Ecocriticism is, according to Associate for the Study of Literature and the Environment (ASLE), the study of the relationship between literary and cultural artifacts and the natural environment. It is reflective—and thus constructive and it focuses on making connections and finding boundaries
Estok argues that ecocriticism is more than “simply the study of Nature or natural things in literature; rather, it is any theory that is committed to effecting change by analyzing the function–thematic, artistic, social, historical, ideological, theoretical, or otherwise–of the natural environment, or aspects of it, represented in documents (literary or other) that contribute to material practices in material worlds” (“Shakespeare and Ecocriticism” 16-17). (wiki)
The 1998 collection entitled Reading the Earth goes a bit further and is more specific in the matter of ethical commitment. As Michael P. Branch et al explain,
Implicit (and often explicit) in much of this new criticism is a call for cultural change. Ecocriticism is not just a means of analyzing nature in literature; it implies a move toward a more biocentric world-view, an extension of ethics, a broadening of humans' conception of global community to include nonhuman life forms and the physical environment. Just as feminist and African American literary criticism call for a change in culture--that is, they attempt to move the culture toward a broader world-view by exposing an earlier narrowness of view--so too does ecological literary criticism advocate for cultural change by examining how the narrowness of our culture's assumptions about the natural world has limited our ability to envision an ecologically sustainable human society. (xiii)
As Jonathan Levin succinctly observes, "nature and culture are mutually entangled in complex and inherently elusive ways": "Letter," PMLA 114.5 (October 1999): 1098.
In their introduction to The Ecocriticism Reader, Glotfelty and Fromm describe the ecocritical approach: “. . . All ecological criticism shares the fundamental premise that human culture is connected to the physical world, affecting it and affected by it. Ecocriticism takes as its subject the interconnections between nature and culture, specifically the cultural artifacts of languages and literature, As a critical stance, it has one foot in literature and the other on land; as a theoretical discourse, it negotiates between the human and the non-human.”
“When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect.” – Aldo Leopold A sand country almanac (1968) p.viii
Types of Questions Asked:
- What is the role of the landscape in this piece?
- Are the values presented (explicitly or implicitly) ecologically sound?
- How is Nature represented in the piece? What does nature mean?
- How does humanity affect nature? Vice versa?
- Is the representation of nature gendered? Does gender affect one’s interpretation/experience of nature?
- How does capitalism/politics interact with, respond to, and use nature?
Subfields of particular interest:
Feminist Ecocriticism—focus on the primacy of sex/gender differences over Nature, which is the central category of their analysis, domination of women and environment, (and hopefully other marginalized peoples)
Animals—often used to demarcate the difference between humans and non-humane Nature, animal rights
Gardens, Landscapes, Geography—representations of the Natural world are used to draw a connection between the individual and the external world, politicized landscapes and how these landscapes come to adopt a national identity from which to define the self and other (the West)
Nature Writing— Nature writing to reconnect us experientially to the Earth as a whole. Nature writing and photography engage us emotionally, aesthetically and cognitively and enlist us in the great cause of caring for the Earth. (from SavingtheEarth.net)
see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nature_writing for list of authors
Groups
ASLE: Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment
http://www.asle.org/site/home/
The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE, pronounced "AZ-lee") is a dynamic community of teachers, writers, students, artists and environmentalists interested in the natural world and its meanings and representations in language and culture. ASLE seeks to facilitate interdisciplinary and innovative approaches to the study of nature and culture through forms such as nature writing, art, ecocritical scholarship, pedagogy, science writing, poetry, music creative writing, and film, among other forms. Whether you are new to the field, a seasoned professional, or just interested in people’s relationships with the natural world, ASLE welcomes you.
Western Literature Association
The purpose of the Western Literature Association is to foster and to promote the study of the literature and culture of the American West in all its varied aspects. This subject includes the literature of the American frontier in any region of the United States, the literature of the Trans-Mississippi United States, and the literatures of other nations sharing the frontier experience, especially Canada and Mexico. Since its founding, the Association has served to publish scholarship focused on these areas; it has gathered together scholars, artists, environmentalists, and community leaders who value the West’s literary and cultural contributions to American and world cultures; it has recognized those who have made a major contribution to western literature and western studies; and it has fostered student learning and career advancement in education.
Environmental Studies Association of Canada
The Environmental Studies Association of Canada (ESAC) is a Learned Society formed in 1993 to further research and teaching activities in areas related to environmental studies in Canada. ESAC is a non-profit, federally incorporated, bilingual organization open to members from across Canada and elsewhere. Members are welcome from educational institutions, government agencies, and private sector and non-profit organizations.
