Harold Fromm, provides examples from the field and traces the development of
this critical movement from the 1960s. Additional trends and debates in the field
are addressed in Beyond Nature Writings: Expanding the Boundaries of Ecocriticism
(2001) and The ISLE Reader: Ecocriticism, 1993–2003 (2003).
TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION AND RESEARCH
- The 1970s ushered in the first wave of environmental legislation. Earth Day
was established in 1970, as was the Clean Air Act. The Endangered Species
Act was passed in 1973. This context can be a starting point for considering
the relationship between nature writing and ecological awareness and environ-
mental justice. American Earth: Environmental Writing since Thoreau (2008),
edited by Bill McKibben, includes an array of primary works that describe and
question humanity’s impact on the environment. As students read these selec-
tions, they might consider the following questions: How do the writers define
terms like environment and nature? What kinds of environment are each of
the writers interested in (wild, domestic, urban, suburban, agricultural)? What
are the writers’ attitudes toward these environments? What are the writers’
attitudes toward human activities within these environments? How do these
attitudes support and/or challenge those held by the mainstream culture?
What actions do they propose? - Pastoral is a term traditionally applied to poetry about shepherds and rural folk
but now used more broadly to describe literary works that contrast rural life,
usually idealized, with urban life. In addition to describing form and content,
pastoral can also impart a pejorative attitude when applied to works whose
ideal representations ignore the material reality of the environment. In Pastoral
(1999) Terry Gifford defines the various definitions and uses of pastoral. Stu-
dents might wish to apply Gifford’s criteria to contemporary works about the
environment, paying particular attention to how pastoral elements function
with regard to theme, tone, and style. - Women writers have been wary of invoking nature in their work because
of stereotypical representations of their gender as controlled by nature that
often reinforced the notion that they lacked reason and should be confined
to domestic spaces. Since 1970 more women “have begun to invoke nature
for feminist purposes or have used nature as an agent of resistance,” as noted
by Barbara J. Cook in her introduction to Women Writing Nature: A Feminist
View (2007). Students might be interested in using ideas from the essays col-
lected by Cook to examine the ways nature writing by women challenges the
dual exploitation of the environment and women, questions the stereotypi-
cal association of women with wilderness, proposes alternative relationships
between humanity and the environment, and ultimately, “questions the tradi-
tional notion that the wilderness is ‘no place for women.’” Suggested works for
further study include Terry Tempest Williams’s Refuge: An Unnatural History
of Family and Place (1991), Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal Dreams (1990), Mary
Clearman Blew’s Balsamroot: A Memoir (1994), Toni Morrison’s Jazz (1992),
Gloria Naylor’s Mama Day (1988), and poetry by Mary Oliver.