Bibliographic Essay
Greening the Library: The Fundamentals and Future of Ecocriticism
By Loretta Johnson lists worldwide, along with the creation of interdisciplinary academic faculty positions ver the last three decades, ecocriticism has emerged as a to teach them. Peter Barry added a chapter field of literary study that addresses how humans relate titled “Ecocriticism” to the second edition to nonhuman nature or the environment in literature. of his Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory, but Today, with the development and expansion of ecocritical correctly claims that ecocriticism has no Ostudies, any line between human and nonhuman nature universal model. Accordingly, he lists has necessarily blurred. So when subjected to ecocriticism, literature “what ecocritics do,” which includes read literature from an ecocentric point of view; of all periods and places—not only ecocentric or environmental apply ecological issues to the representation literature or nature writing, but all literature—is viewed in terms of of the natural world; focus on nonfiction and environmental writing that features “nature”; and show appreciation for ethical place, setting, and/or environment, from the Greek root oikos, means “house.” positions toward nonhuman nature. all of which have taken on richer TheOED cites the German oecologie as the Although of major importance to meaning. Ecocriticism poses a variety first appearance of “ecology” (in 1876), ecocritical studies, omitted from this of questions: Would a shift toward an meaning “the branch of biology that deals essay are works on environmental science, ecological perception of nature change with the relationships between living ecology, environmental history, ecological the ways humans inhabit the Earth? organisms and their environment.” Just as economics, and theology. Instead the essay Do authors impute certain values and “economy” is the management or law of focuses exclusively on the new practice make assumptions when they present the house (nomos = law), “ecology” is the in this area and includes only the most the environment and nonhuman life in study of the house. Ecocriticism, then, important works on the relationship their works? How does one avoid binary is the criticism of the “house,” i.e., the between culture and nature relative to oppositions, or should one perceive human environment, as represented in literature. ecocriticism. As a result, most of the works nature in an I/it or I/thou relationship? But the definition of “house,” oroikos , is discussed here are within the purview of A rapidly changing theoretical not simple. Questions remain: What is English and American literature studies approach, ecocriticism grows out of the environment? What is nature? Why and literary theory in English departments. the traditional approach to literature, did the term “environment,” which derives in which the critic explores the local or from the verb “to environ or surround,” global, the material or physical, or the change to mean that which is nonhuman? Essential Texts and historical or natural history in the context Are not humans natural and a prominent of a work of art. Such approaches can be environment in themselves? Where and Manifestos interdisciplinary, invoking knowledge of in what does one live? Ecocriticism is environmental studies, the natural sciences, by nature interdisciplinary, invoking Some ecocritics date the birth and cultural and social studies. Though it knowledge of environmental studies, of the word “ecocriticism” to William became a subject heading in the Library the natural sciences, and cultural and Rueckert, who in a 1978 essay titled of Congress list of “Authorities” in 2002, social studies, all of which play a part in “Literature and Ecology: An Experiment ecocritism is not yet listed in the Oxford answering the questions it poses. in Ecocriticism” wrote that ecocriticism English Dictionary. However, many words Since 1990, ecocriticism has entailed “application of ecology and prefixed “eco” are listed, among them burgeoned. Today, a keyword search for ecological concepts to the study of “ecofeminism” and “economics.” “Eco,” “ecocriticism” in the MLA Bibliography literature.” Cheryll Glotfelty and online produces 422 hits, three-quarters Harold Fromm quite rightly included Loretta Johnson is adjunct professor of humanities at of which are from the last eight years. Rueckert’s essay in their edited volume The Lewis & Clark College. Ecocriticism has entered academic course Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary
