Blurred Boundaries: An Ecocritical Study of Mary Zimmerman's Metamorphoses

Abstract

Ecocriticism is a critical approach which studies the relationship and interdependence of human beings and natural environment. It emerged in 1990s as a response to growing concerns towards environmental degradation and the impact of human activities on natural environment. The play Metamorphoses (1996) by Mary Zimmerman is theatrical adaptation of Ovid's classical myths. The play offers a rich source to analyse the theme of transformation and the nature- human relationship through ecological perspective. The paper explores and analyses the portrayal of nature and the link between nature and human actions. It depicts how human actions affect the ecological balances and challenges the anthropocentric approach towards nature. It studies the blurred boundaries between body and landscape, myth and ecology. The play depicts nature not as a backdrop but as an active agent in carving the identity and fate of characters through its language and repeated motifs like birds, animals and water. The paper highlights how the play ultimately invites a reconsideration of humanity's place within a dynamic and entangled natural world by accentuating transformation as both narrative device and an environmental metaphor.