The new Coronavirus pandemic has mainly been addressed as a health and economic challenge. Beyond these, this article conveys that, concerns regarding the new Coronavirus outbreak are deeply emmeshed with the critical matters of environmental contamination, and the need for sustainable engagements. Therefore, corona viruses as hyper-objects shed light about the environment and what it means to be human and non-human in a world of constant viral configurations which intertwine with the well-being of local and distant places, people, animals and bionetworks. Using an interdisciplinary frame of Material Ecocriticism, this article questions the idea of over consumption for profit, and the consequences of technological advancement, by circumscribing the extent to which every living creature whether human, fungus, and bacterium communicate statements of porosity, interdependence and annihilation.
In scrutinising the complexities of present-day pandemic world, the humanities, environmental arts, sciences and related disciplines play a huge part to shed light on the impact humans and other bodily agencies have upon the earth, where the new Coronavirus disease has created a problematic path on the endangered world. Studies have revealed that the new Coronavirus disruptions have led to health conditions such as fever, cough, pneumonia, acute cardiac worry and death. It has also translated to widespread job losses, decline of economic and a great deal of uncertainty attached to the scale of the pandemic. Despite these, not so much have been mentioned about Covid-19 as an environmental disquiet, apart from the report that, pollution and greenhouse gas emission have plunged across continents as industries, transport systems, and businesses were closed down to curtail the spread of the new Coronavirus and death rate. This article stirs the dire necessity for environmental reflections and the renewed call for humans to take fundamental steps towards a sustainable relationship with non-human agencies, animal bodies, and other materiality. This finds support in Pramod K. Nayar’s statement that “microbes, spaces, and interactions blend together… a contradictory but compelling story of the perils of human interdependence and connection. Our bodies, communities, even nation- of which we are so proud and which we police based on ethnic, racial and other identities are not bounded, guarded entities. We are all porous” (https://www.academia.edu).
Imagining Coronavirus
According to Cheng-wei Lu et al, Corona viruses (CoVs) are so-called for the crown-like spikes on their surface and belong to the family Coronaviridae. Coronavirus broadly infect vertebrates, including humans, bats, birds, snakes, mice and other wild animals (https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30313-5). Until 2019, only six human Coronaviruses (HCoVs) were known that could be held responsible for respiratory diseases. Shajeea Arshad Ali et al, explains that, out of these four (HCoV-229E, OC43, NL63, and HKU1) are endemic globally and are the causative agents for 10%-30% of the upper respiratory infections. The other two, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona virus (SARS- COV) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona virus (MERS COV) are known to infect the lower respiratory tract (https://pdf.sciencedirectassests.com/277405). In 2002, a pandemic of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) occurred endangering the lives of 8098 individuals with a mortality rate of 774 patients and the epicentre of the disease was Guangdong, China, from where it spread internationally to more than twelve countries it was assumed that bats were the natural hosts (Shajeea Arshad Ali et al). In 2012, a rapid-spreading infection MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) emerged in Saudi Arabia and bats were considered to be the natural hosts and the intermediate host was dromedary camels. A total of 2494 cases with 858 deaths were reported.
