An Ecocritical Analysis of Oscar Wilde’s A House of Pomegranates : Human- Nonhuman Interactions in the Fairy Tales

Sammanfattning: Abstract   This thesis investigates the interactions between human and nonhuman characters that express a particular concern regarding nature and the environment in Oscar Wilde's four fairy tales in A House of Pomegranates. The author utilizes a significant number of nonhuman characters to communicate with humans, which is a fairy-tale convention in which truth wins over falsehood, kindness is rewarded, and virtue triumphs over evil. However, Wilde's stories move beyond the fairy tale convention based on their ecocritical and political viewpoints. Based on a close reading of the four tales in Wilde's book, the thesis argues that the involvement of nonhuman characters, and their participation in events with human figures, raises several ecocritical matters. It also contends that nonhuman characters display interest in guiding human characters in their transformational journeys to support them in understanding that they all share one Earth and must be concerned about all species, nature, and the environment. Finally, this study argues that nonhuman characters communicate and talk mostly for their and nature’s rights, but sometimes they represent Victorians’ society. The analysis highlights the depth of the ecocritical approaches and how they are expressed in the texts. In addition, the discussions shed light on Victorian ecocriticism, including some theories and ideas of Anthropomorphism and Anthropocentrism within animal studies and transformation, which complete the analysis.