xlv.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

William Rueckert, "Literatureand Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticisrn." From CHERYLL GLOTFELTY

the Iowa Review 9.1 (Winter '978): 7,-86. Reprinted by permission of the Iowa
Review and the author,
SCOttRussell Sanders, "Speaking a Word for Nature." From Secrets of the Uni-
verse by Scott Russell Sanders. © '99' by Scott Russell Sanders. Reprinted by Introduction
permission of Beacon Press.
Don Scheese, "Desert Solitaire: Counrer-Pricrion to the Machine in the Garden."
From North Dokota Quarterly 59.2 (Spring r99'): 2II-27. Reprinted by permis-
•••
sion of North Dakota Quarterly and tbe author. LITERARY STUDIES IN AN
Leslie Marmon Silko, "Landscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination." From
AGE OF ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS
AlItaeus 57 (Autumn '986): 83-94. © '986 by Leslie Marmon Silko. Reprinted
by permission of the author, her agent Sara Chalsant, and Wylie, Aitken and
tone Incorporated,
SCOttSI vic, "Na~e ~,riting and Environmental Psychology: The Interiority of
Outd~or Experience. Adapted from the introduction to Seeking Awareness in
AmeTlcal1 Nature Writing: Henry Thoreau, Annie Dillard. Edward Abbey. Wen-
Literary studies in our postmodern age exist in a state of constant flux.
dell Be,?" and Barry Lopez. © '992 by the University of Utah Press. Used by
perrrussron of the University of Utah Press. Every few years, it seems, the profession of English must "redraw the
Frederi~k !urner, "Cultivating the American Garden," From Rebirth af Value: boundaries" to "remap" the rapidly changing contours of the field. One
Med,tallOllS on Beauty, Ecology, Religioll, and Education by Frederick Turner © recent, authoritative guide to contemporary literary studies contains a full
'99'
·
by.the State University of New York . Reprinted by perrrussron
" f h S·
0 t e tate
twenty-one essays on different methodological or theoretical approaches
Uruverstty of New York Press. to criticism. Its introduction observes:
Lynn White, jr., "The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis." From Science
'55.3767 (IO March '967)' 1203-7 © AAAS R ' d Literary studies in English are in a period of rapid and sometimes disori-
A' .. . . . eprmte by permission of the
mencan Assoclanon for the Advancement of Science. enting change .... Just as none of the critical approaches that antedate this
period, from psychological and Marxist criticism to reader-response theory
and cultural criticism, has remained stable, so none of the historical fields
and subfields that constitute English and American literary studies has been
left untouched by revisionist energies .... [The essays in this volume] dis-
close some of those places where scholarship has responded to contemporary
pressures.'

Curiously enough, in this putatively comprehensive volume on the state

of the profession, there is no essay on an ecological approach to literature.
Although scholarship claims to have "responded to contemporary pres-
sures," it has apparently ignored the most pressing contemporary issue of
all, namely, the global environmental crisis. The absence of any sign of
an environmental perspective in contemporary literary srudies would seem
to suggest that despite its "revisionist energies," scholarship remains aca-
demic in the sense of "scholarly to the point of being unaware of the outside
world" (American Heritage Dictionary).
 ftj IJ -: -e, (
Vl) '" J

xvi· CHERYLL GLOTFELTY INTRODUCTION. xvii

in::/~rur knowledge of the outside world were limited to what you could able group; hence, their various efforts were not recognized as belonging
to a distinct critical school or movement. Individual studies appeared in a
quickly °d:ct;r~ ~~tO;a~~,b~;:::,o;:d o:e~~e literary thofession, you would
twentieth centur b ' er were teat tOpICS of the late wide variety of places and were categorized under a miscellany of subject
y, ut you would never suspect that the earth's lif headings, such as American Studies, regionalism, pastoralism, the frontier,
systems were under stress, Indeed ou mi I e support
an earth at all In co t if ' y ight never know that there was human ecology, science and literature, nature in literature, landscape in lit-
. n rast, 1 you were to h erature, or the names of the authors treated. One indication of the disunity
the same period you would 1 f 'I scan t e newspaper headlines of
, ' earn a 01 spills le d db' of the early efforts is that these critics rarely cited one another's work;
mg, toxic waste contaminatio .. l a an as estos pOison-
n, exnncnon of spe ' they didn't know that it existed. In a sense, each critic was inventing an
rate, battles over public la d cres at an unprecedented
growing hole in the ozone l:ye~se, Pdrotests over nuclear waste dumps, a environmental approach to literature in isolation, Each was a single voice
id rai
Ioss 0 f' topsoil, destruction of 'thpre icnons of global ' howling in the wilderness. As a consequence, ecocriticism did not become
'I' warmmg, aci ram,
the Spotted Owl in the P if N e throplca ram forest, controversy over a presence in the major institutions of power in the profession, such as
, aCI c Ort west ildfire i the Modern Language Association (MLA). Graduate students interested in
medical syringes washi h ' a WI re m Yellowstone Park
ng Onto t e shores f A I ' ' environmental approaches to literature felt like misfits, having no commu-
On tuna, overtapped aquifers in the Wes 0 t anne beaches, boycotts
nudear reactor disaster in Ch bit, Illegal dumpmg in the East a nity of scholars to join and finding no job announcements in their area of
_ ernoyne -, '
tries, droughts Ooods hurri ' ,w auto ermsstons standards fam- expertise.
_ l ,urncanes a Umted N . '
envIronment and development ' US' anons special conference on
a
decade of the environment" 'd " presidenr declaring the '990S "the
I B ,an a world p I' BIRTH OF ENVIRONMENTAL LITERARY STUDIES
Ion. rowsing through pe iodi I opu anon that topped five bil-
, no rca s you w Id d'
magazme's person of the year d ou iscover that in r989 Time
, In view of the discrepanc ~:;: went to "The Endangered Earth." Finally, in the mid-eighties, as scholars began to undertake collaborative
nons of the literary professi~n th ee~ current events and the preoccupa- projects, the field of environmental literary studies was planted, and in
sponded to contemporary ressur e c aim that literary scholarship has re- the early ninetiesit grew. In 1985 Frederick 0, Waage edited Teaching
recently there has been ntsign t~:tb;~o~esdifficult to defend. Until very Environmental Literature: Materials, Methods, Resources, which included
~ven been aware of the environmental e ,mstltullon of literary studies has course descriptions from nineteen different scholars and sought to foster
o Journals, no jargon, no jobs crISIS, For mstance, there have been "a greater presence of environmental concern and awareness in literary
~:~~P~' and no conferences on l;t::t~::f::~o~al societies or discussion disciplines." In 1989 Alicia Nitecki founded The American Nature Writ-
2

religionu~amt~es diSCIplines, like history phil t e ~nvlronment. While re-

ing Newsletter, whose purpose was to publish brief essays, book reviews,
aren ave. een "greening" since the' I oso~ y, law, sociology, and classroom notes, and information pertaining to the study of writing on
p tly remamed untinted b ' 970s, lIterary studies h nature and the environment. Others have been responsible for special envi-
movemeots, like th " . Y environmental concer ' ave ap-
ronmental issues of established literary journals.' Some universities began
sixties and ,e clv,1 nghts and women's lib ,ns. And whIle social
that th sevennes, have transformed lit erallon movements of the to include literature courses in their environmental studies curricula, a few
e environmental movement of th erary studies, it would a ear inaugurated new institutes or programs in nature and culture, and some
But appearances Can be dece' , e same era has had little' pp English departments began to offer a minor in environmental literature. In
for some of the " lVlng. In actual fact ' Impact.
and cultural h ~ssays m thIs anthology subsla ,as the publIcation dates 1990 the University of Nevada, Reno, created the first academic position