December 2009 CHOICE 7 Ecology, which, more than fifteen years of American Culture. In this groundbreaking apocalypse, dwelling, animals, and the after its publication, remains a benchmark work, Buell offers four criteria for Earth. Along with offering a useful glossary text in the field because of the passion of determining whether a text is environmental: and bibliography, Ecocriticism can serve as its contributors, its scholarly breadth and first, “the nonhuman environment is present an introductory textbook in the field. In depth, and the diversity of its essays. In not merely as a framing device”; second, “the postmodern studies, the “environment” a 1989 Western Literature Association human interest is not ... the only legitimate takes on new meaning. As Garrard points meeting, Glotfelty had urged literary interest”; third, “human accountability to out in a chapter titled “Futures: The Earth,” critics to develop an ecological approach the environment is part of the text’s ethical ecocriticism oriented toward nature writing to literature, one that would focus on the orientation”; and fourth, “there is some sense has led to urban and ecojustice revisionism, cultural dimensions of humans’ relationship of the environment as a process.” Buell went so much so that he finds it “more productive to the environment. At the same meeting, on to write Writing for an Endangered World, to think inclusively of environmentality as a Glen Love delivered a speech titled which, more than any of his other books to property of any text.” “Revaluing Nature: Toward an Ecological date, takes the threats to and concerns about Timothy Morton’s Ecology without Literary Criticism,” and Glotfelty and the environmental crisis head on. Here he Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics Fromm included that text in their volume. revokes the dualism between nature and complements Buell’s work by pursuing the Another basic resource that reveals the humans and approaches both built and nature of nature in ecocriticism. Morton diversity of ecocritical approaches is The unbuilt nature. He also reaches beyond the documents the changing definition of the ISLE Reader: Ecocriticism, 1993-2003, American nature writers to diverse and global word “nature” and—echoing Buell, to a edited by Michael Branch and Scott Slovic texts. Another of Buell’s books, The Future certain extent—suggests that nature can (who is the author of Going Away to Think, of Environmental Criticism: Environmental be anything. Yet ecocriticism, despite its which looks at ecocritical responsibility). Its Crisis and Literary Imagination, emphasizes murky borders, continues to be a vibrant nineteen essays cover broad landscapes and as essential and necessary a shift in and relevant approach to literature, one that are written by top ecocritics in the field. The ecocriticism to study built as well as natural promises to stay. New Literary History, an British counterpart to The ISLE Reader is environments. In this manifesto, Buell online journal that “resists short-lived trends The Green Studies Reader: From Romanticism identifies the environmental movement’s and subsuming ideologies,” devoted its to Ecocriticism, edited by Laurence Coupe, forays into English departments as the first summer 1999 issue to ecocriticism, providing which with its many voices eloquently wave of ecocriticism, a wave that focused on a Who’s Who and a What’s What of the field challenges the notion that nonhuman nature nature writing, ecocentric texts, and natural of ecocriticism as it was then emerging. is subordinate to human nature, a belief that history. A product of the revived interest in Glen Love, a leader in the development is rapidly becoming outdated. The essays nature writing in the late twentieth century, of ecocriticism, has been teaching and in Green Studies examine major writers, first-wave ecocriticism gave way to second- writing for years with the intent of bringing primarily English, and cover basic genres, wave ecocriticism, which moves from unbuilt communication between the natural sciences making no excuse for political praxis. Like to built environments, from wilderness to and the humanities closer together. His other collections, it makes clear that the urban landscapes, and ultimately all space, Practical Ecocriticism: Literature, Biology, and perception of the environment in literature including “nonspace” (a blank page may be the Environment nicely outlines the issues is a matter of ethics and survival. Another an environment, just as an office cubicle is an that the “two cultures” face together. Love excellent compilation is Reading the Earth: environment). In short, ecocriticism defies demonstrates the consilience or pattern New Directions in the Study of Literature and a neat paradigm or unified methodology of universal features in nature predicated Environment, edited by Michael Branch typical of, for example, feminist, queer, by evolution and adaptation that serves et al., which comprises essays that take and postcolonial studies. In fact, should as a common subject between these large diverse approaches. The essays in Fiona “the