| Budget Amount *help |
¥2,740,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000)
Fiscal Year 2007: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000)
Fiscal Year 2006: ¥800,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000)
Fiscal Year 2005: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
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| Research Abstract |
This research has evaluated the environmental thoughts of John Ruskin (1819-1900) and William Morris (1834-96), investigating their contributions to ecocriticism which is now considered as one of the most important scholarships in the humanities.
Our research in the first year (2005) focused on the earlier studies on the theme in order to make a conceptual diagram of the relations between the Romantic poets in Britain and Ruskin and Morris in terms of environmentalism. The second year (2006) treated the Guild of St George, a utopian agricultural community which Ruskin tried to realize, considering what particular ideas or concepts could be found in terms of nature and environment. Moreover, we investigated Morris's attitude towards environment and nature through his lectures and essays on decorative arts. The last year (2007) has concentrated on how both their discourses and practices have influenced later generations to foster the development of ecocriticism.
Ruskin's practices of the Guild of St George and his writings, including Fors Cravigera, in which he depicted the idea of the Guild, could be valued, along with The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century, a warning of environmental deterioration caused by Industrialisation, as one of the most important aspects of his various works. We have also confirmed that Morris conceptualized his version of arts as connected with, and never to be separated from, ecological thinking, which had been influenced, in its turn, by the writings of Ruskin and the Romantic poets he had been steeped in at an early age. It could be said that the water channel of "Romantic ecology" entered a radical phase with the ideas and practices of Morris the artistic socialist. Thus, this research confirmed the places of Ruskin and Morris as vital sources of contemporary ecocriticism.
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