The Poet as an Eco-critic: A Reading of Alex Kodjovi Kangnivi’s The Blood, Echoes from Ancestral Lores

It is generally believed that literature gets inspiration from actual life. And the consciousness of living in a world constantly threatened by tremendous hazards such as global warming, with its fallouts, the fast melting of the glaciers, tsunami, floods among others, does not leave the poet indifferent. Taking Alex Kangnivi Kodjovi’s The Blood, Echoes from Ancestral Lores as its basis of analysis, this study examines the eco-critical drive of the poet who attempts to broaden the general understanding about the real dangers of the destruction of the environment and the subsequent irreversible consequences. Further, this study pinpoints the importance of involving everyone in the protection and preservation of the environment since it is a common heritage whose loss will spare no one. Resort to Eco-criticism in this study appears to be the most appropriate critical torchlight that helps reconsider the place of human beings in the destruction and conservation of the environment.

Keywords: Ecocriticism Environment Protection Poet Responsibility

Author

• Hodabalou Anate
  University of Lomé, Togo
  Department of English