environment” come to be considered disciplinary areas. Another essential text Becket and Terry Gifford’s useful collection everything that surrounds anything, we will promoting interdisciplinary study is Coming Culture, Creativity and Environment: have no use for ecocriticism. into Contact: Explorations in Ecocritical Theory New Environmentalist Criticism focus on But for the present, some political praxis and Practice, edited by Annie Merrill Ingram the politics of environmental crisis. In is still associated with ecocriticism. In et al. Its scholarly essays address the fluidity their study of environmental issues, the Ecocriticism, Greg Garrard measures this of boundaries between environment and contributors look at texts from Ralph Waldo by the extent to which one uses, saves, or literature and expand the limits and theory Emerson’s Nature to the animal stories of ignores the environment. In this sense, this of identity and location. Presenting and German writer Otto Alscher and address work is in the first-wave category. Published stimulating discourse between literature and a necessary question: what are the goals of in the “New Critical Idiom” series, Garrard’s the natural sciences, this collection takes the ecocriticism at large? book is useful in its coining categories reader beyond place or setting to the specifics All of Lawrence Buell’s work is primary of how one positions oneself toward the of swamps, internment camps, and so on. to ecocriticism. His ecocritical approach environment. In Garrard’s scheme, most In The Greening of Literary Scholarship: originated in his outstanding work on ecocritics would probably identify themselves Literature, Theory, and the Environment, Henry David Thoreau, which culminated in as “environmentalists” or “deep ecologists.” editor Steven Rosendale gathers a selection 1995 with The Environmental Imagination: Garrard also categorizes the literary loci of essays written primarily by professors of Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of the environment: pastoral, wilderness, American literature. Originating at a 1998
8 CHOICE December 2009 conference titled “Representing Place,” literary ecology by emphasizing comedy in the patriarchal view of nature in Western these thirteen essays concern themselves a discussion of how the natural world strives culture from Gilgamesh to the present. As with an approach to ecocritical studies that for survival. In a chapter on Hamlet, he an important precursor to ecofeminist can be combined with other methodologies. innovatively shows that Hamlet’s doubts are studies, Westling’s book followed Annette The collection sets up a dialogue between directed not only at the world of humans. Kolodny’s The Lay of the Land, which looks ecocriticism and historicist, feminist, Four more-recent titles stand out. In at metaphor and “American life and letters.” science fiction, and sublime literary studies. Ecological Literary Criticism: Romantic Roderick Frazier Nash’s Wilderness Also not to be overlooked is Patrick Imagining and the Biology of Mind, Karl and the American Mind, now in its Murphy’s Ecocritical Explorations in Literary Kroeber paves the way for sane, inspiring fourth edition, is a classic study of how and Cultural Studies: Fences, Boundaries, prospects for merging the interests between wilderness is an idea that needs to be and Fields. Murphy, the founding editor the arts and the sciences. Although he understood before environmentalism can of ISLE, here continues an investigation focuses primarily on the British Romantics, be understood. Nash provides landmark of ecocritical theory that follows from Kroeber makes a compelling case for readings of Henry David Thoreau, John his previous books—Farther Afield in the interdisciplinary study of the impact of Muir, and Aldo Leopold. An important Study of Nature-Oriented Literature and the natural world and poetic process. In follow-up to Nash’s book, Dana Phillips’s Understanding Gary Snyder—in which a similar fashion, Jonathan Bate revisits The Truth of Ecology: Nature, Culture, and he blazes new trails in teaching about the claims of natural law and natural Literature in America foresees the inevitable the environment and enlivening syllabi right by extending and applying them to development of ecocriticism as a completely in English classes. Murphy introduces the nonhuman existence in his Romantic interdisciplinary study, engaging new the value of “one anothering” instead of Ecology: Wordsworth and the Environmental debates between the two worlds of science “othering” when one perceives nature and/ Tradition, which complements Buell’s and the humanities. or wilderness. Ursula Heise also creates work on American Romanticism in The new ecocritical perspectives in Sense of Place Environmental Imagination, mentioned and Sense of Planet: The Environmental above. Ultimately, Bate