Forests and the creative ego in British and American literature
Trees and forests are fundamental sources of life for humanbeings from the old time. From the historical viewpoint the traditional green place of Britain and USA had been exposed to more and more devastation because of enterance to modern industrial age. The British traditional rural and pastoral society had been alive in the senses of people and been full in the soul of them, but social ill effects and harms due to more and more hyper-development of scientific and technological civilization was beyond people’s imagination. Such dangerous phenomena caused crisis of mankinds and would-be-fall of human civilization, and led to critical reflection of modern civilization among awaken intellects and their reflections became more and more heightend.
The sharp insights of nine writers in this book-Forests and the creative ego in British and American literature- deserve to attention. They looked deep into the importance and worth of trees and forests for preservation and continuation of lives of humanbeings and other living things, plants or animals and realized the great value of them for the true consciousness and creative soul other than else. Their higher and excellent sensibility and spirituality towards to trees and forests in their writings are worthy that today’s readers need to re-experience. It is because traditional profound green trees and forests in the British and American writers in this book can awake the empty and lacking state of soul of today’s people.
Jo, Il-Jae PhD. emeritus professor
the Department of English Education Teacher’s College PNU
(2021.7.22.)