The Greening of Literary Scholarship
“I'm genuinely impressed with the quality of the individual essays gathered here and with the cumulative power of the assembled material. Although I've been working in this field for a number of years, I feel as if this book offers a theoretical heft and argumentative sharpness I haven't encountered quite so fully in other books.” —Scott Slovic
“The Greening of Literary Scholarship makes a vigorous and distinctive contribution to ecocriticism. With its sensitive readings of both canonical and contemporary authors, its sophisticated grasp of social and aesthetic history, and its unusually thorough integration of theory, Steven Rosendale's collection will enrich the teaching and research of many scholars in this field. I know that it will be extremely helpful to my own.”— John Elder
A collection of thirteen original essays by leaders in the emerging field of ecocriticism, The Greening of Literary Scholarship is devoted to exploring new and previously neglected literatures, theories, and methods in environmental-literary scholarship.
Each essay in this impressive collection challenges the notion that the study of environmental literature is separate from traditional concerns of criticism, and each applies ecocritical scholarship to literature not commonly explored in this context. New historicism, postcolonialism, deconstructionism, and feminist and Marxist theories are all utilized to evaluate and gain new insights into environmental literature; at the same time, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Upton Sinclair, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Susan Howe are studied from an ecocritical perspective.
At its core, The Greening of Literary Scholarship offers a practical demonstration of how articulating traditional and environmental modes of literary scholarship can enrich the interpretation of literary texts and, most important, revitalize the larger fields of environmental and literary scholarship.