The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Environment

The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Environment is an authoritative guide to the exciting new interdisciplinary field of environmental literary criticism. The collection traces the development of ecocriticism from its origins in European pastoral literature and offers fifteen rigorous but accessible essays on the present state of environmental literary scholarship. Contributions from leading experts in the field probe a range of issues, including the place of the human within nature, ecofeminism and gender, engagements with European philosophy and the biological sciences, critical animal studies, postcolonialism, posthumanism, and climate change. A chronology of key publications and bibliography provide ample resources for further reading, making The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Environment an essential guide for students, teachers, and scholars working in this rapidly developing area of study.Introduction Louise Westling; Part I. Foundations: 1. Pastoral, anti-pastoral, and post-pastoral Terry Gifford; 2. The green otherworlds of early medieval literature Alfred Siewers; 3. 'Mapping by words': the politics of land in Native American literature Shari Huhndorf; Part II. Theories: 4. Ecocritical theory: romantic roots and impulses from twentieth-century European thinkers Axel Goodbody; 5. Nature, post nature Timothy Clark; 6. Violent affinities: sex, gender, and species in Cereus Blooms at Night Catriona Sandilands; 7. The lure of the wilderness Leo Mellor; Part III. Interdisciplinary Engagements: 8. 'Tongues I'll hang on every tree': biosemiotics and the Book of Nature Wendy Wheeler; 9. Sauntering along the border: Thoreau, Nabhan, and food politics Janet Fiskio; 10. Animal studies, literary animals, and Yann Martel's Life of Pi Sarah McFarland; Part IV. Major Directions: 11. Environmental justice, cosmopolitics, and climate change Joni Adamson; 12. Systems and secrecy: postcolonial ecocriticism and Ghosh's The Calcutta Chromosome Bonnie Roos and Alex Hunt; 13. Environmental crises and East Asian literatures: uncertain presents and futures Karen Thornber; 14. Confronting catastrophe: ecocriticism in a warming world Kate Rigby; 15. Ecocinema and the wildlife film Stephen Rust.