identifies the Nature Writers and the Imagination of the Global, in which possibility for humans to listen to the Literature on Them she urges ecocritics to look beyond the environment, the song of the Earth, not in immediacy of place and envision the Earth lieu of but in addition to themselves in their as “our place, our locus,” as a place that environment. In his subsequent work, the Ecocriticism developed because deserves loyalty and preservation. scholarly yet beautiful The Song of the Earth, scholars in English departments began Bate expands his ecocritical focus on the to question why nature writing was Romantics to Coleridge, Byron, Keats, and traditionally poorly represented in course Precursors to others and debates whether this Romantic syllabi. Henry David Thoreau has, of Ecocriticism notion of nature is a metaphor for the self course, been the exception, and the rather than a tribute to the biotic world. excellent recent studies of this canonical Looking at how to read literature in terms writer include More Day to Dawn: Thoreau’s Moving backward in time to the of its relationship to “nature,” major Walden for the Twenty-First Century, 1960s and 1970s, one finds a number weather, the picturesque and the sublime, edited by Sandra Harbert Petrulionis and of important resources on what came dwelling, and human perspectives on Laura Dassow Walls; it includes Robert to be known as ecocriticism. Two titles nonhumans, The Song of the Earth addresses Cummings’s refreshing ecocritical essay are especially important: Leo Marx’s The the social liberation of Enlightenment “Thoreau’s Divide: Rediscovering the Machine in the Garden: Technology and the thinking, Cartesian dualism. Environmentalist/Agriculturalist Debate Pastoral Ideal in America and Raymond Equally important to the revisioning of in Walden’s ‘Baker Farm.’” More recent Williams’s The Country and the City. Marx nature is Carolyn Merchant’s outstanding works include, most notably, Rachel identifies the machine as the advancement The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, Carson’s Silent Spring, an exposure of the of technology in what was considered by and the Scientific Revolution, which traces environmental hazards of DDT, which many to be the virgin land of America. the Renaissance shift toward patriarchal first appeared in 1962 and inaugurated This classic in the study of American authority that expunged the female presence twentieth-century environmentalism. literature exemplifies the fertile ground that in an Aristotelian, god-permeated universe. Silent Spring continues to be a classic gave birth to ecocriticism in the United Merchant closes the chasm between the in environmental nonfiction, as do the States. Williams does the same for Britain, cultures of the humanities and the sciences writings of California naturalist John and his book is equally revered. Williams by linking the methods of science to the Muir. Among them is Muir’s The Story focuses on the urbanism that competes with formation of societal norms. Robert of My Boyhood and Youth, which predates the bucolic English countryside. Joseph Pogue Harrison’s Forests: The Shadow of Carson’s groundbreaking work by a half Meeker’s The Comedy of Survival: Studies in Civilization seeks changes in perceptions of century. Ecocritics have scooped up Muir, Literary Ecology stands not as a precursor nature by looking at the forest as depicted particularly his campaigns against damming but as an early founding text. This in Western culture. And Louise Westling’s the Hetch Hetchy River in the Sierra groundbreaking work introduces the idea of The Green Breast of the New World traces Nevadas. Terry Gifford’sReconnecting with
December 2009 CHOICE 9 John Muir: Essays in Post-Pastoral Practice edited by Bill McKibben (whose The End works on the traditional English-language presents Muir as writer of environmental of Nature deals with global warming) and canon include Gabriel Egan’s Green texts par excellence. With Muir as his with a foreword by Al Gore, is invaluable. Shakespeare: From Ecopolitics to Ecocriticism focus, Gifford demonstrates how to teach It presents works by the most famous (released in the “Accents on Shakespeare” an ecocritical approach to literature, and he American nature writers, among them Muir, series) and Diane McColley’s Poetry and prefaces each chapter with his own poetry Mary Austin, Aldo Leopold, Edward Abbey, Ecology in the Age of Milton and Marvell on Muir. In addition to an elucidation Woody Guthrie, Walt Whitman, Leslie (“Literary and Scientific Cultures of Early of Muir’s writings, the book provides Marmon Silko, Barry Lopez, and Barbara Modernity” series), which demonstrates pedagogic advice on immersing in and Kingsolver. Also included is work by lesser conclusively and with authority that teaching environmental literature, providing