“Being kind toward everything alive”: Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic in Richard Powers’ Bewilderment

Encouraging a transformative perspective that nurtures a harmonious bond between humans and Nature has been the most important concern in ecocriticism and among its proponents. One enduring concept throughout human history, and the subject of harsh criticism in this regard, is “anthropocentrism”, which prioritizes human welfare over nature. Aldo Leopold’s “land ethic” theory vehemently rejects this human-centered stance and advocates for the moral inclusion of non-human natural beings in all human-made decisions about nature. In this light, as a literary call to active environmentalism, Richard Powers’ Bewilderment (۲۰۲۱) directly challenges anthropocentric ideologies by arguing for environmental equity and underscoring the inherent worth of all living entities. Drawing upon the anthropocosmic ethical approach of the “land ethic” theory, this study adopts an interdisciplinary approach to question anti-environmental behaviors that build upon the so-called anthropocentric human supremacy over non-humans. It argues that Bewilderment vividly criticizes the ethos of industrialized societies that exploit the Earth for immediate gain, ignoring the long-term consequences of anthropocentrism and degrading the natural rights of animals as co-architects of the human realm.

کلیدواژه ها:

Aldo Leopold ، anthropocentrism ، Bewilderment ، land ethic ، Richard Powers