ABSTRACT
Ecocriticism has emerged as a reaction to postmodern and poststructural approaches, in which nature and the environment had lost all importance. It is both a critical method of inquiry and an ethical discourse and aims at bridging the gap between the arts and science. Ecocriticism is shaped by a variety of theoretical approaches and disciplinary influences, all founded on a common concern about humanity's ethical relationship to nature. A diachronic perspective shows that ecocriticism is an evolving method, which can be brought to bear on different geographical areas or time periods. In its beginnings, ecocriticism exclusively focused on the literature of the American West and on the representation of American nature in nonfictional texts dealing with the wild. Today, critics tend to point to the limits of ecocriticism, viewing it from outside the North American context in which it emerged.
