Practical Ecocriticism: Literature, Biology, and the Environment

by Glen A. Love

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813922454
Publisher:	University of Virginia Press
Publication date:	12/16/2003
Series:	Under the Sign of Nature
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

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.

Table of Contents

	Acknowledgments	vii
	Introduction	1
1.	Why Ecocriticism?	13
2.	Ecocriticism and Science	37
3.	Et in Arcadia Ego: Pastoral Meets Ecocriticism	65
4.	Place, Style, and Human Nature in Willa Cather's The Professor's House	89
5.	Hemingway among the Animals	117
6.	The Realist in Altruria: Evolution, Utopianism, and Ecology in William Dean Howells	135
	Afterword	163
	Notes	167
	Works Cited	183
	Index	205

What People are Saying About This

"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

Joseph Carroll

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.

Lawrence Buell

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.

Editorial Reviews

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

From the Publisher

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

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