even see the two big stones in the lake that Linda supposedly cried on and they are called the Lindakivi. Besides this, the rocks Linda was burying Kalev under formed Tõnismägi, a place that also exists in real life.  Silmalauge vesi valgus Laiaks loiguks lagedalle, Loigust tõusis ti
More info »

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

Image
Many people wish to escape the city life and embrace the simple way of living. For this reason some decide to leave their life and turn to living in the wilderness. Surviving in the forests and feeding themselves with foods they can gather.    One book that talks about a similar instance is ‘’Into the Wild’’ by Jon Krakauer. This book is based on a true story of a young man, Chris McCandless, who gave up his old life in the search of the ragged transcendent (existence or experience beyond the normal or physical level) experience. He loved adventure and frequently took off to live in the wilderness. In his younger years he lived in the desert, hitchhiked through America all the way to Mexico and his final and fatal adventure was in Alaska.    The reason why McCandless ran away so often was his complicated relationship with his father. He feared intimacy and attachment with others. A quote from the book reads: ‘’Sometimes he tried too hard to make sense of the world, to figure out why
More info »