The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Environment

This authoritative collection of rigorous but accessible essays investigates the exciting new interdisciplinary field of environmental literary criticism.

Louise Westling (Edited by)

9781107628960, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 23 December 2013

286 pages
22.6 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.39 kg

'… provides a wide-ranging overview of the first three decades of ecocriticism, gives both a thorough introduction of the field to the novice, as well as suggestions for those more familiar with the field on where ecocriticism is going next. Consequently, it is an important contribution to the development of the field, and a testimony to its growing importance as a mode of analysis.' Astrid Bracke, English Studies

The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Environment is an authoritative guide to the exciting new interdisciplinary field of environmental literary criticism. The collection traces the development of ecocriticism from its origins in European pastoral literature and offers fifteen rigorous but accessible essays on the present state of environmental literary scholarship. Contributions from leading experts in the field probe a range of issues, including the place of the human within nature, ecofeminism and gender, engagements with European philosophy and the biological sciences, critical animal studies, postcolonialism, posthumanism, and climate change. A chronology of key publications and bibliography provide ample resources for further reading, making The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Environment an essential guide for students, teachers, and scholars working in this rapidly developing area of study.

Introduction Louise Westling
Part I. Foundations: 1. Pastoral, anti-pastoral, and post-pastoral Terry Gifford
2. The green otherworlds of early medieval literature Alfred Siewers
3. 'Mapping by words': the politics of land in Native American literature Shari Huhndorf
Part II. Theories: 4. Ecocritical theory: romantic roots and impulses from twentieth-century European thinkers Axel Goodbody
5. Nature, post nature Timothy Clark
6. Violent affinities: sex, gender, and species in Cereus Blooms at Night Catriona Sandilands
7. The lure of the wilderness Leo Mellor
Part III. Interdisciplinary Engagements: 8. 'Tongues I'll hang on every tree': biosemiotics and the Book of Nature Wendy Wheeler
9. Sauntering along the border: Thoreau, Nabhan, and food politics Janet Fiskio
10. Animal studies, literary animals, and Yann Martel's Life of Pi Sarah McFarland
Part IV. Major Directions: 11. Environmental justice, cosmopolitics, and climate change Joni Adamson
12. Systems and secrecy: postcolonial ecocriticism and Ghosh's The Calcutta Chromosome Bonnie Roos and Alex Hunt
13. Environmental crises and East Asian literatures: uncertain presents and futures Karen Thornber
14. Confronting catastrophe: ecocriticism in a warming world Kate Rigby
15. Ecocinema and the wildlife film Stephen Rust.

Subject Areas: Literary theory [DSA]