Literary Studies in an Age of Environmental Crisis Cheryll Glotfelty--Ecocriticism

Literary Studies in an Age of Environmental Crisis

Cheryll Glotfelty

An avid reader, nature lover, and concerned planetary citizen, Cheryll Glotfelty was hired by the University of Nevada, Reno, in 1990, as America's first professor of literature and environment.

In 1996, she and Harold Fromm co-edited The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology, a critical anthology that helped green the field of literary studies. She is co-founder and past president of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment. Glotfelty has offered graduate seminars on ecocriticism and theory; regionalism and bioregionalism; literature of the wild; representing the other--animals in literature; environmental justice literature and theory; and ecofeminism.

Falling instantly in love with the Great Basin, and influenced by theories of bioregionalism and reinhabitation, Glotfelty has dedicated herself in recent years to "digging in" and "giving back" to the region. Her edited collection, Literary Nevada: Writings from the Silver State is the first comprehensive anthology of Nevada literature. Its goal is to showcase the state's rich literary heritage and to cultivate a love of place among residents. Her most recent book, co-edited with Tom Lynch and Karla Armbruster, is The Bioregional Imagination: Literature, Ecology, and Place (2012), which aims to think about place and planet from an ecological perspective.

Essay on Ecocriticism

Dr. S. Sreekumar

At the beginning of the essay, Cherryl Glotfelty notes that English literary studies are in a constant flux. Race, class and gender were the hot topics of the twentieth century. There was very little about the earth's life systems which were under stress. On the other hand news paper reports during the same period mentions  oil spills, lead and asbestos poisoning, toxic waste contamination, extinction of species,  growing hole in the ozone layer, predictions of global warming, acid rain, nuclear reactor disaster in Chernobyl, illegal dumping in the East, droughts, floods, hurricanes etc.

Literary criticism has not responded to the events mentioned above. The institution of literary studies was not aware of the environmental crisis.  There were no journals, no professional societies or discussion groups, and no conferences on literature and the environment. While related disciplines, like history, philosophy, law, sociology, and religion have been 'greening' since the 1970s, literary studies have remained indifferent to environmental concerns. Social movements like the Civil Rights and Women's Liberation have transformed literary studies, but environmental movement of the same period had little impact.

However, individual literary and cultural scholars have been developing ecological criticism and theory since the seventies though they did not organize themselves into an identifiable group. Each critic during this time was inventing an environmental approach to literature in isolation. As a result ecocriticism did not become a presence in institutions of power like the Modern Language Association (MLA).

Birth of Environmental Literary Studies

In the eighties, scholars began to undertake collaborative projects in the field of environmental literary studies. In 1985 F.O.Wagge edited Teaching Environmental Literature: Materials, Methods, Resources which included outputs from nineteen different scholars. In 1989 Alicia Nitecki founded The American Nature Writing Newsletter. At the same time American Universities began to include literature courses in their environmental studies curricula, and some English departments began to offer a minor in environmental literature.

In 1991 MLA organized a special session entitled "Ecocriticism: The Greening of Literary Studies". In 1992 a new Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) was formed. Its mission was "to promote the exchange of ideas and information pertaining to literature that considers the relationship between human beings and the natural world" and to encourage "new nature writing, traditional and innovative scholarly approaches to environmental literature, and interdisciplinary environmental research". ASLE's membership topped 750 by 1995 and the group held its first conference, in Fort Collins, Colorado. In 1993, Patrick Murphy established a new journal, ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment. Thus by 1993, ecological literary study had emerged as a recognizable critical school. The formerly disconnected scholars joined forces with younger scholars and graduate students to become a strong interest group with aspirations to change the profession.

Definition of Ecocriticism

Ecocriticism is the relationship between literature and the physical environment.  It takes an earth-centered approach to literary studies.

Ecocriticism asks questions like the following:-How is nature represented in this sonnet? What is the role of the physical setting in this novel? Are the values expressed in a work consistent with ecological wisdom? Do men write about nature differently than women do? What cross fertilization is possible between literary studies and environmental discourse in related disciplines such as history, philosophy, psychology, art history and ethics?

Ecocriticism takes as its subject the interconnections between nature and culture, specifically the cultural artifacts of language and literature. ‘As a critical stance, it has one foot in literature and the other on land; as a theoretical discourse, it negotiates between the human and the nonhuman’. In most literary theory 'the world' is considered equal to society--the social sphere. If we agree with Barry Commoner's first law of ecology, "Everything is connected to everything else', we must admit that literature does not float above the material world in some aesthetic ether, but is part of an immensely complex global system in which energy, matter, and ideas interact.

Taxonomy

The taxonomic name of this green branch of literary study is still discussed. J.W. Meeker called it 'literary ecology'. The term, 'ecocriticism’, was suggested by William Rueckert.  By ecocriticism he meant "the application of ecology and ecological concepts to the study of literature". Other terms in circulation include ecopoetics, environmental literary criticism, and green cultural studies. But the term ‘ecocriticism’ is preferred by most scholars. It implies interdependent communities, integrated systems, and strong connections among constituent parts.

The Humanities and the Environmental Crisis

Most ecocritical works share a common motivation. It is the troubling awareness that we have reached the age of environmental limits. ‘We are there. Either we change our ways or we face global catastrophe, destroying much beauty and exterminating countless fellow species in our headlong race to apocalypse’. English departments cannot work as usual forgetting the looming environmental crisis. 'If we're not part of the solution, we're part of the problem'.

How can the English departments contribute to environmental restoration? The answer lies in recognizing that current environmental problems are largely of our own making. It is a by-product of culture.  Scholars in humanities are finding ways to add an environmental dimension to their respective disciplines.

The Future of Ecocriticism

An ecologically focused criticism takes us to matters that need our urgent attention. ‘Consciousness raising’ is its most important task. We can solve environmental problems only by thinking about them. Glotfelty feels that ecocriticism would redraw the boundaries of literary studies. Strong voice in the profession will enable ecocritics to bring about important changes in the canon, the curriculum, and university policy. Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac and Edward Abbey's Desert Solitaire must become standard text books. Students taking literature will be encouraged to think seriously about the relationship of humans to nature, about the ethical and aesthetic dilemmas posed by the environmental crisis, and about how language and literature transmit values with profound ecological implications. Colleges and Universities will require that all students complete at least one interdisciplinary course in environmental studies.

Glotfelty feels that ecocriticism has been predominantly a white movement. It will become a multi-ethnic movement when stronger connections are made between the environment and issues of social justice, and when divergent views are encouraged to contribute to the discussion. She concludes her arguments in this section with the words of Loren Acton, a Montana ranch boy who flew on the Challenger Eight space shuttle as a payload specialist. Glotfelty feels that the boy's observations will remind us of the global context of ecocritical work:

Below was a welcoming planet. There, contained in the thin, moving, incredibly fragile shell of the biosphere is everything that is dear to you, all the human drama and comedy. That's where life is; that's where all the good stuff is.

                                               

[This is a summary of the views of Cherryl  Glotfelty on Ecocriticism. The piece entitled ‘Literary Studies in an Age of Environmental Crisis’ is summarized for undergraduate / graduate students of Indian Universities].

S. Sreekumar