PRECARIOUS ECOLOGIES FOR AN ECO-CRITICAL READING OF MEN, WOODS AND BEES

In recent studies concerning labour literature, the "precarious" form of the short story has been arguably considered as the most suitable for the representation of precarious work conditions. This contribution develops these studies in eco-critical directions by examining the collection Uomini, boschi e api (1980) by Mario Rigoni Stern. The collection, published at the end of the decade wherein the first environmental debates emerged, focuses on the precarious ecologies in which the human and nonhuman entities living in the mountain ecosystem of the Asiago region are constantly embedded. Exploring this microcosm, which industrial and touristic development put at risk, Rigoni Stern urges readers to re-think the ethical grounds of human-non-human relationships, toward the sustainable horizon of a circular economy.