luminaries, for example, Susan Fennimore concerns about the environment and its a useful map for practicing ecocriticism in Cooper, Lynn White Jr., and Mary Oliver. impact on human society (including health) the classroom and in literary research. In an essay of this length, one can only were as central to seventeenth-century poets Those who teach environmental dip into the long list of nature writers; as they are today. literature will want Teaching North American suffice to say their work is more and more One of the most fascinating new studies Environmental Literature, edited by Laird incorporated into the classroom. ASLE in ecocriticism, Early Modern Ecostudies: From Christensen, Mark Long, and Fred Waage, (the online presence of the Association for the Florentine Codex to Shakespeare, edited which presents a diverse set of essays that not Study of Literature and the Environment) by Thomas Hallock, Ivo Kamps, and Karen only address critical approaches—ecocriticism will be an excellent resource and also Raber (and released in the “Early Modern and environmental justice among them— provides online access to the ASLE Cultural Studies” series), assembles essays but also provide class plans and innovative Handbook on Graduate Study in Literature that challenge the limits of ecocriticism not ways to teach the work of nature writers and Environment, edited by Dan Philippon only in terms of arcane subject matter— and other place-based literature. Women et al., now in its fourth edition, updated by for example, it looks at the culture of the Writing Nature: A Feminist View, edited by Barbara Cook and Tina Richardson. early modern cat—but also in looking Barbara Cook, collects interesting essays at the unspoken assumption that human written about famous and less familiar female perceptions of nature have been somewhat nature writers, including Willa Cather and Ecocritical Studies in consistent throughout history. In terms of Kathleen Dean Moore, and in doing so Traditional Fields of the general field of poetics, David Gilcrest’s shares the varied history and basic tenets of Greening the Lyre makes a compelling case for ecofeminism. Mark Allister demonstrates Literature the development of an ecopoetics in which a new use for nature writing in Refiguring nonhuman language lies outside the purview the Map of Sorrow: Nature Writing and When critics seek to understand of current studies of poetry. Autobiography, in which he investigates the aesthetics, politics, psychology, and/or And finally, turning to film studies, one the healing power nature provides to science of the hegemony of one group over finds The Landscape of Hollywood Westerns: autobiographers suffering grief. He witnesses another, their cause diminishes in relation Ecocriticism in an American Film Genre, the values of human relationship with to their success. So too will ecocriticism edited by Deborah Carmichael. This nonhuman animals and natural landscapes merge into mainstream studies when the interesting collection joins ecocriticism with in numerous environmental texts by such disenfranchised gain and assume authority. film studies, frontier writing, and portrayals writers as Terry Tempest Williams, Peter If ecocriticism fades away, as happens when of the landscapes of the American West. Matthiessen, and William Least Heat Moon. scholars succeed in bringing an area of study A seminal contribution to the expansion from the margins into the mainstream, of the study of nature writing is Beyond what remains? The reality is that, though Environmental Justice Nature Writing: Expanding the Boundaries of we may not call them ecocriticism—a and Related Fields Ecocriticism, edited by Karla Armbruster and terminology that is already beginning to Kathleen Wallace. These essays go beyond fall out of use—we will always have critical the usual suspects to the ideas of wilderness, studies of how the environment is perceived Some ecocritics argue that to nature, and the unbuilt environment across in literature. One example is Robert separate the environment as an isolated (and slightly beyond) the entire span of Watson’s Back to Nature: The Green and the phenomenon is to revitalize not only the American and British literature. Treated Real in the Late Renaissance. In writing this sovereignty of humans over nature but also here are the book of Deuteronomy, Toni meticulous study of Shakespeare’s comedies, the inequities that that sovereignty entails. Morrison, Virginia Woolf, Chaucer, and Marvel’s pastoral lyrics, and the work of Accordingly, environmental justice looms science fiction, to select just a few of many other Renaissance writers, Watson entered large in ecocriticism, and that leads directly individuals and topics. a brave new world of literary criticism. He to Native American studies. Joni Adamson’s The Library of America took up the task shows that ecological concerns were present important American Indian Literature, of bringing together, in one volume, key and assailed at that time, manifested by Environmental Justice, and Ecocriticism: The environmental texts, including excerpts of encroachment on natural resources and Middle Place looks at how Native American texts. The resulting anthology,American refiguring epistemological priorities in authors address environmental and ecological Earth: Environmental Writing since Thoreau, creation. Other preeminent ecocritical concerns. Covering the works of such writers
