The Cambridge Introduction to Literature and the Environment

A comprehensive overview of the arguments in environmental criticism, first published in 2011.

Timothy Clark (Author)

9780521720908, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 6 January 2011

267 pages, 18 b/w illus.
22.8 x 15.3 x 1.3 cm, 0.44 kg

'Far from a pedestrian college textbook, Clark's Introduction to Literature and the Environment is an erudite survey of ecocriticsm accessible to both scholar and student, as well as a practical tool for demonstrating literature's representation of and engagement with environmental issues of all kinds … I can think of no better intellectual map of ecocriticism's present state or future prospects than this book.' Modern Philology

The degrading environment of the planet is something that touches everyone. This 2011 book offers an introductory overview of literary and cultural criticism that concerns environmental crisis in some form. Both as a way of reading texts and as a theoretical approach to culture more generally, 'ecocriticism' is a varied and fast-changing set of practices which challenges inherited thinking and practice in the reading of literature and culture. This introduction defines what ecocriticism is, its methods, arguments and concepts, and will enable students to look at texts in a wholly new way. Boxed sections explain key critical terms and contemporary debates in the field with 'hands-on' examples and comparisons. Timothy Clark's thoughtful approach makes this an ideal first encounter with environmental readings of literature.

Preface
Introduction: the challenge
Part I. Romantic and Anti-Romantic: 1. Old World Romanticism
2. New World Romanticism
3. Genre and the ethics of nonfiction
4. Language beyond the human?
5. The inherent violence of Western thought?
6. Posthumanism and the 'end of nature'
Part II. The Boundaries of the Political: 7. Thinking like a mountain?
8. Environmental justice and the move 'beyond nature writing'
9. European eco-justice
10. Liberalism and Green moralism
11. Ecofeminism
12. 'Postcolonial' eco-justice
13. Questions of scale: the local, the national and the global
Part III. Science and the Struggle for Intellectual Authority: 14. Science and the crisis of authority
15. Science studies
16. Evolutionary theories of literature
17. Interdisciplinarity and science: two essays on human evolution
Part IV. The Animal Mirror: 18. Ethics and the nonhuman animal
19. Anthropomorphism
20. The future of ecocriticism
Further reading
Index.

Subject Areas: Conservation of the environment [RNK], Literary theory [DSA]