Removing the Slash: Man-in-Nature as a Form of Magic Realism in Mary Oliver's Poetry

One of the basic issues in ecocritical studies is the relationship between man and nature. It may be seen as a bidirectional discourse: man-in-nature and nature-in-man. The former that considers man just an element of the natural world makes way for several novel apprehensions of this world and the potentials it may provide for man's ontological beliefs about this long-manipulated part of human existence. One such apprehension is the magic realism view of nature as envisaged by German art historian and critic Franz Roh (1890-1965). Roh's original form of magic realism has paved the way for re-valuating the perspectives to cultural, artistic and literary criticism, for its essence is looking at things anew. The characteristics provided by Roh for the magic realism text well apply to the poetic production of American poet Mary Oliver (1935-2019) who could open her readers' eyes to the magic elements in the natural world. For five decades, Oliver, the winner of several renowned prizes such as the Pulitzer Prize (1984) and the National Book Award (1992), could highlight the benefits of being in-nature through the achievement of a form of oneness with it. This study is an attempt to explore Oliver's adoption of Roh's concept of magic realism which may change man's attitude to the natural world from one of subjugation to a form of respect and preservation. To reach her goal, she could manipulate three strategies: reversal of categories, indistinction, and defocalization.
 
Keywords Man-in-nature, Magic realism, Mary Oliver, Franz Roh, defocalization