and theory s~~c~ ~s have b~en developing eCOlo:i~:;;' individual literary in Literature and the Environment.
mentioned pre' e sevennes; however, unlike th ' Ydmformed criticism
Also during these years several special sessions on nature writing or
VlOUS y
l , th ey d'd elt , SClp
. I'mary cousins environmental literature began to appear on the programs of annual lit-
1 not organize th
emselves mto an identifi- erary conferences, perhaps most notably the r991 MLA special session
 AI

x"m • CHERYLL GLOTFELTY

INTRODUCTION. xix

~;~:nized by ~arold Fromm, entitled "Ecocriticism: The Greening of Lit- represented in this sonnet? What role does the physical setting play in the
h .Y ~t~d'~i and the 1992 American Literature Association symposium p,?..r~ this noveTIAre the values expressedi;;t/iTs play consIstent with
ca.reA y en Love, entitled "American Nature Writing: New Contexts
N ew ppreaches " In h ' eC'p~.!..cal wisdom? How do our metaphors ot the land influence the way
ture Ass " . 1992, at t e annual meeting of the Western Litera- we treat it? How can we characterize nature wntln as a eme? In addition
ocranon, a new Association for the S d f .
vironmenr (ASLE) was formed' nn y a LIterature and En- torace, ~i;'s::ind ge~l~e~ sh~.i~_p~~e b~come a new critic';l cate~y? Do
ASLE's mission- "r h' with Scott Slovic elected first president. men write about nature differently than women do? In what ways has lit-
. 0 promote t e exchange f id di f C

taining to literature that id h . 0 I eas an in ormation per- eracy itself affected humankind's relationship to the narural world? How
consi ers t e reiatlOn h' b I,
and 'he natural world" d s Ip erween uman beings has the concept of wilderness changed over time? In what ways and to
an to encourage "ne ..
and innovative scholarly I, w nature wntlng, traditional what effect is the environmental crisis seeping into contemporary litera-
t iu
c

di . . approac es to envrronm d .
ture and popular culture? What view of nature informs U.S. Government
'scLpllnary environmental h". en a terature, an Inter-
hi
s 'P swelled to more than
research, In Its fi t
.. rs year,
ASL '
E s member- reports, corporate advertising, and televised nature documentaries, and to
300; rn Its second ye th b
the group created an elect "1 ar at num er doubled, and what rhetorical effect? What bearing might the science of ecology have
. rome-rna, compur k ..
munlcation among mernb .' . hi er nerwor to facilitate com- on literary studies? How is science itself open to literary analysis? What
I,a d topped 750 and the ers, inh Its td ird .
year
' 1995,
AS'
LE s membership cross-fertilization is possible between literary studies and environmental
Co1orado, In 1993 Patrick M h group oste Its first f .
. can erence, m Fort Collins, discourse in related disciplines such as history, philosophy, psychology, art
di . I' urp yestabhshed . I
ISClp mary Studies ill Ute t d . a new journa , ISLE: Inter- history, and ethics?
F .. ra ure an EnlJzronm t " .
or crmcal studies of th li en ,to prOVIde a forum Despite the broad scope of inquiry and disparate levels of sophistication,
dd . e Iterary and perform'
a ressing environmental iderari mg arts proceeding from or all ecological criticism shares the fundamental premise that human culture
th COnSI eranons Th I'
eory, environmentalism .' ese wou d mclude ecological is connected to the physical w£tld, affecting it and a~tedb-il:-kQ<;riti:
h ' conceptions of n t d'
utnan/nature dichotomy and I d a ure an thelf depictions the cism takes as its s..':'lz.i~sUh~jJ.lte~~j,sms 6etWe.m...nature and cultur~,
B re ate concerns" 4 '
• Y '993, then, ecological literar stud . specificarryt~e_cult.ural artifacts of la~!1ag~..i!!!.dJi~. As a critical
cntJcaJ school. The formerly disco: y had emerged as a recognizable stance, it has one foot in literature and the other on land; as a theoretical
Jomed forces with younger h 1 nected scattermg of lone scholars had discourse, it negotiates between the human and the nonhuman.
St . sc a ars and d
rong Interest group with as" gra uate students to become a Ecocriticism can be further characterized by distinguishing it from other
of .. . ptratlOns to ch I,
b ecocn~clsm as a critical approach thus ange t e profession. The origin critical approaches. Literary theory, in general, examines the relations be-
y more than twenty years. predates Its recent consolidation tween writers, texts, and the world. In most literary theory "the world"
is synonymous with society-the social sphere. Ecocriticism expands the
notion of "the world" to include the entire ecosphere. If we agree with
DEFINITION Barry Commoner's first law of ecology, "Everything is connected to every-
OF ECOCRITICISM
thing else," we must conclude that literature does not float above the ma-
What then ,'s e .. .
. . Cocntlclsm? Sim I .. terial world in some aesthetic ether, but, rather, plays a part in an im-
relatlOnshi~ ~e..... ".~ ,,__ P Y pUt, e<;OCflllcislU' ~
. .. 1'J'.c...~ratur~ on" "I, '. IS t e stud~ of th menselycomplex global system, in which energy, matter, and ideas interact.
n'St crJncism ex' ~",",. <l-phY~I""I-envirc' e
. anunes language and l,'t OUment. Just as femi- But the taxonomic name of this green branch of literary study is still
per specnve and M '. erature fro
being negotiated. In The Comedy of Survival: Studies in Literary Ecology
d.UCtlOnand·' arXlst cnticism br'
mgs an a
m a gender-conscious
earth-centere~c~nonuc class to its reading of t:areness of modes of pro- (I972) Joseph W. Meeker introduced the term literary ecology to refer to
'.
Ecocrmcs pproach to lirerary St d' XlS, ecoCflllclsm takes an "the study of biological themes and relationships which appear in literary
and theo . u les.
tlSts ask . works. It is simultaneously an attempt to discover what roles have been
questions like the foil .
Owmg: How is nature played by literature in the ecology of the human species.'" The term eco-
 xx • CHERYLL GLOTFELTY
INTRODUCTION. xxi

criticism was possibly first coined in 1978 by William R k in hi

"Literar dEl uec ert In IS essay departments, but, as environmental problems compound, work as usual
antholo ure an co ogy:An Experiment in Ecocriticism" (reprinted in this seems unconscionably frivolous, If we're not part of the solution, we're
gy), By ecocnncism Rueckert meant "th I" f I
d I' 1 e app icanon 0 eco ogy part of the problem.
an eco 0dglca ~oncepts to the study of litetature." Rueckert's definition
How then can we contribute to environmental restoration, not just in
conceme specifically with the s ' f' '
than the one proposed in this antholr- 0 ecology~ IS thus more restrictive our spare time, but from within our capacity as professors of literature?'
lations between literat d h thohlogy, which includes all possible re- The answer lies in recognizing that current environmental problems are
ure an t e p ysical Id ' 0 h
in circulation include ec p ti , war. t er terms currently largely of our own making, are, in other words, a by-product of culture. As
o oe tCS envIronmental lit
j .. ,
elilrural studies, I erary crtttctsm, and green historian Donald Worster explains,