There are diverse aspects to how the new Coronavirus/Covid-19 actually originated. Some are of the opinion; that it began with bats and then got into humans. Some argue that, just as SARS (moved from bats to other animals, and then to humans, Covid-19 progressed from bats to another animal possibly pangolin then into persons. This could be the case in China market in Wuhan where exotic animals such as pangolins are traded. Other reservations have risen that the virus escaped from a research laboratory in December, 2019, in Wuhan Hubei Province of China and the virus is transmitted by close-person to person contact, aerosol transmission, and transmission by touch as mentioned by Yongshi Yang et al:
The virus is thought to be transmitted to other people by respiratory during coughing or sneezing. Droplet spread can occur when an infected person sneezes or coughs, where upon virus containing droplets are propelled up to 3 feet through the air and are deposited on the mucous membranes of the mouth, nose or eyes of persons who are nearby. The other avenues for the spread of the virus are shaking hands with an infected person, touching an infected object/surface, frequent touching of the nose or mouth or coming into contact with patients’ excreta. Another avenue is through “hidden transmission” in which asymptomatic infected individuals or carriers unknowingly transmit the virus to unsuspecting contacts. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaut.2020.102434)
Nonetheless, not minding how the new Coronavirus ensued, writers, scientists, environmental scholars, and specialists are of the opinion that its impact are determined by the environment in which they exist and subsist. For example, those who dwell in highly contaminated environments, degraded habitats, and regions are likely going to play key role in the proliferation of the Corona virus. Using Material eco-criticism as an analytical tool explains how cultural practices such as ravaging appetite for animals, species and non-human bodies have led to the worrisome outcome of Corona virus infection on people and the contamination of the earth.
Material ecocriticism as analytical tool
Ecocriticism is an interdisciplinary study which calls for collaboration between natural scientists, writers, physicists, literary critics, anthropologists, historians, and more. Ecocriticism requests humans to examine themselves and the world around by critiquing the way humans represent, interact with, and construct the environment. Ecocriticism has significantly broadened into other aspects such as postcolonial eco-criticism, material eco-criticism and eco-feminism with renowned advocates such as Lawrence Buell and Cheryll Glotfelty, Simon C. Estok, Harold Fromm, William Howarth, William Rueckert, Scott Slovic, Michael P. Branch, and Glen A. Love.
Material Ecocriticism is the study of ways material forms-bodies, things, elements, toxic substances, chemicals, organic and inorganic matter, landscapes and biological entities- intra-act with each other and with the human dimension, producing configurations of meanings and discourses that we can interpret as stories. According to Iovino and Oppermannn, Material Ecocriticism conveys a distributive vision of agency, the emergent nature of the world’s phenomena, the awareness that we inhabit a dimension crisscrossed by vibrant forces that hybridise human and nonhuman matter and finally the persuasion that matter and meaning constitute the fabric of our storied world are the basic premises of material ecocriticism. Explaining further in “Material Ecocriticism: Materiality, Agency and Models of Narrativity” Iovino and Oppermann state that:
Material ecocriticism encompasses both human material discursive constructions and non-human things: water, soil, stones, metals, minerals, bacteria, toxins, food, electricity, cells, atoms, all cultural objects and places. The characteristic feature of these material configurations is that they are not made of single elements, isolated from each other. Rather, they form complexes both natural and cultural, and in many cases human agency and meanings are deeply interlaced with the emerging agency and meaning of these non-human beings (83).
In connection, Timothy Morton puts it that, all forms of life are connected in a vast entangling mesh. This interconnectedness penetrates all dimensions of life. This elucidates how global and local, rural and urban places share a vulnerability of what Ulrich Beck illustrates when he states:
Threats from civilisation are bringing about a kind of new shadow kingdom comparable to the realm of the gods and demons in antiquity, which is hidden behind the visible world and threatens human life on their earth. People no longer correspond today with spirits residing in things but find themselves exposed to “radiation”, “ingest toxic levels” and are pursued into their very dreams by the anxiety of a nuclear holocaust…. Dangerous hostile substances lie concealed behind the harmless facades. Everything must be viewed with a double gaze, and can only be correctly understood and judged through this doubling. The world of the visible must be investigated, relativized with respect to a second reality, only existent in thought and concealed in the world (72).
The above quote gives focus on how the modern world is continuously imperilled with toxic and radiological hazards and threats brought about by the unrelenting advancement in technology creating a world of ‘environmental politics of permeation’ (Nixon 63).
