The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology

The Ecocriticism Reader is the first collection of its kind, an anthology of classic and cutting-edge writings in the rapidly emerging field of literary ecology. Exploring the relationship between literature and the physical environment, literary ecology is the study of the ways that writing both reflects and influences our interactions with the natural world. An introduction to the field as well as a source book, The Ecocriticism Reader defines ecological literary discourse and sketches its development over the past quarter-century. The twenty-five selections in this volume, a mixture of reprinted and original essays, look backward to origins and forward to trends and provide generally appealing and lucidly written examples of the range of ecological approaches to literature. Lists of recommended readings, relevant periodicals, and professional organizations offer direction for further study. The Ecocriticism Reader is an illuminating entree into a field of study fully engaged with our most pressing contemporary problem—the global environmental crisis.

About the Author :
Cheryll Glotfelty (Editor) CHERYLL GLOTFELTY is a professor of literature and the environment at the University of Nevada, Reno. She is the editor of Literary Nevada: Writings from the Silver State and a coeditor of The Bioregional Imagination: Literature, Ecology, and Place. She is a founding officer of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment. Harold Fromm (Editor) HAROLD FROMM lives in Tucson and is University Associate in English at the University of Arizona as well as a member of the university’s Institute of the Environment. He is the author of The Nature of Being Human: From Environmentalism to Consciousness and Academic Capitalism and Literary Value. His writings have appeared in a wide range of journals and he is a regular contributor to the Hudson Review.

Review :
A powerfully conceived, intelligently constructed collection of essays. I can imagine few critical anthologies that will have such a wide appeal. It comes at just the right moment and will find a substantial and appreciative audience. If you are wondering what ecocriticism is, how it has evolved, why it is important to literary studies, or how to do it, you must read this book. . . . Whether you are a teacher, scholar, theorist, reader, explorer, or enthusiast of literature and nature, you will be stimulated and challenged by the journey these essays lead you on. A welcome theoretical contribution to the study of how literature can make us beter students of the environment and of our responsibilities toward it. A scholarly book in the best sense of the word—it will fire off connection after connection in your mind. A major step toward organizing the field and bringing literary studies into closer contact with what is generally recognized as a contemporary crisis. . . . A tremendous accomplishment. Provides the basis for any future discussion of ‘ecocriticism.’ It is a milestone in the emergence of the discipline. Informative and insightful . . . Because the essays in this text are accessible yet provocative, it not only serves as a sourcebook for ecocritics and those reading about literature, but would also function well as a text in a wide range of undergraduate or graduate classrooms.