Many critics write environmentall cons ' , , , , We are facing a global crisis today, not because of how ecosystems function
Or wanting a specific fot i y CIOUScnncrsrn without needing
name Or It, Others argu tha . , but rather because of how our ethical systems function. Getting through the
It was precisely because th I di eta name IS Important. crisis requires understanding our impact on nature as precisely as possible,
, e ear y stu ies lack d '
mg that they were dispersed id I ' e a common subject head- but even more, it requires understanding those ethical systems and using that
became both difficult so WI e y, failed to build on one another and understanding to reform them. Historians, along with literary scholars, an-
, ro access and negli ible i hei , '
fession. Some scholars lik h gem t elf Impact on the pro- thropologists, and philosophers, cannot do the reforming, of course, but they
. 1 e t e term ecocritid b . .
easily be made into other f lik ,elsm ecause It IS short and can can help with the understanding.'
h orms 1 e eeoentlcal d ' , ,
t ey f aver eco- over enviro- b an ecocnuc. Additionally,
,, , ecause analogous t th ' Answering the call to understanding, scholars throughout the humani-
eCOCrItlClSmstudies relari hi b' 0 e SCience of ecology
h Ions IpS etween thi , ' ties are finding ways to add an environmental dimension to their respective
uman culture and the phys] I ld mgs, m this case, between
, , ca WOr Furth " disciplines. Worster and other historians are writing environmental histo-
enutro- 1S anthropocentric and d I' .., errnore, III Its connotations
th ua rsnc Impl' h ' ries, studying the reciprocal relationships between humans and land, con-
e center, surrounded by e hi '. ying t at we humans are at
, , veryt 109 that lS he envi sidering nature not just as the stage upon which the human story is acted
10 contrast, Implies imerdepend not us, t e enVIronment. Eeo-
ent comm ,. , j
out, but as an actor in the drama. They trace the connections among envi-
strong connections among co' UllItles, mtegrated systems and
ronmental conditions, economic modes of production, and cultural ideas
will dictate which term or wh::~~~:nt parts. Ultimately, of course, ~sage
converuenr it would be to Sl'td ny term IS adopted. But think of how through time.
, I OWU at a c ' Anthropologists have long been interested in the connection between
smg e term to enter for your sub' omputenzed database and have a
Ject search .... culture and geography. Their work on primal cultures in particular may
help the rest of us not only to respect such people's right to survive, but
also to think about the value systems and rituals that have helped these
Tiff HUMANITIES AND THE ENV cultures live sustainably.
IRONMENTAL CRISIS
Psychology has long ignored nature in its theories of the human mind.
Regardless of what nam ' A handful of contemporary psychologists, however, are exploring the link-
" e It goes by m . ,
man motIvation: the troublin ,0St eCDentical work shares a _ ages between environmental conditions and mental health, some regard-
environmental limits, a time :h::~:ness that we have reached the ac::f ing the modern estrangement from nature as the basis of our social and
:;:magmg the planet's basic life supp:~;nsequences of human action~ are psychological ills.
an:e~~ur wa~s or we face global catas7r~tems. We are there. Either We In philosophy, various subfields like environmental ethics, deep ecology,
lypse. M:::m:;ng ,countless fellow species i:~~ ~estroYing much beauty ecofeminism, and social ecology have emerged in an effort to understand
a dilemma.YOuru:e: colleges and Universities wOrl;:7~on: rdace to apoca- and critique the root causes of environmental degradation and to formulate
perarnents and talents have d . e n ourselves in an alternative view of existence that will provide an ethical and conceptual
epoSlted Us in literature foundation for right relations with the earth.
 ,
CA) c... J
(J e -e, (

xxtl • CHERYlL GLOTFELTY INTRODUCTION. xxiii

Theologians, too, are recognizing that, as one book is subtitled, "The broads, and spinsters-and by locating absences, questioning the purported
Environment Is a Religious Issue." While some Judeo-Christian theolo- universality and even the aesthetic value of literature that distorts or ignores
glans attempt to elucidate biblical precedents for good stewardship of the altogether the experience of half of the human race. Analogous efforts
~arth, others re-envrsion God as immanent in creation and view the earth in ecocriticism study how nature is represented in literature. Again, con-
Itself as sacred. Still other theologians turn to ancient Earth Goddess wor- sciousness raising results when stereotypes are identified - Eden, Arcadia,
ship, Eastern relIgIOustraditions, and Native American teachings, belief virgin land, miasmal swamp, savage wilderness-and when absences are
syst~msthat contain much wisdom about nature and spirituality.' noticed: where is the natural world in this text? But nature per se is not the
L,terfaryscholars specialize in questions of value, meaning tradition only focus of ecocritical studies of representation. Other topics include the
p mt 0 VIew and lang di , , "
b ' ' , ,uage, an It IS in these areas that they are making a frontier, animals, cities, specific geographical regions, rivers, mountains,
SU stantial contnbutlon to environmental thinking Beli . th h .
ronmental crisis h b . evmg at t e envr- deserts, Indians, technology, garbage, and the body.
ized and overlys as . elendexacerbatedby our fragmented, compartmental- Showalter's second stage in feminisr criticism, the women's literary tra-
, pecia rze way of knowi h Id h ' . dition stage, likewise serves the important function of consciousness raising
are increasinglymaki If wmg t e wor , umanmes scholars
g as it rediscovers, reissues, and reconsiders literature by women. In eco-
to adopt interdiscI'pl,m an e ort tO educate themselves in the sciences and
maryapproac es. h criticism, similar efforts are being made to recuperate the hitherto ne-
glected genre of nature writing, a tradition of nature-oriented nonfiction
that originates in England with Gilbert White's A Natural History of Sel-
SURVEY OF ECOCRITICISM IN AMERICA bourne (1789) and extends to America through Henry Thoreau, John Bur-
roughs, John Muir, Mary Austin, Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, Edward
Many kinds of studies huddle under the .
criticism, for lirerature d h . spreadmg tree of ecological literary Abbey, Annie Dillard, Barry Lopez, Terry Tempest Williams, and many
. an t e environment is bi . others. Nature writing boasts a rich past, a vibrant present, and a promis-
mam that way. Severalyears h a Ig tOpIC,and should re-
. ago, w en I was atte . devi ing future, and ecocritics draw from any number of existing critical theo-
109system that would mak f" mptmg to evise a brand-
·
noveI1St,historian and li
e sense 0
.,
this mixed h d
er,
W 11
a ace Stegner- ries-psychoanalytic, new critical, feminist, Bakhtinian, deconstrucrive-
. , Iterary cntlc-offer d .
t hat If he were doing it h ld b . e some WISecounsel, saying in the interests of understanding and promoting this body of literature. As
"I d ' e wou e mclmed t I h evidence that nature writing is gaining ground in the literary marketplace,
arge an loose and suggestive and . ~ et t e topic remain
ronmem and all the ways th ' open, SImplylIterature and the envi- witness the staggering number of anthologies that have been published in
'. ey mteract and ha . recent years." In an increasingly urban society, nature writing plays a vital
mg to codify and systematiz 5 ve mteracted, without try-
"when they dry they strangl:' :~::: are like Wet rawhide," he warned; role in teaching us to value the natural world.
exactly what ecocriticism ought to be e bl~d:' 10 Suggestive and open is Another effort to promulgate environmentally enlightened works ex-
the follOWingbrief survey of e
h
. .' Iut m order to avoid confusion in amines mainstream genres, identifying fiction and poetry writers whose
sorn d'fy' CocntIca Work t d work manifests ecological awareness. Figures like Willa Cather, Robinson
e co 1 mg. Let us hereby a h 0 ate, I am going to do
Nonetheless, Elaine Showalter' gredet at the system is not to be binding Jeffers, W. S. Merwin, Adrienne Rich, Wallace Stegner, Gary Snyder, Mary
feminist '" S rno e l ofthe three d I . Oliver, Ursula Le Guin, and Alice Walker have received much attention,
. cntrcrsm provides a us f 1 h eve oprnental stages of
phases m ecocriticism.ll e u sc erne for describing three analogous as have Native American authors, but the horizon of possibilities remains
The first stage in f '. suggestively open. Corresponding to the feminist interest in the lives of
emlfllst criticism th II"

