Ecocriticism

1
Ecocriticism

• Basics (apply to Into the Wild)

2
Ecocriticism

• The study of the relationship between literature
  and the physical environment.

3
Ecocriticism

• As it now exists in the US, takes its literary
  foundations from three American writers whose
  work celebrates nature, the life force, and the
  wilderness
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Margaret Fuller
• Henry David Thoreau

4
Ecocriticism vs. green studies

• US calls lens ecocriticism and focuses on the
  celebration of nature
• UK calls lens green studies and focuses on the
  threats or dangers of nature

5
Ecocritics

• Reject the belief that everything is socially or
  linguistically constructed. They reject the
  entire belief of constuctedness.
• Nature really exists beyond ourselves but is with
  us and affects us (perhaps fatally if we mistreat
  it)

6
Shades of Nature

• Area one the wilderness (deserts, oceans,
  uninhabited continents)
• Area two the scenic sublime (forests, lakes,
  mountains, cliffs, waterfalls)
• Area three the countryside (hills, fields,
  woods)
• Area four the domestic picturesque (parks,
  gardens, lanes)

7
Shades of Nature (cont.)

• The different areas are basically a continuum
  from pure nature to nature that has become part
  of culture (is affected by culture) to
  predominantly culture.

8
Critical Center

• We switch our critical attention from inner to
  outer
• What had seemed as mere setting is taken from a
  minor point in discussing literature to the
  center of the discussion.

9
Pathetic fallacy

• Our instinctive tendency to see our emotions
  reflected in our environment
• Example cruel sea projects the human attribute
  of cruelty onto a natural element

10
Work Cited

• All info borrowed or directly quoted from Peter
  Barrys book Beginning Theory An Introduction to
  Literary and Cultural Theory