ABSTRACT
This chapter surveys the field of ecocriticism in relation to the study of literary journalism. It pays special attention to the close fit between a number of ecocriticism’s main themes and some of literary journalism’s most distinctive features, particularly as these features contrast with corresponding aspects of mainstream journalism. The chapter argues that in its slow, immersive reporting techniques, its preoccupation with everyday subjects of modest scale, and the rhetorical mobility that allows its writers to coordinate the engaging force of narrative with compelling factual exposition, literary journalism articulates the two terms of the ecocritical relationship—literature and the environment—in a unique manner that renders the genre a powerful force in the efforts to address the current ecological crisis.