concer~ed with representations ,e . Images of women" stage is women authors, ecocritics have studied the environmental conditions of
trayed in can . 11 ' concentratmg on h ' an author's life-the influence of place on the imagination-demonstrating
oruca iterature Th . ow women are por-
of consciOusnessraising by e~po:te stud,es contribute to the vital process that where an author grew up, traveled, and wrote is pertinent to an under-
ng seXIststere0ly . standing of his or her work. Some critics find it worthwhile to visit the
peS-WItches, bitches,
 xxiv. CHERYLL GLOTFELTY INTRODUCTION. xxv

places an author lived and wrote about, literally retracing the footsteps of
A strong voice in the profession will enable ecocrirics to be influential
John Muir in the Sierra, for example, to experience his mountain raptures
in mandating important changes in the canon, the curriculum, and univer-
personally, or paddling down the Merrimac River to apprehend better the
sity policy. We will see books like Aida Leopold's A Sand County Almanac
physical context of Thoreau's meandering prose.
and Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire become standard texts for courses
The third stage that Showalter identifies in feminist criticism is the theo-
in American literature. Students taking literature and composition courses
rerical phase, which is far reaching and complex, drawing on a wide range
will be encouraged to think seriously about the relationship of humans to
of theories to raise fundamental questions about the symbolic construe-
nature, about the ethical and aesthetic dilemmas posed by the environmen-
~Ion of ?ender and sexuality within literary discourse. Analogous work
tal crisis, and about how language and literature transmit values with pro-
10 ecocnncism includes e " h b I' , ,
' xammmg t e sym 0 IC construction of speCIes, found ecological implications. Colleges and universities of the twenty-first
How ha~ literary discourse defined the human? Such a critique questions
the dualisms prevalent' Wl th h ' century will require that all students complete at least one interdisciplinary
, m western aug t, dualisms that separate mean- course in environmental studies. Institutions of higher learning will one
'ng from matter, sever mind from body, divide men from women and
day do business on recycled-content paper-some institutions already do,
wrench humanity from n tAl d " , '
a ure. re ate endeavor IS being carried out In the future we can expect to see ecocritical scholarship becoming
under the hybrid label "ecof " "h ' , '
, h li emuusrn, at eoretical discourse whose theme ever more interdisciplinary, multicultural, and international. The interdis-
IS t e ink between the Oppr ' f
Yo ,esSlon a women and the domination of nature. ciplinary work is well underway and could be further facilitated by inviting
et another theoretical proje t tt d
· th ' c a empts to eve lop an ecological poetics experts from a wide range of disciplines to be guest speakers at literary
ta k 109 e science of ecolo ' h ' ,
hasi gy, Wit ItS concept of the ecosystem and its conferences and by hosting more interdisciplinary conferences on environ-
emp asrs On 'nterconnectio d fI
Poetry fu nc tiions m, , ns an energy ow, as a metaphor for the way
socIety Eeoc ' , I .
mental topics. Ecocriticism has been predominantly a white movement. It
currenrl k d . ntlcs are a so conSIdering the philosophy will become a multi-ethnic movement when stronger connections are made
y nown as eep ecology e I' he i ,
ctitique of hr ,,' xp ormg t e Imphcations that its radical between the environment and issues of social justice, and when a diver-
ant opocentnsm m.ght have fat literary study,
sity of voices are encouraged to contribute to the discussion. This, volume
focuses on ecocritical work in the United States. The next collection may
well be an international one, for environmental problems are now global in
THE FUTURE OF ECOCRITICISM
scale and their solutions will require worldwide collaboration."
~n ecologically focused criticism is a war " In I985, Loren Acton, a Montana ranch boy turned solar astr~nomer,
u dltects Our anemion t b thy enterpnse primarily because flew on the Challenger Eight space shuttle as payload specialist, HIS obser-
, a matters a Out whi h '
ConSCiousness raising is its ' IC we need to be thinking. vations may serve to remind us of the global context of ecocritical work:
, most 'mportant t k F
envlfOnmental problems I as. or how can we solve
Looking outward to the blackness of space, sprinkled with the glory of a
I noted above that ecoc~ ess w e start thinking about them?
P h nncs ave h asplrat' h universe of lights, I saw majesty- but no welcome. Below wa,s a welcoming
er aps I should have wtitten that I h Ions to c ,ange the profession. planet. There, contained in the thin, moving, incredibly fragile shell of the
I would like to See ecocrl't" b ave such aspltatlons for ecocriticism. biosphere is everything that is dear to you, all the human drama and comedy.
d IClSm ecorne a h
re raws the boundaries of I' ' c aprer of the next book that That's where life is; that's where all the good stuff is."
'. uerary stud'es I ld lik
tn every hterature departme t f ' : wou I e to see a position
I n or a speClahst i I'
memo Would like to see cand'd ,n Iteratute and the environ-
th hi h I ates runnmg a
e g est offices in Our profess' I ,n a green platform elected to ESSAYS IN THIS COLLECTION
f .. lana organ '
emmlSt and multi-ethnic cr,'t'c I IZatlOns. We have witnessed the
f ' I a movement d'
eSSlOn,the job market and the s ra .cally transform the pro- This book is intended to serve as a port of entry to the field of ecocriti-
th f 'canon And b
e pro ession, they are helping to t . f ecause they have transformed cism. As ecocriticism gains visibility and influence wit'hin the profession,
tans orm , the world . increasing numbers of people have been asking the question, "What is eco-
 xxvi • CHERYLL GLOTFELTY INTRODUCTION. xxvii

