An ethological-hydrographic reading of the ecological literacies of selected Philippine ecopoems in English

This paper examines five Philippine ecopoems written in English published in the anthology “Sustaining the Archipelago: An Anthology of Philippine Ecopoetry” (2017). It provides special emphasis on the ecopoems dealing with animal representations, behavioral processes, and water shedding light on their agencies and symbolic representations from the purview of material ecocriticism. The ethological approach to the ecopoems displays the loquacious nature of the consciousness of the animals. This is a means of highlighting the dynamism of their orientations and dispositions that can also be instrumental in framing the ecologies of connections and disconnections transpiring within the human and non-human realms. The hydrographic reading of the poems captures how the ecocritical tendencies of the poets provide a representation and poetic appraisal of the ecological, symbolic, and cultural significance of water in the Philippine ecopoetic locale. These readings offer an intensified and specific view of the intricacies of the non-human entities that also comprise the layers and factions of life in the biosphere. The analysis also considered the ecological literacies of the poets as they give their readers an understanding of the particularities of our biology. This paper leans on the ideas of material ecocriticism expounded by Serpil Oppermann and Serenella Iovino.