Table Of ContentECOCRITICISM
Greg Garrard
2
nd
edition
the NEW CRITICAL IDIOM
ECOCRITICISM
Ecocriticism explores the ways in which we imagine and portray the
relationship between humans and the environment in all areas of cultural
production, from Wordsworth and Thoreau through to Google Earth,
J.M.CoetzeeandWernerHerzog’sGrizzlyMan.
GregGarrard’sanimatedandaccessiblevolumetracesthedevelopment
ofthemovementandexploresitskeyconcepts, including:
(cid:1) pollution
(cid:1) wilderness
(cid:1) apocalypse
(cid:1) dwelling
(cid:1) animals
(cid:1) earth.
Featuring a newly rewritten chapter on animal studies, and considering
queer and postcolonial ecocriticism and the impact of globalisation,
this fully updated second edition also presents a glossary of terms and
suggestions for further reading in print and online. Concise, clear, and
authoritative,Ecocriticism offersthe idealintroduction tothiscrucialsubject
forstudentsofliteraryandcultural studies.
Greg Garrard is a senior lecturer in English Literature at Bath Spa
University,UK.
THE NEW CRITICAL IDIOM
SERIES EDITOR: JOHN DRAKAKIS, UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING
The New Critical Idiom is an invaluable series of introductory guides to today’s
criticalterminology.Eachbook:
(cid:1) providesahandy,explanatoryguidetotheuse(andabuse)oftheterm;
(cid:1) offersanoriginalanddistinctiveoverviewbyaleadingliteraryandculturalcritic;
(cid:1) relatesthetermtothelargerfieldofculturalrepresentation.
Withastrongemphasisonclarity,livelydebateandthewidestpossiblebreadthof
examples,TheNewCriticalIdiomisanindispensableapproachtokeytopicsinliterary
studies.
Alsoavailableinthisseries:
TheAuthorbyAndrewBennett IronybyClaireColebrook
AutobiographybyLindaAnderson LiteraturebyPeterWiddowson
AdaptationandAppropriationbyJulie LyricbyScottBrewster
Sanders Magic(al)RealismbyMaggieAnn
AllegorybyJeremyTambling Bowers
ClassbyGaryDay MemorybyAnneWhitehead
Colonialism/Postcolonialism–second MetaphorbyDavidPunter
editionbyAniaLoomba Metre,RhythmandVerseFormbyPhilip
ComedybyAndrewStott Hobsbaum
CrimeFictionbyJohnScaggs MimesisbyMatthewPotolsky
Culture/MetaculturebyFrancisMulhern ModernismbyPeterChilds
DifferencebyMarkCurrie MythbyLaurenceCoupe
DiscoursebySaraMills NarrativebyPaulCobley
Drama/Theatre/PerformancebySimon ParodybySimonDentith
ShepherdandMickWallis PastoralbyTerryGifford
DramaticMonologuebyGlennisByron PerformativitybyJamesLoxley
ElegybyDavidKennedy ThePostmodernbySimonMalpas
GendersbyDavidGloverandCora RealismbyPamMorris
Kaplan RhetoricbyJenniferRichards
GenrebyJohnFrow RomancebyBarbaraFuchs
GothicbyFredBotting RomanticismbyAidanDay
TheHistoricalNovelbyJeromedeGroot ScienceFictionbyAdamRoberts
HistoricismbyPaulHamilton SexualitybyJosephBristow
HumanismbyTonyDavies StylisticsbyRichardBradford
IdeologybyDavidHawkes SubjectivitybyDonaldE.Hall
InterdisciplinaritybyJoeMoran TheSublimebyPhilipShaw
IntertextualitybyGrahamAllen TheUnconsciousbyAntonyEasthope
ECOCRITICISM
Greg Garrard
Second edition
Firstpublished2012
byRoutledge
2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN
SimultaneouslypublishedintheUSAandCanada
byRoutledge
711ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10017
RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness
©2012GregGarrard
TherightofGregGarrardtobeidentifiedasauthorofthisworkhasbeenasserted
byhiminaccordancewithsections77and78oftheCopyright,DesignsandPatents
Act1988.
Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedorreproducedorutilised
inanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orothermeans,nowknownor
hereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingandrecording,orinanyinformation
storageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermissioninwritingfromthepublishers.
Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksorregistered
trademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanationwithoutintentto
infringe.
BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationData
Acatalogrecordforthisbookhasbeenrequested
ISBN:978-0-415-66785-2(hbk)
ISBN:978-0-415-66786-9(pbk)
ISBN:978-0-203-80683-8(ebk)
TypesetinGaramondandScalaSans
byTaylor&FrancisBooks
For Holly
C
ONTENTS
Series editor’s preface ix
1 Beginnings: pollution 1
2 Positions 18
Cornucopia 18
Environmentalism 21
Deep ecology 23
Ecofeminism 26
Social ecology and eco-Marxism 31
Heideggerian ecophilosophy 34
3 Pastoral 37
Classical pastoral 38
Romantic pastoral: Wordsworth versus Clare 44
American pastoral 54
Pastoral ecology 63
4 Wilderness 66
Old World wilderness 67
The sublime 70
New World wilderness 73
‘The trouble with wilderness’ 76
Austin, Leopold and Abbey: twentieth-century
nature writing 79
Beyond wilderness? 86
5 Apocalypse 93
Apocalypse and millennium 94
The secular apocalypse 97
Environmental apocalypticism 101
The trouble with apocalypse 113
viii CONTENTS
6 Dwelling 117
Georgic 117
Modern georgic: Berry, Berger and Sale 122
The ‘Ecological Indian’ 129
Writing ‘relations’: Silko and Erdrich 137
The trouble with animism 142
7 Animals 146
Looking at animals: a typology 152
Beyond boundaries: cyborgs, queer and feral animals 170
Why look at wild animals? 173
8 Futures: the Earth 181
Globe and planet 183
Gaia 199
The future of ecocriticism 201
Glossary 206
Further reading 210
Bibliography 212
Index 224
S ’
ERIES EDITOR S PREFACE
The New Critical Idiom is a series of introductory books which
seeks to extend the lexicon of literary terms, in order to address
the radical changes which have taken place in the study of
literature during the last decades of the twentieth century. The
aim is to provide clear, well-illustrated accounts of the full range
of terminology currently in use, and to evolve histories of its
changing usage.
The current state of the discipline of literary studies is one
where there is considerable debate concerning basic questions of
terminology. This involves, among other things, the boundaries
which distinguish the literary from the non-literary; the position
of literature within the larger sphere of culture; the relationship
between literatures of different cultures; and questions concerning
the relation of literary to other cultural forms within the context
of interdisciplinary studies.
It is clear that the field of literary criticism and theory is a
dynamic and heterogeneous one. The present need is for individual
volumes on terms which combine clarity of exposition with an
adventurousness of perspective and a breadth of application. Each
volume will contain as part of its apparatus some indication of the
direction in which the definition of particular terms is likely to
move, as well as expanding the disciplinary boundaries within
which some of these terms have been traditionally contained. This
will involve some re-situation of terms within the larger field of
cultural representation, and will introduce examples from the area
of film and the modern media in addition to examples from a
variety of literary texts.
NOTES ON TERMINOLOGY
Whileitisusualinacademicwritingtoreferto‘NativeAmericans’
rather than ‘American Indians’, I have used both terms inter-
changeably in this book. Neither is wholly satisfactory, and my
