ECOCRITICISM

or GREEN STUDIES

How can we define ecocriticism?

Ecocriticism is simply
the study of the relationships between literature and the physical environment.

When did ecocriticism begin?

Ecocriticism, as a concept, arose in the late 1970s in the west of the USA through the studies in the literature of the American West and the practice began in the late 1980s. In the UK, it began in the early 1990s. However, it is still an emergent movement and does not have a widely-known set of assumptions, doctrines, or procedures.

Is ecocriticism a completely new approach in the field of literary criticism?

There had previously been a critical field known as the study of nature writing until Cheryll Glotfelty revived the term ecocriticism and urged its adoption to this type of criticism in literature.

Ecocriticism in the USA

Ecocriticism in the USA

Cheryll Glotfelty is the acknowledged founder of ecocriticism in the USA. She established the professional infrastructure of this movement.

Ecocriticism in the USA

Its connected to three 19th century American transcendentalist writers whose works celebrates nature, the life force, and the wilderness as manifested in America in 1840s. These are Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) Margaret Fuller (1810-1850) Henry David Thoreau (1817- 1862)

Why are these writers important?

Emersons first book Nature, Fullers first book Summer on the Lakes and Thoreaus Walden are considered the foundational works of American eco-centered writing.

Ecocriticism in the UK

Ecocriticism in the UK
Jonathan Bate is the founder. He is a professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford.

Ecocriticism in the UK
It goes back to the British Romanticism of the 1790s. So, British ecocritics make the point that many of their concerns were in discussion in the UK before the term ecocriticism existed.

However, there is no single founding figure within ecocriticism who has dominance over ecocritical practice.

What are the differences between the American and British ecocriticism?

Differences between the American and British ecocriticism

1. The American critics prefer the term eco-criticism, whereas green studies is frequently used in the UK.

Differences between the American and British ecocriticism

2. The infrastructure of ecocriticism in the UK is less developed than in the USA (there are no journals produced or formal bodies for ecocritics to join unlike the ones in the USA).

Differences between the American and British ecocriticism

3. The American critics tend to be more celebratory in tone. In other words, they are environmentally optimistic. Whereas, the British critics tend to be more minatory, that is, they warn us of environmental threats coming out from governmental, industrial, commercial, and neocolonial forces. In other words, they are environmentally pessimistic.

Although American and British movements are clearly linked in their aims, they differ in emphasis and ancestry.

What are the characteristic attitudes of ecocriticism?

The characteristic attitudes of ecocriticism Natural reality Ecocritics reject the notion that everything is socially and/or linguistically constructed. For the ecocritic, nature really exists, out there beyond ourselves. Its physically present as an entity which affects us, and which we can affect, perhaps fatally, if we mistreat it. We cannot reduce Nature to a concept.

The characteristic attitudes of ecocriticism

Outdoor environment can be grouped into four areas:

Area one: the wilderness (deserts, oceans, uninhabited continents)

Area two: the scenic sublime (forests, lakes, mountains, cliffs, waterfalls) Area three: the countryside (hills, fields, woods)
Area four: the domestic picturesque (parks, gardens, lanes)

The characteristic attitudes of ecocriticism

The different areas are basically a continuum from pure nature to nature that has become part of culture (is affected by culture) to predominantly culture.

The characteristic attitudes of ecocriticism

Outdoor environment can be grouped into four areas:

Area one: the wilderness (deserts, oceans, uninhabited continents)

Area two: the scenic sublime (forests, lakes, mountains, cliffs, waterfalls) Area three: the countryside (hills, fields, woods)
Area four: the domestic picturesque (parks, gardens, lanes)

The characteristic attitudes of ecocriticism

A distinction between nature and culture is not always absolute and clear-cut. We have nature, and culture, and intermediate states, and all three are real.

The characteristic attitudes of ecocriticism

Outdoor environment can be grouped into four areas:

Area one: the wilderness (deserts, oceans, uninhabited continents)

Area two: the scenic sublime (forests, lakes, mountains, cliffs, waterfalls) Area three: the countryside (hills, fields, woods)
Area four: the domestic picturesque (parks, gardens, lanes)

The characteristic attitudes of ecocriticism Areas 3 and 4 (the countryside and the domestic picturesque) are often the settings for domestic fiction and lyric poetry which centres upon relationships between human beings.

The characteristic attitudes of ecocriticism

Outdoor environment can be grouped into four areas:

Area one: the wilderness (deserts, oceans, uninhabited continents)

Area two: the scenic sublime (forests, lakes, mountains, cliffs, waterfalls) Area three: the countryside (hills, fields, woods)
Area four: the domestic picturesque (parks, gardens, lanes)

The characteristic attitudes of ecocriticism

The first two areas (the wilderness and the scenic sublime) are the settings for epic and saga which centre on relations between human beings and cosmic forces (fate, destiny, etc) and for Promethean narratives in which human beings test the limits of their scope and powers.

The characteristic attitudes of ecocriticism

What is special about the wilderness? The wilderness is entered as if instinctively by those who would find themselves. Remember Moses, Christ, Mohammad

The characteristic attitudes of ecocriticism

Is there any true wilderness?

No. Ecocritics claim that no true wilderness any longer exists on the planet, for every region is affected by global warming and other humancentered problems.

The characteristic attitudes of ecocriticism

In literary criticism, there has been always a Western cultural tradition of anthropocentric (human-centered) attitudes rather than ecocentric. In ecocriticism, they shift the focus from human-centered to the eco-centered view.

The characteristic attitudes of ecocriticism

It turns the conventional manner of reading inside out. It switches critical attention from inner to outer.
Setting is brought in from the critical margins to the center of critical discussion.

The characteristic attitudes of ecocriticism Establishing a Green Vocabulary Ecocritics add new kinds of words to balance out an ecological vocabulary in the filed of literary criticism. A great deal of this vocabulary (e.g. ecological footprint) did not exist decades ago, and emphasizes the mainstream direction of this new approach in literary criticism.

The characteristic attitudes of ecocriticism

Ecocritics give special canonical emphasis to writers who foreground nature as a major part of their subject matter, such as
the American transcendentalists, the British Romantics, the poetry of John Clare, the work of Thomas Hardy and the Georgian poets of the early twentieth century.

The characteristic attitudes of ecocriticism

Ecocritics re-read major literary works from an eco- centric perspective, with particular attention to the representation of the natural world.

The characteristic attitudes of ecocriticism

Ecocritics revalue nature writing which was marginalized before, e.g. Alfred Leopolds Sand Country Almanac.

What do ecocritics do?

What does Nature represent in the work? Can you interpret it within an ecocritical framework? Which image or symbolic representation of nature does the author construct?

What do ecocritics do?

How is culture related to nature? How do nature and human emotion relate to each other in the text? How does nature affect emotion?

Are the values expressed in this text consistent with ecological wisdom?

What do ecocritics do?

What is the relationship between humans and the environment in this text? Is the environment commodified? How do our metaphors of the land influence the way we treat it? How has the concept of wilderness changed over time?

What do ecocritics do?

In what ways and to what effect is the environmental crisis seeping into contemporary literature and popular culture? What role does nature and the landscape play here?

Terms you might come across:

Nature, nature writing, environment, environmentalism, environmental awareness, environmental consciousness, symbiosis, the wilderness, the scenic sublime, the countryside, the domestic picturesque, Anthropocentric (human-centered), light greens (environmentalists), dark greens (deepecologists), sustainable energy, ecological footprint, climate change, green living, going green, commodification, ecospirituality, ecofeminism, Pathetic fallacy, entropy