0 Contemporary Literature, 1970 to Present
- In her introduction to American Indian Literature, Environmental Justice and
Ecocriticism: The Middle Place (2001) Joni Adamson argues that American
Indian literature offering “insider” perspectives expands and challenges those
of “outsiders” or European Americans, writing: “The outsider and the insider
may view the same piece of ground, but where one sees mountains or val-
leys, the other sees the ‘invisible landscape’ of local and lived significance.
The outsider follows a map’s pattern of contours, symbols, and colors over
geographical surface, but the insider annotates the map, tracing the invisible
landscape.” This idea can be the starting point for considering connections
between Native American identity and the land and parallels between envi-
ronmental degradation and loss of indigenous culture in works such as Louis
Owens’s Wolfsong (1991), Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony (1977), Louise
Erdrich’s Tracks (1988), and Joy Harjo’s She Had Some Horses (1983) or Secrets
from the Center of the World (1989). For suggestions about African American
writers and environmental issues, see Sylvia Mayer’s Restoring the Connection
to the Natural World: Essays on the African American Environmental Imagina-
tion (2003). - In “The Non-Alibi of Alien Scapes: SF and Ecocriticism” in Beyond Nature
Writings: Expanding the Boundaries of Ecocriticism (2001) Patrick D. Murphy
discusses the ways science fiction promotes awareness of environmental issues.
By presenting conflicts whose resolutions depend upon human and non-
human relationships, these and other works of speculative fiction function
as “ecological parables” highlighting our own environmental problems and
choices. Focusing on a particular work, students can analyze its presentation of
the environment, human responses to it, and consequences of those responses.
Appropriate works include those by Ursula K. Le Guin, particularly The Word
of World Is Forest (1972) and the Earthsea Trilogy; the six novels comprising
David Brin’s Uplift Universe series; the six novels in Frank Herbert’s Dune
saga; and Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower (1993). Students could extend
Murphy’s argument to other kinds of genre and popular forms of fiction.
Nevada Barr’s series of mysteries featuring park ranger Anna Pigeon, for
example, all take place in a different national park and feature a mystery high-
lighting an environmental issue.
RESOURCES
Primary Works
Robert Finch and John Elder, eds., The Norton Book of Nature Writing, second
edition (New York: Norton, 2002).
A well-annotated anthology, focusing on nonfiction prose, with broad selections
from the best-known nature writers and useful introductions.
Bill McKibben, ed., American Earth: Environmental Writing since Thoreau (New
York: Library of America, 2008).
Collection of works by key writers that focuses on environmental conservation
and activism; includes a chronology of the environmental history movement.