Literature as Cultural Ecology: A Cultural Ecological Reading of Iqbal’s Selected Poems

Abstract

The objective of the study is to scrutinize cultural ecological elements in Iqbal’s four selected poems by incorporating Zapf’s idea of Literature as cultural ecology. Iqbal as national poet covers the whole range of cultural, ecological themes in his poetry. Previously, his poems are analyzed by using diverse range of theories. This inquiry fills the gab by looking into Iqbal’s poetry through a new perspective. As, Iqbal’s poetry is relatable for every era, it is not time or space bound as it also deals with the issues of the environment which is relatively a new field of study. In the early phase of his poetry he was much inspired by romantic poets and his poems are replete with extensive natural symbols that also serve cultural implications. The study employs Zapf ‘s triadic model of literature as cultural ecology as theoretical framework for this qualitative inquiry. The study employs textual analysis as a research method to scrutinize the themes and symbols in the poems as part of cultural ecology. According to Zapf, cultural ecology is the interconnection of “culture-critical metadiscourse” “an imaginative counter-discourse,” and “reintegrative inter-discourse’.” This model explores that literature as ecological system illustrates power ideologies, counter ideologies and by reconciling these opposing faculties empower the margins. The study extends the sphere of ecocritism by applying its new paradigm to an eastern poet and also adds to the existing literature on Iqbal. For future researches, this theory can be applied to different genres of indigenous literature as there is dearth of studies in this field.