Saudi Cultural Missions Theses & Dissertations
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://drepo.sdl.edu.sa/handle/20.500.14154/10
Browse
2 results
Search Results
Item Restricted Environmental Injustices in Robinson Jeffers’s and Denise Levertov’s Ecopoetry(University of Birmingham, 2025) AlRowisan, Amal Ali M; Holmes, John; Zimbler, Jarad; Wood, SaraThis thesis explores critiques of environmental injustices in the poetry of Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962) and Denise Levertov (1923-1997). The anthropocentrism typical of American culture constantly imposes hierarchal division and underestimation of otherness which cause injustices to people and nonhumans. In urban, war, and natural environments, the poets investigate the impact of modernity, imperialism, and environmental degradation on changing environmental conditions and ecological wholeness. Jeffers and Levertov establish in their poetry a shared trajectory where they start with a description of injustices and their destructive impacts, progress towards a condemnation of the politics behind these injustices, and propose alternative ecological values. In their trajectories of critique across these three contexts, their poetry attempts to bridge the divide between the city and nature, between the Americans and the Vietnamese, and between humans and nonhumans. It provides a model for the reconstruction of anthropocentrism toward ecological relations of integrity. Their poetry reveals situations of the environmental ‘unconscious’ and attempts to draw a vision of environmental imagination and justice. Chapter 1 of the thesis registers Jeffers’s response to modernity. It explores his presentation of the city as a centre for accumulating change and corruption that separates man from nature. He presents the struggle of presence within the confinement of urbanization, mechanization, and rapid changes against human instinctual freedom and cultural values, a crisis he resists with his philosophy of Inhumanism. Instead, he urges a withdrawal to nature where he affirms in the landscape timeless and holistic values as contrasting models to human values. Chapter 2 investigates Levertov’s account of the Vietnam War as breeding violence and destruction to people's safety and emotional wellness. She presents victimization, loss, and emotional stasis which she supports with her political poetry of resistance. She encourages empathy, solidarity, and the need to maintain safety for others. Chapter 3 traces the poets’ presentations of exploitation, destruction, and cruelty to land and animals in their poetry. In the poems, both poets point out nonhuman forces that wrestle with humanity's injustices which they represent through myth and figuration. In their presentation of nonhumans, they highlight existing ideologies that underestimate nonhumans and seek in their poetry to affirm nonhuman agency and consciousness. In my investigation of their critique of injustices, my thesis draws on recent developments and turns of ecocriticism. It reframes the poets’ critiques through Environmental Justice theory, looking at human alienation in the city, the victimization of people in the Vietnam War, the exploitation of lands, and the cruelty to animals as environmental injustices. Under these thematic discussions, my thesis analyses the affective forces that emerge in response to injustices across these contexts. Jeffers’s presentation of the hopelessness of people in the city, Levertov’s depiction of the victimized emotions in Vietnam, and their presentation of nonhuman struggle in the degraded environments underscore the poets’ awareness of the notion of interdependency in the universe. The thesis also demonstrates the material forces of nonhumans that wrestle with human denial of them and affirm their existence instead. These recent developments in ecocriticism, which resonate with the poets’ critiques, elucidate the fundamental dynamics of existence and challenge the anthropocentric ideology that fosters such injustices.29 0Item Restricted A CASE STUDY OF SAUDI ARABIA AND THE CLIMATE IMPACTS ON FOOD(University of East Anglia (UEA), 2024) Abdulrahman, Rahiq; Vaughan, NaomiThe agricultural practices and regional variations play significant roles in food (crop) production in Saudi Arabia. The difficulties arise in agricultural practices, which emphasise the main focus on different conditions associated with Saudia Arabia. The research study aimed to analyse the impact of climate change on food (crops) in Saudia Arabia and other countries from which Saudi Arabia imports. The study explored the effects of climatic change on food in Saudi Arabia and other countries. The research study adopted a secondary quantitative approach where different databases were used for gathering the most significant information. These databases consist of “The Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC), the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) and the Climate Change Knowledge Portal (CCKP)”. The variable selected for this research study primarily is the “Average Mean Surface Air Temperature.” The results of the research study depicted that climatic change has a significant impact on the production of crops. The top harvested crop of the country is palm dates, with a production of around 15 million tonnes, followed by the production of watermelon, wheat, tomatoes, potatoes, cucumbers, and gherkins. The country's HRI sector has been largely dependent on food product imports in order to meet the 70% ingredient need. In conclusion, food and nutrition were found to be the major aspects in this study especially for Saudi Arabia because of its confined agricultural resources. These limitations are because of climatic change, land fertility and low efficiency in food staples. The production of agriculture and trade is highly significant but can fluctuate more effectively from one year to the next because of variations in different factors in Saudi Arabia.40 0