Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: This study explores the relationship between nature and culture through an ecolinguistics analysis ofRobert Macfarlane’s Is a River Alive? The research examines how language shapes human perceptions of riversand the natural world. Using Arran Stibbe’s ecolinguistics model, the study investigates metaphors, framing,narrative strategies, and identity constructions to reveal how discourse can either support environmentaldestruction or promote ecological harmony. Macfarlane challenges the dominant anthropocentric view that treatsrivers as mere resources and instead presents them as living beings with memory, agency, and legal personhood.His use of metaphors such as “the river speaks” and “the river remembers” transforms rivers from objects intosubjects, encouraging readers to rethink the human–nature relationship. The book also highlights Indigenousworldviews, especially the Māori understanding of the Whanganui River as an ancestor, showing how legal andcultural systems can recognize rivers as persons with rights. This challenges Western dualisms such asnature/culture and subject/object. The study finds that Macfarlane’s narrative framing and poetic discourse createecological awareness by replacing destructive stories with beneficial “stories we live by.” His work demonstratesthat language is not neutral but a powerful ecological tool that can reshape environmental ethics and inspiresustainable thinking. Thus, Is a River Alive? serv
DOI: 10.66857/2761
Author: Author Contributor
Language: English
Subfield: Literature and Literary Theory
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7203824880