Title:
THE VOICE OF THE FOREST: AN ECOCRITICAL AND ANTHROPOCENE PERSPECTIVE ON NATURE, POWER, AND HUMAN IMPACT IN MALEFICENT

Authors:
Taif Abdulridha Raheemah and Ahmed Rahi Alhelal, Iraq

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.