10 CHOICE December 2009 as Louise Erdrich, Joy Harjo, and Leslie Several books offering ecological pedagogy, science writing, poetry, music, Marmon Silko, she documents problems in treatments of other fields merit mention. creative writing, and film, among other identity, alienation, and ecological landscapes Second-wave ecocriticism treats such forms.” ASLE’s annotated bibliography and in so doing delivers an ecocritical study environments as disease landscapes and is now available online, but 1990-97 of both past and present Native American medical geography of global disease titles are also available in print. ASLE’s culture. In a complementary work, wrought on environments by colonialism. first print bibliography, Association for the Understories: The Political Life of Forests in In his brilliant, original Romanticism and Study of Literature and the Environment: Northern New Mexico, Jake Kosek seeks the Colonial Disease, Alan Bewell looks at the Bibliography, 1990-1993, ed. by Zita nature of the Native American sense of place. impact colonialism had on infecting native Ingham and Ron Steffens, includes 120 He would add “belonging” to Garrard’s populations and how British Romantic pages of works pertaining to ecocriticism topics (as presented in Ecocriticism, discussed literature reflects that epidemiological crisis. (compiled by Ingham). Since 1993, early in this essay) and merge it with the This ecological colonization includes not only the bibliography has been available in characteristics of Garrard’s “dwelling.” Kosek smallpox epidemics in the Americas but also ASLE’s official journal, Interdisciplinary asserts that material and “symbolic” nature long-term psychological and medical effects of Studies of Literature and Environment: are factors integral to inequities in race colonization in tropical climates worldwide. ISLE, which is now available online. and class in America. Understories serves Bewell identifies these concerns in the works In 2009, this flagship journal (now as an informative and contextual source of Percy Bysshe Shelley, William Wordsworth, available through Oxford Journals) for the dangers of nuclear power and the John Keats, and many others. Another prize- went from semiannual to quarterly cooperation necessary to protect the world, winning book that might not fall under the publication. According to the journal’s as depicted in Silko’s multidimensional, strict rubric of ecocritism but will interest all Web site, “ISLE seeks to explore the environmental novel Ceremony. students of language and landscape is Keith relation between human beings and the Visitors to Washington State Basso’s Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and natural world, and publishes articles University’s Environmental Justice Cultural Language among the Western Apache. In from literary scholars in other fields Studies site can find T. V. Reed’s essay this work of creative nonfiction, Basso (an relevant to ‘literature and environment.’” “Environmental Justice Ecocriticism: A anthropologist and rancher) explores the Its stated goals are “to encourage such Memo-festo,” which challenges ecocriticism lore, lays, and ethnography of ancestral and scholarship, writing, and teaching, in terms of environmental justice. Reed modern Apache landscapes. Ecocriticism has while facilitating the development questions any study of literature and the expanded globally, and Tejumola Olaniyan of a theoretical foundation for these environment that does not acknowledge and Ato Quayson offer an African perspective activities.” The ASLE bibliography the exigencies of race and class. Reed is in African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism now contains almost 1,300 entries, not also contributor to The Environmental and Theory. Although primarily a collection including those collected in the print Justice Reader: Politics, Poetics and Pedagogy, of literary criticism of key writers and critics, bibliography between 1990 and 1997. edited by Joni Adamson, Mei Mei Evans, the book includes an ecocritical perspective The bibliography draws entries from 194 and Rachel Stein, which documents that cannot be ignored. scholarly sources and institutions related environmental issues as particularly linked Last, in From Apocalypse