ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter provides an outline of ‘death-facing ecology’ as a thematic device in contemporary British and North American environmental crisis fiction. It considers its value for literary critics and ecocritics and explores its relationship with culture and with contemporary theory. It also considers the way death-facing acts as a counter to death-denial, discussed in relation to a history of Western thought and especially poststructuralism. The introduction offers some introductory thoughts on the ways in which death-facing ecology signals a response to the environmental crisis, within this fiction, as well as on how this fiction undermines the idea of a death-facing ecology, suggesting some of the challenges that appear at a time of environmental crisis. An overview of chapters is also provided.
