Practical Ecocriticism: Literature, Biology, and the Environment (Under the Sign of Nature: Explorations in Environmental Humanities) - Softcover

Love, Glen A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0813922453 ISBN 13: 9780813922454

Publisher: University of Virginia Press, 2003

Synopsis

Practical Ecocriticismis the first book to ground environmental literature firmly in the life sciences, particularly evolutionary biology, and to attempt to bridge the ever-widening gulf between the "Two Cultures." Glen Love―himself one of the founders of ecocriticism―argues that literary studies has been diminished by a general lack of recognition for the vital role the biological foundation of human life plays in cultural imagination. Love presents with great clarity and directness an invaluable model for how to incorporate Darwinian ideas―the basis for all modern biology and ecology―into ecocritical thinking.

Beginning with an overview of the field of literature and environment and its claim to our attention, and arguing for a biologically informed theoretical base for literary studies, Love then aims the lens of this critical perspective on the pastoral genre and works by canonical writers such as Willa Cather, Ernest Hemingway, and William Dean Howells. A markedly interdisciplinary and refreshingly accessible work, Practical Ecocriticism will interest and challenge the entire ecocritical community, as well as humanists, social scientists, and others concerned with the current rediscovery of human nature.

About this title

About the Author:

Glen A. Love is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Oregon, where he taught American literature and initiated courses in bioregional and environmental literature over the past three decades. His ecocritical publications include New Americans and numerous periodical essays on literature and the environment. He and his biologist wife, Rhoda Love, published the groundbreaking anthology, Environmental Crisis, at the beginning of the modern environmental movement.

Review:

Love’s reputation precedes him: He was the single most influential intellectual spirit behind the takeoff phase of the ecocritical movement. A substantial, original contribution to the field, Practical Ecocriticism will be a widely influential book.

(Lawrence Buell, author of Writing for an Endangered World: Literature, Culture, and Environment in the U.S. and Beyond )

Practical Ecocriticism fills an important niche unoccupied by any other book. Love is mediating between two rapidly developing fields that have hitherto had only glancing connections: ecological literary criticism and evolutionary psychology. As he so persuasively argues, these fields are contiguous and interdependent. This is an immensely valuable contribution and should long provide a central point of reference and information.

(Joseph Carroll, author of Evolution and Literary Theory)

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Virginia Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0813922453
• ISBN 13: 9780813922454
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224