'"
cnncrsm:
)" M h
any ot ers who are developing an interest in ecocriricism The book is divided into three sections, reflecting the three major phases
wan~ to know what to read to learn more about this approach to literary of ecocritical work. We begin with theory in order to raise some funda-
studies. Professors who are familiar with ecocriticism and its history never- mental questions about the relationship berween nature and culture and to
theless have had difficulty teaching the subject because until now there has provide a theoretical foundation upon which to build the subsequent dis-
been no general introductory text.
cussions of literary works. The second section studies representations of
, To~~ther, the essays. in thi,: anthology provide an answer to the ques- nature in fiction and drama, including reflections on the ecological signifi-
tion, What 15ecocrrticism] These essays will help people new to this cance of literary modes and narrative structures, from Paleolithic hunting
field ~o gain a sense of its history and scope, and to become acquainted stories to postmodern mystery novels. The final section focuses on environ-
with Its leading scholars Th h "
'. . ese are t e essays with which anyone wishing mental literature in America, encompassing both Native American stories
to undertake ecocritical scholarship oughtto be fa rruuar,
'1' I n a ddiinon, t h'IS and the Thoreauvian nature-writing tradition.
ant h 0 Iogy 0 f seminal and . ,
I' represenranve essays will facilitate teaching; no
bongerwill professors have to rely on the dog-eared photocopies that have
I. Ecotheory: Reflections on Nature and Culture
ebenClrcullaung In the ecocritical underground, nor will they need to worry
a OUtVIO atlng copy tight laws.
Section one opens with a famous essay by historian Lynn White, Jr., en-
This sourcebook consisting f b h ' d
b k d ' " a ot repnnte and original essays looks titled "The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis." White argues that
ac war to ongins and for war d d '
of ecocriticism k f h to tren s. Many of the seminal works the environmental crisis is fundamentally a matter of the beliefs and values
-War SOt e 1970S b J hM k ., that direct science and technology; he censures the Judea-Christian religion
err and N 'I E d f Y osep ee er, WIlham Rueck-
, er vern en orexa I . d '
lished and h ·'b mp e-e-recerw little notice when first pub- for its anthropocentric arrogance and dominating attitude toward nature.
, ave since ecome difE I btai
this anthology is to k 'I bl cu t to a tam. One of the purposes of White's article sparked heated debate and led to increased environmental
. rna e avai a ethosee 1 h b consciousness within the Christian church. Christopher Manes in "Nature
mg the roots of m d ' . , ar y gems, t ere y acknowledg-
o ern ecocrltlclsm a d - , di
Another purpose of th hi' n gJvmg cre It where credit is due. and Silence" uses the theories of Michel Foucault to consider how both
fairly general in nat
eantoogY15top
,resent
I
exemp ary recent essays, literacy and Christian exegesis have rendered nature silent in Western dis-
ure, repreSenllng a id
critical approaches. WI e range of contemporary eco- course. He contends that nature has shifted from an animistic to a symbolic
presence and from a voluble subject to a mute object, such that in our
In selecting essays for this volume th
only the classics but piece h " en, we have sought to include not culture only humans have status as speaking subjects. Harold Fromm in
s on t e cuttmg d I
we have avoided essays chok d ith e ge. n our coverage of theory, "From Transcendence to Obsolescence: a Route Map" speculates on how
" e wrt techni I" , the Industrial Revolution affected humanity's conception of its relation-
pieces wnnen in lucid prose I ddi ca Jargon m favor of accessible
. na man weh h
to b e works of brilliance th ' ' ave c osen what we consider ship to nature, warning that technology has created the false illusion that
' ,
th at switch on a light b lb i h' ose pteces that d
we control nature, allowing us to forget that our "unconquerable minds"
open oors of understanding
, u mtemmdth hi h '
m a new way. In our cove f." at e pte readeno see the world are vitally dependent upon natural support systems.
t' rage 0 vnncism h '
rear a smgle author or a sin I k. ' we ave aVOIded essays that While the first three essays discuss versions of alienation from nature,
a 'f gewor mfavor f I the next rwo essays analyze how linguistic and aesthetic categories condi-
variety 0 texts and represe t' 0 genera essays, discussing
some of the critical essays ar n 109 a rang~ of critical approaches. While tion the ways that we interact with nature. In "Cultivating the American
nature d' d e argumentattve oth . . Garden," Frederick Turner directs our attention to the problem of defining
, eSlgne to introduce th d ' ers are mstruCllonal in
Native A ' e rea etta a b d f I' nature. Is the natural opposed to the human? Is the natural opposed to
mencan literature) a Y a Iterature (such as
'. I ,a genre (such A '
a crlllca approach (such as B kh" as mencan nature writing) or the social and cultural? If everything is natural, then of what use is the
beheve th a tllllan dlalogi ) I h '
at every selection he "" CS. n Sort, We sincerely term? He discusses cooking, music, landscape painting, and gardening, as
rem IS a must read"
essay. healthy mediators berween culture and nature. In "The Uses of Landscape:
r
n"ili • CHERYLL GLOTFELTY
INTRODUCTION· xxix

the Picturesque Aesthetic and the National Park System" Alison Byerly argues that ecocritics ought to be asking questions on the order of "What
reveals the way that European aesthetics of the picturesque inform man- has counted as the environment, and what may count? Who marks off the
agement of America's public lands; park administrators are like publishers, conceptual boundaries, and under what authority, and for what reasons?"
she suggests, whose job it is "to produce and market an interpretation of
nature's text."
The next three essays of the ecotheory section tum to the science of II. Ecocritical Considerations of Fiction and Drama
ecology to consider bow this discipline applies to the literary arts. William Section two opens with a meditation on narrative by novelist Ursula K.
How~th's "Some Principles of Ecocriticism" traces the development of Le Guin entitled "The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction." Le Guin observes
the science of ecology, analyzes traditional points of hostility between the
that the (male) activity of hunting bas produced a tradition of "death"
sciencesand the humanities, and anticipates the ways that ecocriticism will stories having a linear plot, a larger-than-life hero, and inevitable conflict.
help to forge a partnership between these historic enemy cultures. After She urges that an alternative (female) tradition of "life" stories develop,
~utlInInga theory and hisrory of ecocritical principles, he describes a basic which might look to seed gathering as its model, conveying a cyclical sense
~:braryof thirty books, distilled from years of interdisciplinary reading. In of time, describing a community of diverse individuals, and embracing
Beyond Ecology: Self, Place, and the Pathetic Fallacy" Neil Evernden ar-
an ethic of continuity. The next essay, "The Comic Mode," is a chapter
gues that discoveriesin ecology d II1 bi I I . ,
. , an ce u ar 10 ogy revo utioruze our sense from Joseph W. Meeker's pioneering work The Comedy of Survival (1972).
of ~elf,tea~hmg us that "there is no such thing as an individual, only an
Speaking as both an ethologist and a scholar of comparative literature,
md,v,dual-m-context," no such thing as self, only "self-in-place." Accord-
Meeker in this book regards literary production as an important character-
Ingly,literature~via metaphor, should help us to feel the relatedness of self istic of the human species - analogous to flight in birds or radar in bats-
Withplac~. Wnnng in 1978, William Rueckert ("Literature and Ecology: and he asserts that literature
AnbExPh~nment10 Ecocriticism") coins a new term-ecocriticism-to de-
sen e IS endeavor propos t "di should be examined carefully and honestly to discover its influence upon
, ' 109 0 iscover something about the ecology
a f IIterature " that' b h ' human behavior and the natural environment-to determine what role, if any,
' ibi is, a out t e way that literature functions in the bio-
sphere. Descn mg a poem d it plays in the welfare and survival of mankind and what insight it offers into
's f as store energy, Rueckert explains that reading
1 an energy trans er d h ', human relationships with other species and with the world around us. (3-4)
P oetry and th bi ahn t at Cnt.'CS and teachers act as mediators between
e IOSPere releasing th d '
P oetry so that it fl' h e energy an mformation stored in He coins the term literary ecology for this enterprise. In the chapter re-
may ow t rough the h '
into social action. uman commumty and be translated printed here, Meeker considers the literary modes of comedy and tragedy,
The final essays of this section 0' ,
finding that, from an ecological standpoint, comedy promotes healthy,
struCturalist thea Wh p sit environmentalist versions of post- "survival" values, while tragedy is maladaptive.
ry. ereas some eeoc iti d
for its seeming denial of a h sical nics can ernn poststructuralism While Le Guin and Meeker consider literary modes, the remaining essays
bell ("The Land d L P Y ground to meanmg, SueEllen Camp- in this section turn their attention to specific literary works in America
an anguage of Desire· Wh D I
Structuralism Meet") find"k" - wnere eep Eco ogy and Post- from the colonial period to the postmodern. Annette Kolodny's The Lay
S g
critical stance and bas' t stn m parallels in the fundamental premises, of the Land: Metaphor as Experience and History in American Life and Let-
, IC actlCSa fposrsr I'
losophy, David Mazel's "Am' . ructura ISm and ecological phi- ters (1975) is by now a classic critique of male-authored American litera-
, , erican LIterary E ' I'
nc Onentalism" draws h ' nVlronmenta ISm as Domes- ture, exposing the pervasive metaphor of land-as-woman, both mother and
I upon t e theones of Juri' L '
cau t, and, most suggestivel Ed d Ssi J otman, MIchel Fou- mistress, as lying at the root of our aggressive and exploitive practices,
· y, war Said to atgue th "h '
of th e environment is itself .' at t e construcnon The excerpts reprinted here present the kernel of Kolodny's thesis, con-
. an exercise of cult 1 "
stranng that "the environment" , , I ura power. After demon- cluding that although the land-as-woman metaphor may once have been
ISa sOCIa and I' "
mgulStlc construct, Mazel adaptive, it now must be replaced with a new one. In "Speaking a Word
 xxx • CHERYLLGLOTFELTY INTRODUCTION. xxxi

