Since the publication of William Rueckert’s Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism in 1978, the field of ecocriticism has boomed within the field of literature studies, establishing itself as an integral part of the environmental humanities. In general, advocates of this school of thought deal with the web of relationships between cultural products and nature. In doing so, they intentionally express their cultural and literary critiques from an environmentally political perspective. Objects of study include texts, poems, plays, and, increasingly, visual productions like films and artwork. While the ecocritical approaches to these formats are diverse, a common and constant goal is to eliminate the dichotomy between nature and society. As such, ecocritics deconstruct topics encompassing, for example, the dearth of adequate responses to environmental crises, the neglecting of environmental concerns, and romanticized conceptions of nature. Environmental justice and ethics also provide platforms for ecocriticism.
- Clark, Timothy. The Cambridge Introduction to Literature and the Environment. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.
- Glotfelty, Cheryll, and Fromm, Harold, eds. The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1996.
- Rueckert, William. “Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism.” In Iowa Review 9, no. 1 (1978): 71-86.