ABSTRACT
In her introduction to the now classic Ecocriticism Reader of 1996, Cheryll Glotfelty cautioned against defining the field of environmental criticism too narrowly, remarking not only the breadth of ecocritical endeavor as it stood in the mid-1990s but also directions for its further development. In the generous spirit of that first must-read collection, we offer an anthology that represents the diverse concerns of environmental criticism in the twenty-first century and, in so doing, charts the considerable distance that the field has traveled since its founding. Environmental Criticism for the Twenty-First Century showcases the explosive recent expansion of environmental criticism, which is actively transforming three areas of broad interest in contemporary literary and cultural studies: science, history, and scale. By “science,” we mean environmental criticism’s sophisticated engagement with science and technology studies through the discourses of evolutionary biology, biotechnology, cybernetics, medicine, and ecology. By “history,” we indicate the expanded temporal dimension of ecocritical practice, as environmental critics rethink history as an ecological as well as human drama and uncover the complex relationships between nonhuman systems, foundational ideas such as nature, and historical literary practice. By “scale,” we evoke the complex geographical imaginaries of some of the best new ecocritical writing, which recognizes that ecological systems offer rich ground for transnational and translocal analysis. Taken together, these three areas, which form the three parts of Environmental Criticism for the Twenty-First Century, represent major, exciting directions in the future of environmental criticism. They also suggest that environmental criticism has taken a leading role in literary and cultural studies through interdisciplinary practice.