ESAC members are primarily (though not exclusively) interested in social science and humanities approaches to environmental issues and problems. Obviously, there is a Canadian bias to what we do. However, our interests are broad-ranging. Currently they include the following:
Critical environmentalism; environmental thought; ecofeminism; deep ecology; social ecology; environmental education and communication; biological conservation; natural and environmental history; human ecology; environmental ethics; risk policy and perception; environmental policy and law; social movements and political ecology; environmental sociology and psychology; native studies; animal rights and welfare; environmental justice; technology and cultural studies; gender, labour, race and the environment; international development; sustainability and development; public participation; ecocriticism; and environmental literature.
Books
The Culture of Nature by Alexander Wilson
Ecocriticism by Greg Garrard (2004)
The Country and the City by Raymond Williams
Nature Writing: The Tradition in English, Eds. Robert Finch and John Elder
The Ecocriticism Reader, Eds. Cheryll Glofelty and Harold Fromm
The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture by Lawrence Buell
Ecopoetry: Critical Introduction by Scott Bryson
American Indian Literature, Environmental Justice, and Ecocritism: The Middle Place by Joni Adamson
Writing the Environment: Ecocriticism and Literature by Richard Kerridge and Neil Sammells
Reading under the Sign of Ecocritisism: New Essays in Ecocritism, Eds. John Tallmadge and Henry Harrington
Beyond Nature Writing: Expanding the Boundaries of Ecocriticism, Eds. Karla Armbruster and Kathleen R. Wallace
The Future of Environmental Criticism: Environmental Crisis and Literary Imagination by Lawrence Buell
The Greening of Literary Scholarship: Literature, Theory, and the Environment, Ed. Steven Rosendale
Wilderness and the American Mind by Roderick Nash
La ecocrítica hoy by Walter Rojas Perez
Articles
"Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism," Iowa Review 9.1 (Winter 1978)
“Recent Ecocritical Studies of English Renaissance Literature.” English
Literary Renaissance 37.1 (Feb. 2007).
Ecocriticism and Education for Sustainability. Garrard Pedagogy. 2007; 7: 359-383
O’Sullivan, Maurice. “Ecocriticism (and its Discontents).” The International Journal of the Humanities. Vol. 5 (6), 119-124.
Raber, Karen. “Recent Ecocritical Studies of English Renaissance Literature.” English Literary Renaissance 37.1 (Feb. 2007). 24 February 2009
<http://www.asle.org/site/resources/ecocritical-library/intro/>
Journals-Magazines
ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment
http://isle.oxfordjournals.org/
Description from the website:
The existence of ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment reflects the rapid growth of ecological literary criticism and environmental scholarship in related disciplines in the United States and around the world in recent years, which in turn reflects the steady increase in the production of environmental literature over the past several decades and the increased visibility of such writing in college classrooms.
The Journal of Ecocriticism
http://ojs.unbc.ca/index.php/joe
Description from site:
The Journal of Ecocriticism is an electronic review of ecoliterature and ecocriticism. It invites manuscripts that address any issue related to these topics. The JoE aims to stimulate the further intellectual development of ecocriticism within the international community of scholars in the field.
ORION: People and Nature
Description from the website:
“America’s finest environmental magazine” (Boston Globe) is an influential forum for re-imagining humanity’s relationship to nature, culture, and place, featuring America’s foremost writers and artists.
Western American Literature:
Description:
Jointly published by the Western Literature Association and Utah State University, Western American Literature is the leading journal in western American literary studies. Always iconoclastic, Western American Literature published some of the first essays on now celebrated writers such as D'Arcy McNickle, Wallace Stegner, and Terry Tempest Williams, critical essays by N. Scott Momaday and Rudolfo Anaya, and influential early essays on ecocriticism. The journal now focuses broadly on western culture, each issue including reproductions of western images—paintings, photography, film stills, botanical and survey drawings, maps, murals—to offer a cultural context for the essays. In addition to theoretical pieces based on cultural geography, new western history, and environmental writing, recent issues include essays on traditional western favorites such as Edward Abbey and John Muir, new western figures such as Cormac McCarthy, American Indian writers, and African American writers and filmmakers as well as on the Hispanic Literary Recovery Project.
Prominent Academic Programs (source ASLE):
- Antioch University New England: Environmental Studies
- University of California, Davis: English
- University of Montana, Missoula: Environmental Studies, Environmental Writing Institute
- University of Nevada, Reno: English, Academy for the Environment
- University of Oregon, Eugene: English (Ecocriticism at the University of Oregon),Environmental Studies
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