Coronavirus, hyperobjects and the ecological unease
The impact of meat-eating on the environment is significant. According to Joe Myers, “China eats over 28% of the world’s meat. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates that between 10 and 20 million dogs are killed in China for their meat annually, while Asia puts the figure for cats at around 4 million per year” (https://www.weforumorg). On this note, in the era of Coronavirus and internationally transmissible viruses, it has become apparent that viruses do not respect borders hence, the over consumption of non-human inhabitants such as pangolins, bats, dogs, cats and other species which harbour viruses triggered the Coronavirus pandemic. This brings to light the extent to which the permeability among bats, pangolins, cats and other creatures culminates in the subject of porous interfaces of all things as illuminated in Material Ecocriticism theory.
The contamination of the air and surroundings has been connected to the broader question of how Corona viruses as hyper-objects are transmitted over considerable distances to other places globally. In other words, there is a parallel between human activities, air pollution and the Coronavirus spread. To clarify the concept of hyper-objects, Morton describes “hyper-objects as agents, massively distributed in time and space and are relative to humans” (1). As hyper-objects, the Coronavirus pandemic stands out as a powerful non-human agency that resists human attempts to control its vivacity. Hence, Muecke puts it that, they are harbingers for a new epoch, assisted by the general consensus in relation to the anthropocene- the current epoch of human induced planetary change.
Conclusion
This article opens up the extent to which COVID 19 beyond health or economic challenge is a consequence of environmental abuse manifested in the fissure of human and non-human interface. In this regard, present-day human interference with the non-human world is disproportionate and the situation is deteriorating exceedingly with obliterations and annihilation activated by the new Corona virus infections. Thus, humankind’s day to day over exploitation of other bodies is getting complicated and in need of close attention. By deploying the views of material ecocritical theory, animal exploitation, overconsumption and subsequent eruption of the new Corona virus pandemic sheds light on human and nonhuman porosity hence, the necessity to check terrifying habits which relate to the manner humans exploit the environment and its inhabitants. So, policies must change to affect basic economies, and technological structures.
•Dr Joyce Onoromhenre Agofure
Fulbright Fellow, American Council of Learned Society (AHP) Fellow Lecturer, Department of English and Literary Studies, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.
The new Coronavirus pandemic has mainly been addressed as a health and economic challenge. Beyond these, this article conveys that, concerns regarding the new Coronavirus outbreak are deeply emmeshed with the critical matters of environmental contamination, and the need for sustainable engagements. Therefore, corona viruses as hyper-objects shed light about the environment and what it means to be human and non-human in a world of constant viral configurations which intertwine with the well-being of local and distant places, people, animals and bionetworks. Using an interdisciplinary frame of Material Ecocriticism, this article questions the idea of over consumption for profit, and the consequences of technological advancement, by circumscribing the extent to which every living creature whether human, fungus, and bacterium communicate statements of porosity, interdependence and annihilation.
In scrutinising the complexities of present-day pandemic world, the humanities, environmental arts, sciences and related disciplines play a huge part to shed light on the impact humans and other bodily agencies have upon the earth, where the new Coronavirus disease has created a problematic path on the endangered world. Studies have revealed that the new Coronavirus disruptions have led to health conditions such as fever, cough, pneumonia, acute cardiac worry and death. It has also translated to widespread job losses, decline of economic and a great deal of uncertainty attached to the scale of the pandemic. Despite these, not so much have been mentioned about Covid-19 as an environmental disquiet, apart from the report that, pollution and greenhouse gas emission have plunged across continents as industries, transport systems, and businesses were closed down to curtail the spread of the new Coronavirus and death rate. This article stirs the dire necessity for environmental reflections and the renewed call for humans to take fundamental steps towards a sustainable relationship with non-human agencies, animal bodies, and other materiality. This finds support in Pramod K. Nayar’s statement that “microbes, spaces, and interactions blend together… a contradictory but compelling story of the perils of human interdependence and connection. Our bodies, communities, even nation- of which we are so proud and which we police based on ethnic, racial and other identities are not bounded, guarded entities. We are all porous” (https://www.academia.edu).