to Way of to ecocriticism. ISLE’s predecessor, The to social inequalities. Life geologist Frederick Buell (brother of American Nature Writing Newsletter (“a Those who broaden the term Lawrence Buell, discussed above) writes biannual publication devoted to the “environment” to include all environs will about the “environmental crisis in the study of writing on nature”), launched discover urban ecocritics and their rich study American century,” providing a definitive, in 1989, is also available online. Other of cities. Essential to the study of urban scholarly account of what is now called resources available on the ASLE site are environments and how they are perceived is “ecopocalypse.” the ecocritical library, providing links to The Nature of Cities: Ecocriticism and Urban articles and online texts; announcements Environments, edited by Michael Bennett about professional events and and David Teague. Looking at literature, Bibliographies, conferences; relevant news; and Handbook film, and poetry, the essays in this collection Journals, and Web Sites on Graduate Study in Literature and the focus on urban and suburban environments Environment, a directory of universities and the cultures that emerge from them. and colleges in the United States with Wild Things: Children’s Culture and The Association for the Study of graduate programs and degrees in Ecocriticism, edited by Sidney Dobrin and Literature and Environment (ASLE) environmental sciences, environmental Kenneth Kidd, demonstrates that the study is an invaluable source for students of literature, and human ecology. of the environment in children’s literature ecocriticism. Founded in 1992 (its one The Web site for ALECC—the produces important normative conclusions thousand members include twenty-three Association for Literature, the Environment on how humans perceive and treat the international affiliates), ASLE “seeks to and Culture in Canada, the Canadian environment. Looking at such figures as facilitate interdisciplinary and innovative offshoot of ASLE—provides links to Walt Disney, Beatrix Potter, Dr. Seuss, E. B. approaches to the study of nature and international ASLE affiliates and resources White, and Jim Henson, the authors of these culture through forms such as nature in Canadian ecocriticism. Its online essays hail from a variety of disciplines. writing, art, ecocritical scholarship, journal, The Goose, has been designed to
December 2009 CHOICE 11 Early Modern Ecostudies: From the Florentine ISLE complement with articles on Canadian Works Cited Codex to Shakespeare, ed. by Thomas Hallock, literature. The Australasian Universities Ivo Kamps, and Karen L. Raber. Palgrave Adamson, Joni. American Indian Literature, Modern Language Association also prints Macmillan, 2008 (CH, Jun’09, 46-5456). its own journal, A.U.M.L.A, now available Environmental Justice, and Ecocriticism: The Middle Place. Arizona, 2001 (CH, Oct’01, The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary online. 39-0768). Ecology, ed. by Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Another online bibliography is available Fromm. Georgia, 1996. at PAL: Perspectives in American Literature African Literature: An Anthology of Criticism and The- ory, ed. by Tejumola Olaniyan and Ato Quayson. Egan, Gabriel. Green Shakespeare: From (Appendix U: “Nature, Ecocriticism, Blackwell, 2007 (CH, Jun’08, 45-5409). Ecopolitics to Ecocriticism . Routledge, 2006. and Ecofeminism”). The ten entries for Refiguring the Map of Sorrow: Na- The Environmental Justice Reader: Politics, Poetics ecocriticism in American letters (1996- Allister, Mark. ture Writing and Autobiography. University Press & Pedagogy, ed. by Joni Adamson, Mei Mei 2004) are all discussed in this essay. Other of Virginia, 2001 (CH, May’02, 39-5024). Evans, and Rachel Stein. Arizona, 2002 (CH, useful new online, peer-reviewed journals Apr’03, 40-4582). American Earth: Environmental Writing since include the Journal of Ecocriticism (JoE), Thoreau, ed. by Bill McKibben. Literary Garrard, Greg. Ecocriticism. Routledge, 2004. launched in 2008, and Green Theory and Classics of the United States; distributed by Gifford, Terry. Reconnecting with John Muir: Praxis: The Journal of Ecopedagogy (launched Penguin Putnam, 2008. Essays in Post-Pastoral Practice. Georgia, 2006. in 2005). Association for the Study of Literature and the Gilcrest, David W. Greening the Lyre: Environment: Bibliography, 1990-1993, ed. by Environmental Poetics and Ethics. Nevada, What Next? Zita Ingham and Ron Steffens; contributing 2002 (CH, Feb’03, 40-3255). eds., Keith Alman et al. The Association, 1994. The Green Studies Reader: From Romanticism Barry, Peter. Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Ecocriticism, ed. by Laurence Coupe. Like any political, religious, or to Literary and Cultural Theory. Manchester, Routledge, 2000. social cause, ecocriticism started out with 1995; 3rd ed., 2009. The Greening of Literary Scholarship: Literature, a simple agenda, which was—more or Basso, Keith H. Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape Theory, and the Environment, ed. by Steven less—to save the environment. Such a cause and Language among the Western Apache. New Rosendale. Iowa, 2002 (CH, Dec’02, 40- as a literary venture includes promoting Mexico, 1996. 2002). literature that impacts the environment Bate, Jonathan. Romantic Ecology: Wordsworth Harrison, Robert Pogue. Forests: The Shadow of and serves the agenda. Ecocritics argue and the Environmental Tradition. Routledge, Civilization. Chicago, 1992 (CH, Nov’92, that literature that discourages that agenda 1991 (CH, Jan’02, 28-2544). 30-1335). should be reevaluated under the scrutiny of ___. The Song of the Earth. Harvard, 2000 (CH, Heise, Ursula K. Sense of Place and Sense of contemporary concerns. Ecocriticism may Feb’01, 38-3176). Planet: The Environmental Imagination of the well be in its demise already. In their 2004 Bewell, Alan. Romanticism and Colonial Disease. Global. Oxford, 2008 (CH, Mar’09, 46- essay “The Death of Environmentalism: Johns Hopkins, 1999. 3859). Global Warming Politics in a Post- Beyond Nature Writing: Expanding the Boundaries The ISLE Reader: Ecocriticism, 1993-2003, ed. by Environmental World,” available through of Ecocriticism, ed. by Karla Armbruster and Michael P. Branch and Scott Slovic. Georgia, ^IBreakthrough Institute^R
12 CHOICE December 2009 Meeker, Joseph W. The Comedy of Survival: Reading the Earth: New Directions in the Study of The American Nature Writing Newsletter Studies in Literary Ecology. Scribner, [1974]. Literature and Environment, ed. by Michael http://www.asle.org/assets/docs/anwn1.2 Branch et al. Idaho, 1998. Merchant, Carolyn. The Death of Nature: ASLE: The Association for the Study of Literature & Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution. Slovic, Scott. Going Away to Think: Engagement, Environment (CH, May’99, 36-4807) Harper and Row, 1980. Retreat, and Ecocritical Responsibility. Nevada, http://www.asle.org 2008. More Day to Dawn: Thoreau’s Walden for the A.U.M.L.A.: Journal of the Australasian Twenty-First Century, ed. by Sandra Harbert Teaching North American Environmental Universities Modern Language Association Petrulionis and Laura Dassow Walls. Mas- Literature, ed. by Laird Christensen, Mark C. http://journalseek.net/cgi-bin/journalseek/ sachusetts, 2007. Long, and Fred Waage. Modern Language journalsearch.cgi?field=issn&query=0001-2793 Association of America, 2008 (CH, Apr’09, Morton, Timothy. Ecology without Nature: Environmental Justice Cultural Studies 46-4306). Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics. Harvard, http://www.wsu.edu/~amerstu/ce/ce.html 2007 (CH, Oct’07, 45-0729). Watson, Robert N. Back to Nature: The Green Theory & Praxis: The Journal of Ecopedagogy Green and the Real in the Late Renaissance. Muir, John. The Story of My Boyhood and Youth. http://greentheoryandpraxis.org/journal/index.php/ Pennsylvania, 2006 (CH, Sep’06, 44-0194). Houghton Mifflin, 1913. journal Westling, Louise H. The Green Breast of the Murphy, Patrick D. Ecocritical Explorations Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature and New World: Landscape, Gender, and American in Literary and Cultural Studies: Fences, Environment: ISLE Fiction. Georgia, 1996 (CH, Jan’07, 34-2652). Boundaries, and Fields. Lexington, 2009. http://isle.oxfordjournals.org/ Wild Things: Children’s Culture and Ecocriticism, ____. Farther Afield in the Study of Nature- Journal of Ecocriticism: A New Journal of Nature, ed. by Sidney I. Dobrin and Kenneth B. Kidd. Oriented Literature. University Press of Society and Literature [JoE] Wayne State, 2004 (CH, Nov’04, 42-1436). Virginia, 2000 (CH, Jul’00, 37-6107). http://ojs.unbc.ca/index.php/joe Williams, Raymond. The Country and the City. ____. Understanding Gary Snyder. South New Literary History Oxford, 1973 Carolina, 1992 (CH, Dec’92, 30-1936). http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/new%5Fliterary% Women Writing Nature: A Feminist View, ed. 5Fhistory/ Nash, Roderick Frazier. Wilderness and the by Barbara J. Cook. Lexington, 2008 (CH, American Mind. Yale, 1967; 4th ed., 2001. PAL: Perspectives in American Literature— Jun’08, 45-5443). A Research and Reference Guide (CH, Sup’04, The Nature of Cities: Ecocriticism and Urban 41Sup-0124) Environments, ed. by Michael Bennett and Internet/Journals http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/ David W. Teague. Arizona, 1999. TABLE.html Phillips, Dana. The Truth of Ecology: Nature, ALECC: Association for Literature, the Environment Culture, and Literature in America. Oxford, and Culture in Canada 2003. http://www.alecc.ca
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