for Narure" Scott Russell Sanders surveys much of rhe same literary ter- storyteller, writes in "Landscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination"
ram Kolodny does in her book, progressing from Bradford, to Bartram, about the Pueblo people, describing their relationship to the land of the
to Emerson, to Thoreau, to Faulkner, and praising these authors for their American Southwest. Pueblo oral narratives function to explain the world,
strong sense of nature. Sanders linds, however, that contemporary criti- to help people survive in it, and to transmit culture, Specific features of the
cally acclaimed fiction lacks an awareness of the natural world that' exists landscape help people remember the stories, and the stories help them to
outside the "charmed circle" of "the little human morality play," a myopia live in the land; traveling through the storied landscape corresponds to an
that minors the blindness of our culture at large.
interior journey of awareness and imagination in which the traveler grasps
;,he final two essays ~nthis section consider postmodern and "postnaru- his or her cultural identity,
ral literature, dlscovenng that this literature offers clues to a basic shift in One flourishing form of environmental literature in America is the pre-
~m~tlcan consciousness. In "The Postnatural Novel: Toxic Consciousness viously undervalued genre of nature writing. Nature writing appears as
m Fiction of the r980 "C h' D - ,
b r ' s ynt ia ertering finds contemporary novels to an "untrampled snowfield," in the words of one scholar, simply inviting
e melred w~threferences to garbage, signaling a fundamental shift in his- critical exploration. The remaining essays in this section provide a gen-
tonca consciousness a shift f I d
indusrri ' rom a cu ture elined by its production to a eral introduction to the genre and represent a broad spectrum of critical
postm usrrial culture delined b - I "
Philli -, YItSwaste, n Is Nature Necessary?" Dana approaches to it.
I IpSmarntams that the diff b '
th d'ff b I erence erween Hemmgway and Hiaasen is In "A Taxonomy of Nature Writing" Thomas J. Lyon, a leading nature-
e I erence etween mode - d '
roots of culrur I' , rrusm an postmodernism In modernism the writing scholar, describes the genre in quasi-taxonomic terms, based on
bycom difi ed te m nature : whereas i
reas in postmo derni
errusm nature is replaced the relative prominence of three important dimensions: natural history in-
rna I e repreSentatIOn.
formation, personal responses to nature, and philosophical interpretation
of nature. Michael Branch's "Indexing American Possibilities: The Natu-
III. Critical Studies of Environmental Literature ral History Writing of Bartram, Wilson, and Audubon" reviews the work
of botanist William Bartram, ornithologist Alexander Wilson, and painter
Section three serves as a refreshin to '
Postmodern I'Iterature that concluded g me after the pessimistic accounts of
'
John James Audubon to suggest that it is inaccurate to consider Henry
section is Glen A. Love's "R I _ secnon two. The lead essay of this David Thoreau the progenitor of American nature writing, that, in fact,
cism," one of the most' fl evaulmg Nature: Toward an Ecological Criti- Thoreau is a direct heir of the early romantic natural historians, whose con-
m uenna essays of th .. tributions deserve recognition. Don Scheese's "Desert Solitaire: Counter-
menr. Lovefirst speculates th I' ,e current ecocritical move-
th - at Iterary studies h - di , Friction to the Machine in the Garden" considers one of Thoreau's most
e environmental crisis . b ave remame indifferent to
,, m part ecause our di ioli 'I' , colorful followers, Edward Abbey. Scheese insists that although Abbey
vision has led to a narrowl hr ' !SCIPme s imited humanistic
, 1'£ yant opocentnc v f h . resisted the label "nature writer," he nevertheless falls squarely in the tra-
III I e. He then recomm d th _ lew 0 w at rs consequential
heIP, redirect us from ego-
en s at revalmn
-
"
g natllre-onented literature can dition of nature writing established by Thoreau and carried on by John
The willingness to "re consciousness
I l)
t " .
0 eco-consclOusness.n Muir and Aldo Leopold, all of whom sought to instill a land ethic in the
va ue nature ' d I'
readers to seek wisdo ' N' -ortente Iterature has led many American public.
d m in atlve Americ
rea ers are often ignorant of th I an texts. These well-meaning In order to convey a sense of the tradition of women's nature writing and
ecuturalandh' - lb to explore the difference between masculine and feminine environmental
sary to understand this lite In !Stonca ackground neces-
P '" rature, "The Sa d H ethics, Vera L. Norwood ("Heroines of Nature: Four Women Respond to
erspectlve, Paula Gunn All h cre oop: A Contemporary
. '. en Caract . . .
cemng reahty and some fund enles some d!Stlnctive ways of per- the American Landscape") reviews the work of Isabella Bird, Mary Austin,
'of amental assu '
I orm American Indian Iiterat ' mptlons about the universe that Rachel Carson, and Annie Dillard, linding that even as these women defend
Western literary traditions. Lesl:"M makmg It qualitatively different from wild nature, their attitude toward it is ambivalent, part of them preferring
armon SJlko, herself a Laguma Pueblo the safe and the tame. Counterbalancing the many critics of nature writ-
 xxxii. CHERYLL GLOTFELTY
INTRODUCTION. xxxiii