Imagining Coronavirus
According to Cheng-wei Lu et al, Corona viruses (CoVs) are so-called for the crown-like spikes on their surface and belong to the family Coronaviridae. Coronavirus broadly infect vertebrates, including humans, bats, birds, snakes, mice and other wild animals (https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(20)30313-5). Until 2019, only six human Coronaviruses (HCoVs) were known that could be held responsible for respiratory diseases. Shajeea Arshad Ali et al, explains that, out of these four (HCoV-229E, OC43, NL63, and HKU1) are endemic globally and are the causative agents for 10%-30% of the upper respiratory infections. The other two, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Corona virus (SARS- COV) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona virus (MERS COV) are known to infect the lower respiratory tract (https://pdf.sciencedirectassests.com/277405). In 2002, a pandemic of SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) occurred endangering the lives of 8098 individuals with a mortality rate of 774 patients and the epicentre of the disease was Guangdong, China, from where it spread internationally to more than twelve countries it was assumed that bats were the natural hosts (Shajeea Arshad Ali et al). In 2012, a rapid-spreading infection MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) emerged in Saudi Arabia and bats were considered to be the natural hosts and the intermediate host was dromedary camels. A total of 2494 cases with 858 deaths were reported.
There are diverse aspects to how the new Coronavirus/Covid-19 actually originated. Some are of the opinion; that it began with bats and then got into humans. Some argue that, just as SARS (moved from bats to other animals, and then to humans, Covid-19 progressed from bats to another animal possibly pangolin then into persons. This could be the case in China market in Wuhan where exotic animals such as pangolins are traded. Other reservations have risen that the virus escaped from a research laboratory in December, 2019, in Wuhan Hubei Province of China and the virus is transmitted by close-person to person contact, aerosol transmission, and transmission by touch as mentioned by Yongshi Yang et al:
The virus is thought to be transmitted to other people by respiratory during coughing or sneezing. Droplet spread can occur when an infected person sneezes or coughs, where upon virus containing droplets are propelled up to 3 feet through the air and are deposited on the mucous membranes of the mouth, nose or eyes of persons who are nearby. The other avenues for the spread of the virus are shaking hands with an infected person, touching an infected object/surface, frequent touching of the nose or mouth or coming into contact with patients’ excreta. Another avenue is through “hidden transmission” in which asymptomatic infected individuals or carriers unknowingly transmit the virus to unsuspecting contacts. (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaut.2020.102434)
Nonetheless, not minding how the new Coronavirus ensued, writers, scientists, environmental scholars, and specialists are of the opinion that its impact are determined by the environment in which they exist and subsist. For example, those who dwell in highly contaminated environments, degraded habitats, and regions are likely going to play key role in the proliferation of the Corona virus. Using Material eco-criticism as an analytical tool explains how cultural practices such as ravaging appetite for animals, species and non-human bodies have led to the worrisome outcome of Corona virus infection on people and the contamination of the earth.
Material ecocriticism as analytical tool
Ecocriticism is an interdisciplinary study which calls for collaboration between natural scientists, writers, physicists, literary critics, anthropologists, historians, and more. Ecocriticism requests humans to examine themselves and the world around by critiquing the way humans represent, interact with, and construct the environment. Ecocriticism has significantly broadened into other aspects such as postcolonial eco-criticism, material eco-criticism and eco-feminism with renowned advocates such as Lawrence Buell and Cheryll Glotfelty, Simon C. Estok, Harold Fromm, William Howarth, William Rueckert, Scott Slovic, Michael P. Branch, and Glen A. Love.
