Weathering the self : ecosophic spaces and subjectivities in Jane Urquhart's Changing Heaven

Abstract

This paper presents an ecocritical interpretation of Jane Urquhart's Changing Heaven (1990). In the past, nature's role in Canadian literature emphasised how ideas of wilderness have influenced national identity. The rise of ecocriticism in the 1990s challenges the formerly anthropocentric perspectives and investigates more intricate relationships between humans and the natural environment. This literary analysis utilises Félix Guattari's "The Three Ecologies," which proposes a complex framework recognising three overlapping and diverse ecological registers, in which the environment, social relations, and human subjectivity are interconnected. The ecocritical analysis of Urquhart's novel highlights the interconnectedness of the universe through ecological relationships among humans, nature, and ecosystems. The intersection of ecocriticism and ecosophy offers a compelling approach to the critical reading of Urquhart's work, highlighting the material and transformative nature of literature. The paper explores why Urquhart transliterates Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë's canonical novel, and how Changing Heaven opens a new path for Canadian ecocriticism.