ing who appreciate its careful attentiveness t

("Nature Writing and Envi Ip 0 the nonhuman, Scott Slovic NOTES
ronmenta sycholog' Th I "
d oor Experience") clai h h y, e ntettottty of Out-
alms t at t e eye of th '
turned inward Nature' h e nature wrrter is most often 1. Stephen Greenblatt and Giles Gunn, eds., Redrawing the Boundaries: The
, Wnterssuc as Ann' Dill d
dell Berry and Barry L ie I ar , Edward Abbey Wen- Transformation of English and American Literary Studies (New York: MLA, 1992)
' opezgotonatureinod'd '
o f consciousness within th I r er to m uce elevated states 1-3·
ernse ves he suspe t d ' , 2. Frederick o. Waage, ed., Teaching Environmental Literature: Materials, Meth-
t h e p henomenon of a th ' c s, an m their accounts of
wareness ey are a h r ods, Resources (New York: MLA, '985) viii.
t h ey are natural historians, s muc Iterary psychologists as
3. Special environmental issues of humanities journals include Antaeus 57 (Au-
The collection concludes with M' h I tumn 1986), ed. Daniel Halpern, reprint, as On Nature (San Francisco: North Point
what crirical approach IC ae ], McDowell's consideration of
f I d seems most promisin f ' Press, 1987); Studies in the Humanities 15.2 (December 1988), "Feminism, Ecology
o an scape writing, In "Th B kh " g or an ecologIcal analysis and the Future of the Humanities;' ed. Patrick Murphy; Witness 3.4 (Winter 1989),
McDowell argues that b e he tm:an Road to Ecological Insight" "New Nature Writing," ed. Thomas J. Lyon; Hypatia 6.1 (Spring 1991), "Ecologi-
Mikh 'I ecause t e RUSSIan hil
I aI, Bakhtin incorporates much of h P I ~sopher and literary critic cal Feminism," ed. Karen J, Warren; North Dakota Quarterly 59.2 (Spring I991),
la!lOnshlps embraced by the h d ,t e thmkmg about systems and re- "Nature WritersfWriting," ed. Sherman Paul and Don Scheese; CEA Critic 54.1
an ideal perspective for ecocr't~ SCiences, his literary theories provide (Fall 1991), "The Literature of Nature;' ed. Betsy Hilbert; West Virginia Univer-
I'"
,ogleSl IUc.1Udtng the "chronoto
P
e:
IICSpartillB'
eu ~r y .akhtin's notions of dia- sity Philological Papers 37 (1991), "Special Issue Devoted to the Relationship Be-
tng Bakhnnian dialogics M D and the carmvalesque." After review- tween Man and the Environment," ed. Armand E. Singer; Weber Studies 9.1 (Win~
takine " , ' cowell offers I ter 1992), "A Meditation on the Environment," ed. Neila C. Seshachari, Praxis 4
mg practIcal ecocriticism " Th severa suggestions for under-
note for this book as a whol~ dee,nd of his essay sounds a perfect final (1993), «Denatured Environments," ed. Tom Crochunis and Michael Ross; Georgia
general' "E ' an , mdeed f h ' , Review 47,r (Spring 1993), "Focus on Nature Writing," ed. Stanley W. Lindberg
' very text, as Bakhtin unf 'I' I' or t e ecocrincal project in
fur th er cornm f a, 109 y tells ' di and Douglas Carlson; lndiana Review 16.1 (Spring 1993), a special issue devoted to
11 ents rom other poi t f' us, IS a laJogue open for
writing on nature and the environment, ed. Dorian Gassy; Ohio Review 49 (1993),
o enable the reader to p n Sf0 VIew, There is no conclusion"
reference ill 'I ursue urther stud h . "Art and Nature: Essays by Contemporary Writers," ed. Wayne Dodd; Theater 25.1
fordabl ."tena at the back of the book y, We ave included some (Spring/Surruner r994), special section on "Theater and Ecology," ed. Una Chaud-
a Y pnced and easy to use we h . In order to keep this volume af- huri; Weber Studies II.3 (Fall 1994), special wilderness issue, ed. Neila C. Seshachari
w:~~p~;:e:ve bibliography 'on lit:;:t~:~sted the tern~tation to include and Scott Siovic.
liograph of ok In Itself." Instead, we have~d the envIronment, which 4. Information on The American Nature Writing Newsletter, the Association for
bibl' y h the mOSt Important bo k' ompI1ed an annotated bib- the Study of Lirerarure and Environment (ASLE), and ISLE can be found in the
IOgrap yar b d 0 smecoc" , Periodicals and Professional Organizations section at (he back of this book.
ecocritics R de ase on responses to I tttlclSm. Selections for the
. ea mg th b an e ectro ' 'I 5. Joseph W, Meeker, The Comedy of Survival: Studies in Literary Ecology (New
field Th I' ese ooks will pro 'd nlc-rnal survey of ISO
, e 1St of p 'd' VI e an e II York: Scribner's, 1972) 9. A chapter of Meeker's seminal work is reprinted in this
interested teader etto Icals and professional xce ,ent grounding in the
anthology.
lone scholar h s ~ay abreast of eCOCritical horganIzatIons should help
6. Wendell V, Harris in "Toward an Ecological Criticism: Contextual versus
a grOWing cow 0 owls in the Wilderness ~c olarship and will show the
Unconditioned Litetary Theory" (College English 48,2 [February r986]: ,,6-3')
trust that this";::'f. of scholars active in e~; to bec,ome a member of draws upon Saussure's distinction between langue and parole, defining "ecological"
to explore the " Ike a good map will' oglca! hterary studies. We theories (he includes speech-act theory, the sociology of knowledge, argumentation
ecocnneal terrain. ' lOspIre Intellectual adventurers
theory, and discourse analysis) as those that investigate the individual parole an~
the interactive contexts-the "interpretive ecologies" (129) -that make corrunum-
cation possible. . .
Marilyn M. Cooper in "The Ecology of Writing" (College Engltsh 48.4 [Apnl
 )Q[l(iv • CHERYLL GLOTFELTY
INTRODUCTION. xxxv

~986J:364-75) ptoposes an "ecological model ' ,

(S that writing is an activity thr u h hi h of wnnng, whose fundamental tenet
, ogwlcap , , York: Simon and Schuster, 1992); Morris Berman, Coming to Our Senses: Body and
varIety of SOciallyconstituted sysr "( erson IS COntinually engaged with a
Spirit in the Hidden History of the West (New York: Bantam, 1989); Paul Shepard,
Harris and C ems 367),
h bi ooper Usethe science of ecolo ( , Nature and Madness (San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1982); Theodore Roszak, Mary E.
a trat, and community) as I gy speClfically its concepts of webs
, an exp anatory h ' Gomes, and Allen D. Kanner, eds., Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the
commumcation, but they do I metap or to develop a model of human
Mind (San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1995).
h ' I not exp are how rhi h
P jsrca world, and so their stud' . S uman activity interacts with the
In philosophy, see the journal Environmental Ethics. An excellent introductory
term be used. res are not ecocritical as I am proposing that the
anthology is Michael E. Zirrunerman et aI., eds., Environmental Philosophy: From
7, Although this book f
ocuses On schol h' " Animal Rights to Radical Ecology (Englewood Cliffs, N.].: Prentice Hall, 1993). Also
sors may Ultimately make the greats t i ars ~p,It ISthrough teaching that profes- good are Carolyn Merchant, Radical Ecology: The Search for a Livable World (New
see Waage To h' s Impact tn the w Id F '
" ' eac mg Environmental L 't or . Or Ideas on teaching York: Routledge, 1992); Max Oelschlaeger, ed., The Wilderness Condition: Essays
Includes . l erature' CEA C ' , ,
Id a section entitled "p'
ract!curn" _ . ' rule 54. 1 (Fall 1991) ,W hirc h on Environment and Civilization (Washington, D.C.: Island Press, 1992).
eas, SampleSyllahi and R ' 43 77, Cheryll Glotfelty "Te hi G
En " , esources " and W"l ' , ac mg reen: In theology, a fine introduction to the current environmental thinking of a variety
jr\V~lronmenraJ Writers," both in ISLE I (S I ,harn Howarth, "Literature of Place of the world's major religions is Steven C. Rockefeller and John C. Elder, eds., Spirit
western Yes B I ,1 pnng 1993)' '
IvesternA
V- " ut s It Literature)' 1i bi .151-78; Cheryll Glorfelry and Nature: Why the Environment Is a Religious Issue (Boston: Beacon, 1992). See
' L' .. eac mg R ld L '
"!erlcan
StudY ofLltera tterature 27,4 (Feb ona anner's The Pinon Pine" also Charles Birch et al., eds., Liberating Life: Contemporary Approaches to Eco-
ruary 1993)' 30 Th '
able to i ture and Environment (ASLE) .' 3-10. e Association for the logical Theology (Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis Books, 1990); Eugene C. Hargrove, ed.
o Irs members F mamtams a II b
in general s D id Ora provocative discussl'o f h sy a us exchange avail- Religion and Environmental Crisis (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1986).
, ee aVI WOn ate role f hi h Wallace Stegner, letter to the author, 28 May 1989.
Postmodern World ,rr, Ecological Literac : Edu' 0 Ig er education 10.

