Ecocriticism

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Ecocriticism began in the mid-1990s as the study of the relationship between literature and the natural environment. Ecocriticism was heralded by the publication of two seminal works, both published in 1996: The Ecocriticism Reader, edited by Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm, and The Environmental Imagination, by Lawrence Buell. Exactly what constitutes ecocriticism has been something of a point of contention. Glotfelty's working definition in The Ecocriticism Reader is that "ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment" (xviii), and one of the implicit goals of the approach is to recoup professional dignity for what Glotfelty calls the "undervalued genre of nature writing" (xxxi). Lawrence Buell defines “‘ecocriticism’ . . . as [a] study of the relationship between literature and the environment conducted in a spirit of commitment to environmentalist praxis” (430, n.20). In a 1999 contribution to the PMLA, Simon C. Estok asks “What goals and definitions . . . do we envision for ecocriticism? What counts as ecocriticism?” (“Letter”, 1096). Estok notes in 2001 that “ecocriticism has distinguished itself, debates notwithstanding, firstly by the ethical stand it takes, its commitment to the natural world as an important thing rather than simply as an object of thematic study, and, secondly, by its commitment to making connections” (“A Report Card on Ecocriticism” 220). More recently, in an article that extends ecocriticism to Shakespearean studies, 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).

Still, ecocriticism seems constantly to be under fire from within its own ranks. As Michael P. Cohen has observed, “if you want to be an ecocritic, be prepared to explain what you do and be criticized, if not satirized.” Certainly, Cohen adds his voice to such critique, noting that one of the problems of ecocriticism has been what he calls its “praise-song school” of criticism. A substantially more extended critique of ecocriticism can be found in The Truth of Ecology, written by Dana Phillips.

Ecocriticism is often associated with the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment (ASLE), which hosts biennial meetings for scholars who deal with environmental matters in literature. Historically, these meetings have been interdisciplinary. ASLE has an official journal—Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (ISLE)—in which the most current scholarship in the rapidly evolving field of ecocriticism can often be found.

References

Buell, Lawrence. The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture. Cambridge, MA and London, England: Harvard University Press, 1995.
Cohen, Michael P. “Blues in Green: Ecocriticism Under Critique.” Environmental History 9. 1 (January 2004): 9-36.
Estok, Simon C. (2001). [“A Report Card on Ecocriticism.”] AUMLA 96 (November): 200-38.
Estok, Simon C. (1999). "Letter," Forum on Literatures of the Environment, PMLA 114.5 (Oct. 1999): 1095-1096.
Estok, Simon C. (2005). “Shakespeare and Ecocriticism: An Analysis of ‘Home’ and ‘Power’ in King Lear.” AUMLA 103 (May 2005): 15-41.
Glotfelty, Cheryll and Harold Fromm (Eds). The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology. Athens and London: University of Georgia, 1996.
Phillips, Dana. The Truth of Ecology: Nature, Culture, and Literature in America. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003.

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