THE VOICE OF THE FOREST: AN ECOCRITICAL AND ANTHROPOCENE
PERSPECTIVE ON NATURE, POWER, AND HUMAN IMPACT IN MALEFICENT
الباحث الأول:
Taif Abdulridha Raheemah
الباحثين الآخرين:
Ahmed Rahi Alhelal*
المجلة:
International Journal of Education Humanities and Social Science
تاريخ النشر:
21 أكتوبر، 2024
مختصر البحث:
ABSTRACT
The movie Maleficent by director Robert Stromberg in 2014 is a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty
story with a strong ecological message. The storyline and the visual components of the movie are
allegorical to the environment and tell of t…
ABSTRACT
The movie Maleficent by director Robert Stromberg in 2014 is a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty
story with a strong ecological message. The storyline and the visual components of the movie are
allegorical to the environment and tell of the concerns of the Anthropocene that resulted from
human-induced destruction of ecosystems through industrialization deforestation and species
extinction. Maleficent, as she transforms from a protector of nature into a vengeful and, later,
reconciliatory being personifies the results brought about by the exploitation of the natural world.
When analyzed through ecocritical views, nature stars in the film act as a stimulus to criticize the
patriarchal dominance exercised on women and their world. The maternity that links Maleficent
to Aurora is a message not only about the role of nature in nurturing but the way humanity should
act as the guardian of the Earth for future generations. Maleficent represents the politics of much
newer environmental movements concerned with conserving and sustaining the ecologies through
the prisms of eco-feminism and the Anthropocene, that is, considering the complex interactions of
power, nature, and humanity. The film, in sum, offers a vision of reconciliation as a balance
between mankind and nature as a condition for re-establishing an ecologically wholesome
relationship in times of environmental crises.
Keywords: Anthropocene, Ecocriticism, Ecofeminism, Environmental Allegory, Nature-human
Reconciliation.