8. Donald \Xl (Albany: State University of~ ~ catIon and the Transition to a II. See Elaine Showalter, "Introduction: The Feminist Critical Revolution,"
10 i ,orster, The Wealth of ew ark Press, 1992), The New Feminist Criticism: Essays on Women, Literature, and Theory, ed. Elaine
~9ca~~magmation (New York: OXfor~:ure: EnVironmental History and the Eco- Showalter (New York: Pantheon, 1985) 3-17. [ first presented these ideas in a con-
. 0 nOt presume to h IVerslty Press I )
these and oth I ave full command of h ' 993 27· ference paper: Cheryll Burgess [Glotfelty 1, "Toward an Ecological Literary Criti-
er re ated fi ld b t e range of '
boOks and k' e s, Ut I Can direct th d envIronmental work in cism," annual conference of the Western Literature Association, Coeur d'Alene,
I . ey Journals. e rea er to Some good introd Idaho, October 1989.
n enVIrOntne I h' uctory
. nta lstory h'
tJ~n, See Donald Worster ' see t e Journal Environmental' . 12. The following are only some of the most recent nature writing and nature
Vironmental H' t ' ed., The Ends of th E h HIStory ReVieW. In addi- poetry anthologies:
IS ory (Ne ~ e art, Po '
Wealth ofN Ri work: Cambridge U'
h. " erspectrves on Modern En- Adkins, Jan, ed, Ragged Mountain Portable Wilderness Anthology. Camden,
a,.re; chard Wh' mverSIty Pr
OprneDtof a New H' " Ire, "American En . ess, 198B); Worster, The Maine: International Marine Publishing, 1993.
297-335' "A R d Istoncal Field," Pacific H' vlronmental History: The Devel- Anderson, Lorraine, ed. Sisters of the Earth: Women's Prose and Poetry about
, Qun Table. E . tstorlcal Rev'
76'4 (March 1990) wh' h" nV!ronmental History" J lew 54,3 (August 1985): Nature. New York: Vintage, 1991.
Ing lC mclud I ' Ournal of A '
Statements by AlI d
l
es a ead essay b D 11tencan History Begiebing, Robert J" and Owen Grumbling, eds, The Literamre of Nature: The
Cronan, and Stephen;e PyW, Crosby, Richard Wh~ ~nald Worster and respond- British and American Traditions. Medford, N.].: Plexus, 1990,
In anthropology see'M ne: I e, arolyn Merchant, William Finch, Robert, and John Elder, eds, The Norton Book of Nature Writing. New
mHarris, Cannibals and Ki York: Norton, 1990.
(New York: Vinta~e 19 I a,rv
(New Haven: Yale Uni 9 J~Mark Nathan COhen Ii I ngs: The Origins of Cultures Halpern, Daniel, ed. On Nature. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1987.
In psychology,see 1r:;~lty Press, 1989), ' ea th and the Rise of Civilization Knowles, Karen, ed. Celebrating the Land: Women's Nature Writings, r850-I99I.
Natural EnvirOl1Jnent N Altman and JoaChim F . Flagstaff, Ariz.: Northland,1992.
Kaplan, The Experien~e e; York: Plenum Press, ,;~~hlwJ!l, eds., Behavior and the Lyon, Thomas]., ed, This Incomperable Lande: A Book of American Nature Writ-
bndge University Press : ~a)mr" A PSychological ~' Rachel Kaplan and Stephen ing, Boston: Houghton Milllin, 1989.
, 9 9 ; TheOdore R k erspective (New York, C Lyon, Thomas J., and Peter Stine, eds. On Nature's Terms: Contemporary Voices.
osza The V. ' • am-
, Olce of the Earth (New College Station: Texas A&M Unive1sity Press, 1992.

=--=-===
 Xxxvi • CHERYLL GLOTFELTY
INTRODUCTI ON • xxxvii

Merrill, Chrisropher, ed, The Forgotten Language: Contemporary Poets and No.
ture, Salt Lake City: Gibbs M. Smith, "99I. Addison-Wesley, 1988.
Kelley Kevin W., ed. The Home d fPlanet. NewStudies
Survival: York: III
.. LIterary Ecology. New York:
Morgan, Sarah, and Dennis Okerstrom, eds, The Endangered Earth: Readings for , h The Come yo " "
Writers. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, '992. b Meeker, Josep 2
Scribner 5, 19 . . . d Ecology: n x " in Ecocriticism. Iowa
' "11" 7 "LIterature an A E penment m
Murray,
"994· John A., ed. American Nature Writing "994. San Francisco: Sierra Clu ,
Rueckert, WI1 13m. 8 . 1 -86. Iv. men Literature,
Review 9. (Winter I9 7 )N' 7 Feminist Criticism: Essays on 0 !
-. Nature's New Voices. Golden, Colo.. Fulcrum, "992. I' ed~e h ew d
Pack, Robert, and Jay Parini, eds. Poems for a Small Planet: Contemporary Ameri- Showalter, E ame, . k· Pantheon, '985. " . Materials, Metha s,
and Theory. New Yor . 'T' bing Environmental Literature:
call Nature Poetry. Hanover: University Press of New England, "993. d ick 0 ed. ,eac " I
Ronald, 8
cisco: Ann,
Sierraed. Words
Club, 198for
7, the Wild: The Sierra Club Trailside Reader. San Fran- Waage, Fre eNtlc Y;rk: MLA, "9 5.
Resources. ew .
Ih f Nature: Enuironme ntal History and the Ecologica
Id The Wea top
Worster, Dona . f d University ress, I 993.
Sauer, Peter, ed. Filldillg Home: Writillg all Nature and Culture from Orion Maga- . N ew York: Ox or
Imagination.
zine. BOSton: BeacOn,1992..

SlaVic, SCOttH., and Terrell F. Dixon, eds. Being in the World: An Environmental
Reader for Writers. New York: Macmillan, r993.
Swann,
Calif.:Brian,
Tioga,and Peter Borrelli, eds. Poetry from the Amicus Journal. Palo Alto,
'990.

Walker, Melissa. Reading the Ellvirollment. New York: Norton, '994.

Wild, Peter, ed. The Desert Reader. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 199I.
'J. For a promising first step in international collaboration, See The Culture of
Nature: Approaches to the Study of Literature alld Ellvironment, ed. SCOtt Slovic and
Ken-icbi NOda (Kyoto: Minerva Press, '995).

'4. This quote, and many others from astronauts and cosmonauts around the
World, is 8primed in The Home Plallet, ed. Kevin W. Kelley (New York: Addison-
Wesley, '9 8) 2'. I am proud to say that Loren Acton is my father.
'5· For ~ reasonably comprehensive bibliography of critical studies of literature
and the envlIOnment, see Alicia Nitecki and Cheryll Burgess [Glotfelry], eds., "Lit-
erature andr the
91 Environmem: References," The American Nature Writing Newsletter
3·' (Spring 9 ): 6-22. An excellent annOtated bibliography of nature writing and
scholarship appears in Lyon, This Incamperable Lallde 399-476. The Association
for the Stndy of Literature and Environment (ASLE) pUblishes an annual bibli-
ography, available to ASLE members; see Associatioll for the Study of Literature
andhEhnvlrolltllent,
W ic IS rae pagesASLE Bibliography
in length d "b'1990-1993, ed, Zita. Ingham and Ron Steffens,
"
dl"lSlons. ,
""" , escrl ltlg 700 works WIth annotations and subject

Greenblatt, Stephen, and Giles G d .

mation of En lt h nd A . unn, e s. Redrawmg the Boundaries: The Transfor-

g" a merlcoll LIterary Studies. New York: M.LA, '992.