Ecopoetic and Eco-Narratological Textual Analysis of Poems and Short Stories Published in Dagmay, a Mindanao Literary Journal (2020–2025)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22589056Keywords:
ecopoetics, eco-narratology, Dagmay, Mindanaoan literature, climate narratives, climate pedagogyAbstract
This study examined how climate-themed poems and short stories published in Dagmay, a Mindanao literary journal, construct environmental meaning through literary form. Using a qualitative descriptive-interpretive textual design grounded in ecocriticism, ecopoetics, and eco-narratology, the study analyzed a criterion-based purposive corpus of 15 texts published from 2020 to 2025, consisting of 10 poems and five short stories by Mindanaoan writers. Repeated close reading, genre-specific coding, human–environment relationship coding, cross-genre synthesis, literature comparison, and researcher reflexivity were used to develop the interpretations. The poems generated ecological meaning primarily through imagery, metaphor, sound and rhythm, symbolism, personification, and related formal features that rendered land, water, heat, storms, flooding, and nonhuman life as sensory, affective, and ethical experience. The short stories organized ecological uncertainty through plot, focalization, temporality, spatiality, narrative voice, and storyworld construction. Across genres, human–environment relationships emerged as relations of sustenance, threat, interdependence, vulnerability, agency, and adaptation. Four cross-genre patterns were especially prominent: environmental agency, continuous disruption, affect and embodiment, and adaptive survival. These findings informed an Ecopoetic–Eco-Narratological Framework for Teaching Climate Narratives that connects close reading, ecological reflection, contextual connection, and student production of climate narratives. The study demonstrates the value of Dagmay as a regional literary archive for ecocriticism, Mindanao literary studies, and locally grounded climate pedagogy.
Downloads
References
About Dagmay. (n.d.). Dagmay.online. Retrieved September 12, 2025, from https://dagmay.online/about-dagmay/
Akpedonu, E., & Saloma-Akpedonu, C. (2022). Urbanism and settlements in Mindanao: Centering the built environment in Mindanao history, culture, and society. Archīum Ateneo. https://archium.ateneo.edu/fine-arts-faculty-pubs/29/
Albrecht, G. (2022). Earth emotions: New words for a new world. Cornell University Press.
Delgado-Serrano, L., et al. (2023). Resilience and indigenous knowledge: A systematic review of community-based adaptation to climate change. Global Environmental Change, 82, 102693.
D’Orto, E. (2025). Narrativity and climate change education: Design of an analytical matrix. Sustainability, 17(4), 1587. https://doi.org/10.3390/su17041587
Espina, R. (2020). Ecology and identity in Lumad narratives. Xavier University Press.
Galway, L. P., Beery, T., Jones-Casey, K., & Tasala, K. (2019). Mapping the solastalgia literature: A scoping review study. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 16(15), 2662. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16152662
Garrard, G. (2012). Ecocriticism (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Glotfelty, C., & Fromm, H. (1996). The ecocriticism reader: Landmarks in literary ecology. University of Georgia Press.
Hindhede, K. M. (2024). Integrating EcoJustice pedagogy with social justice pedagogy in children’s literature courses. Cogent Education, 11(1), Article 2344376. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2024.2344376
Jacoba, R. C. (2025). Sacred ties to ancestral land: Reclaiming indigenous practices in environmental stewardship in the Cordillera. Media: Jurnal Filsafat Dan Teologi, 6(1), 1–30. https://doi.org/10.53396/media.v6i1.519
Lord, C. (2024). Hope in the fractures: Mary Oliver’s ecopoetics of attention. Comparative American Studies: An International Journal, 21(3–4), 184–203. https://doi.org/10.1080/14775700.2024.2443257
Loreto, P. (2025). Resilience of vulnerability: Writing as misreading, inquiry, and survival in contemporary ecopoetics. ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1093/isle/isaf007
Marschütz, B., Bremer, S., Runhaar, H., Hegger, D., Mees, H., Vervoort, J., & Wardekker, A. (2020). Local narratives of change as an entry point for building urban climate resilience. Climate Risk Management, 100223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.crm.2020.100223
McCaffery, J., & Boetto, H. (2024). Eco-emotional responses to climate change: A scoping review of social work literature. The British Journal of Social Work, 55(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcae129
Morton, T. (2013). Hyperobjects: Philosophy and ecology after the end of the world. University of Minnesota Press.
Myren-Svelstad, P. E. (2024). Exploring poetry in dialogue: Learning as sustainable development in the literary classroom. ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, 31(3), 672–693. https://doi.org/10.1093/isle/isad003
Nixon, R. (2011). Slow violence and the environmentalism of people experiencing poverty. Harvard University Press.
Ortiz, G. S. (2021). Reclaiming the forest: The poetics of survival in Manobo chants. Mindanao Journal of Letters, 15(1), 78–90.
Ryan, J. C. (2016). Planting the eco-humanities? Climate change, poetic narratives, and botanical lives. Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 8(3), 61–70. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v8n3.08
Sta. Ana, M. (2023). The T’boli weavers’ lament: Ecocritical readings of traditional art and climate change. University of the Philippines Press.
Weik von Mossner, A. (2017). Affective ecologies: Empathy, emotion, and environmental narrative. The Ohio State University Press.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
How to Cite