Material Ecocriticism is the study of ways material forms-bodies, things, elements, toxic substances, chemicals, organic and inorganic matter, landscapes and biological entities- intra-act with each other and with the human dimension, producing configurations of meanings and discourses that we can interpret as stories. According to Iovino and Oppermannn, Material Ecocriticism conveys a distributive vision of agency, the emergent nature of the world’s phenomena, the awareness that we inhabit a dimension crisscrossed by vibrant forces that hybridise human and nonhuman matter and finally the persuasion that matter and meaning constitute the fabric of our storied world are the basic premises of material ecocriticism. Explaining further in “Material Ecocriticism: Materiality, Agency and Models of Narrativity” Iovino and Oppermann state that:
Material ecocriticism encompasses both human material discursive constructions and non-human things: water, soil, stones, metals, minerals, bacteria, toxins, food, electricity, cells, atoms, all cultural objects and places. The characteristic feature of these material configurations is that they are not made of single elements, isolated from each other. Rather, they form complexes both natural and cultural, and in many cases human agency and meanings are deeply interlaced with the emerging agency and meaning of these non-human beings (83).
In connection, Timothy Morton puts it that, all forms of life are connected in a vast entangling mesh. This interconnectedness penetrates all dimensions of life. This elucidates how global and local, rural and urban places share a vulnerability of what Ulrich Beck illustrates when he states:
Threats from civilisation are bringing about a kind of new shadow kingdom comparable to the realm of the gods and demons in antiquity, which is hidden behind the visible world and threatens human life on their earth. People no longer correspond today with spirits residing in things but find themselves exposed to “radiation”, “ingest toxic levels” and are pursued into their very dreams by the anxiety of a nuclear holocaust…. Dangerous hostile substances lie concealed behind the harmless facades. Everything must be viewed with a double gaze, and can only be correctly understood and judged through this doubling. The world of the visible must be investigated, relativized with respect to a second reality, only existent in thought and concealed in the world (72).
The above quote gives focus on how the modern world is continuously imperilled with toxic and radiological hazards and threats brought about by the unrelenting advancement in technology creating a world of ‘environmental politics of permeation’ (Nixon 63).
Coronavirus, hyperobjects and the ecological unease
The impact of meat-eating on the environment is significant. According to Joe Myers, “China eats over 28% of the world’s meat. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) estimates that between 10 and 20 million dogs are killed in China for their meat annually, while Asia puts the figure for cats at around 4 million per year” (https://www.weforumorg). On this note, in the era of Coronavirus and internationally transmissible viruses, it has become apparent that viruses do not respect borders hence, the over consumption of non-human inhabitants such as pangolins, bats, dogs, cats and other species which harbour viruses triggered the Coronavirus pandemic. This brings to light the extent to which the permeability among bats, pangolins, cats and other creatures culminates in the subject of porous interfaces of all things as illuminated in Material Ecocriticism theory.
The contamination of the air and surroundings has been connected to the broader question of how Corona viruses as hyper-objects are transmitted over considerable distances to other places globally. In other words, there is a parallel between human activities, air pollution and the Coronavirus spread. To clarify the concept of hyper-objects, Morton describes “hyper-objects as agents, massively distributed in time and space and are relative to humans” (1). As hyper-objects, the Coronavirus pandemic stands out as a powerful non-human agency that resists human attempts to control its vivacity. Hence, Muecke puts it that, they are harbingers for a new epoch, assisted by the general consensus in relation to the anthropocene- the current epoch of human induced planetary change.
Conclusion
This article opens up the extent to which COVID 19 beyond health or economic challenge is a consequence of environmental abuse manifested in the fissure of human and non-human interface. In this regard, present-day human interference with the non-human world is disproportionate and the situation is deteriorating exceedingly with obliterations and annihilation activated by the new Corona virus infections. Thus, humankind’s day to day over exploitation of other bodies is getting complicated and in need of close attention. By deploying the views of material ecocritical theory, animal exploitation, overconsumption and subsequent eruption of the new Corona virus pandemic sheds light on human and nonhuman porosity hence, the necessity to check terrifying habits which relate to the manner humans exploit the environment and its inhabitants. So, policies must change to affect basic economies, and technological structures.
•Dr Joyce Onoromhenre Agofure
Fulbright Fellow, American Council of Learned Society (AHP) Fellow Lecturer, Department of English and Literary Studies, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.