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(1) An avid reader, nature lover, and concerned planetary citizen,
Tension in Poetry by Allen
▼ 
April
(7) Cheryll Glotfelty was hired by the University of Nevada, Reno, Tate--Theory
The Historical Tension in Poetry   Allen Tate
Roots of
in 1990, as America's first professor of literature and   Lecture notes by S.
Our environment.
Sreekumar   Allen Tate was a
Ecological poet, teacher, novelist, and a
Crisis, Ly... leading expo...
Literary FEMINIST CRITICISM IN
Studies in
an Age of
In 1996, she and Harold Fromm co-edited The Ecocriticism THE WILDERNESS--Elaine
Showalter--Criticism &
Environme Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology, a critical anthology Theory
ntal
Elaine Showalter FEMINIST
Crisis... that helped green the field of literary studies. She is co-founder CRITICISM IN THE
WILDERNESS [lecture notes
THE and past president of the Association for the Study of by Dr. S. Sree Kumar]          
TWENTIE
TH Literature and Environment. Glotfelty has offered graduate Contemporary fem...
CENTURY
: POST- seminars on ecocriticism and theory; regionalism and THE FOUR KINDS OF
WAR MEANING—I A
DEVELOP bioregionalism; literature of the wild; representing the other-- RICHARDS
MENTS-- THE FOUR KINDS OF
Blam... animals in literature; environmental justice literature and MEANING—I A
RICHARDS     A revised
The Twentieth theory; and ecofeminism. version, (11th Feb 2021).  
Century I: S.Sreekumar   The following
The Early is an attempt t...
Decades
PART II... FREUD AND
LITERATURE--Lionel
The Twentieth
Century I: Falling instantly in love with the Great Basin, and influenced Trilling
The Early FREUD AND LITERATURE
Decades--
by theories of bioregionalism and reinhabitation, Glotfelty has Lionel Trilling S. Sreekumar
Trilling was an American
Blamir... dedicated herself in recent years to "digging in" and "giving literary critic and teacher who
Feminism and brought psychological, ...
Critical
back" to the region. Her edited collection, Literary Nevada:
THE
Theory--
Gayatri
Writings from the Silver State  is the first comprehensive DECONST
Chakravort anthology of Nevada literature. Its goal is to showcase the RUCTIVE
ANGEL--
...
state's rich literary heritage and to cultivate a love of place M.H.ABRA
Psychology MS
and among residents. Her most recent book, co-edited with Tom THE DECONSTRUCTIVE
Literature- ANGEL M.H.ABRAMS
-Carl Lynch and Karla Armbruster, is The Bioregional Imagination: Critical summary by Dr. S.
Gustav Sreekumar for students of
Jung Literature, Ecology, and Place (2012), which aims to think Indian Universities [The

► 
March
(3)
about place and planet from an ecological perspective. PAPER is close...

Technique as
► 
February
(2)
Discovery---
► 
January
(9) - Mark
Essay on Ecocriticism
Schorer
► 
2016
(65) Technique as
Discovery--
Dr. S. Sreekumar Criticism & Theory Dr. S.
Sree Kumar Mark Schorer

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At the beginning of the essay, Cherryl Glotfelty notes that

English believes that technique is the
Search This Blog
means by which the wr...
literary studies are in a constant flux. Race, class and gender were
CRITICISM, Inc. JOHN
Search the hot topics of the twentieth century. There was very little about CROWE RANSOM
the
earth's life systems which were under stress. On the other hand CRITICISM, Inc .   JOHN
CROWE RANSOM  
news paper
reports during the same period mentions   oil spills, (Lecture notes by Dr S.
lead and asbestos poisoning, toxic
waste contamination, extinction Sreekumar)   (Revised )
Introduction   J. C. Ransom
of species,  growing hole in the ozone layer, predictions
of global (1888 –1974), on...
warming, acid rain, nuclear reactor disaster in Chernobyl, illegal
STRUCTURALISM AND
dumping in the East, droughts, floods, hurricanes etc.
LITERATURE JONATHAN
CULLER
STRUCTURALISM AND
Literary criticism has not responded to the events mentioned LITERATURE JONATHAN
above. The
institution of literary studies was not aware of the CULLER This is a summary
of the essay purely meant for
environmental crisis.   There were no journals, no professional scholarly purpose S.
societies or discussion groups, and no conferences on literature Sreekumar ...
and the environment.
While related disciplines, like history, HORACE [65 B.C—8 B.C]
philosophy, law, sociology, and religion
have been 'greening' since —Additional materials
HORACE [65 B.C—8 B.C]
the 1970s, literary studies have remained indifferent
to —Additional materials for
environmental concerns. Social movements like the Civil Rights research scholars S.
Sreekumar Introduction
and Women's Liberation
have transformed literary studies, but Horace lived in the glorious
environmental movement of the same period
had little impact. Augustan...

THE LANGUAGE OF
PARADOX---Cleanth Brooks
However, individual literary and cultural scholars have been
THE LANGUAGE OF
developing ecological criticism and theory since the seventies PARADOX Cleanth Brooks
though they did
not organize themselves into an identifiable Lecture Notes by Dr. S.
Sreekumar [This is an attempt
group. Each critic during this
time was inventing an environmental to analyze Cleanth Brook...
approach to literature in isolation. As a
result ecocriticism did not
become a presence in institutions of power like the
Modern
Language Association (MLA).

Birth of
Environmental Literary Studies

In the eighties, scholars began to undertake collaborative

projects
in the field of environmental literary studies. In 1985 F.O.Wagge
edited Teaching Environmental Literature:
Materials, Methods,
Resources which included outputs from nineteen
different
scholars. In 1989 Alicia Nitecki founded The American Nature
Writing Newsletter. At the same time American
Universities began
to include literature courses in their environmental studies
curricula, and some English departments began to offer a minor in
environmental
literature.

In 1991 MLA organized a special session entitled

"Ecocriticism:
The Greening of Literary Studies". In 1992 a new
Association for
the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) was formed. Its
mission was "to promote the exchange of ideas and information
pertaining
to literature that considers the relationship between
human beings and the
natural world" and to encourage "new
nature writing, traditional and
innovative scholarly approaches to
environmental literature, and
interdisciplinary environmental
research". ASLE's membership topped 750 by
1995 and the group
held its first conference, in Fort Collins, Colorado. In
1993,
Patrick Murphy established a new journal, ISLE: Interdisciplinary
Studies in Literature and Environment. Thus
by 1993, ecological
literary study had emerged as a recognizable critical
school. The
formerly disconnected scholars joined forces with younger
scholars
and graduate students to become a strong interest group
with aspirations to
change the profession.

Definition of
Ecocriticism

Ecocriticism is the
relationship between literature and the physical
environment.  It takes an earth-centered approach to
literary
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studies.

Ecocriticism asks questions like the following:-How is nature

represented in this sonnet? What is the role of the physical setting
in this
novel? Are the values expressed in a work consistent with
ecological wisdom?
Do men write about nature
differently than
women do? What cross fertilization is possible between
literary
studies and environmental discourse in related disciplines such as
history, philosophy, psychology, art history and ethics?

Ecocriticism takes as its subject the interconnections

between
nature and culture, specifically the cultural artifacts of language
and
literature. ‘As a critical
stance, it has one foot in literature and
the other on land; as a theoretical
discourse, it negotiates
between
the human and the nonhuman’. In most literary theory 'the world'
is considered equal to society--the social sphere. If we agree with
Barry
Commoner's first law of ecology, "Everything is connected
to everything else', we must admit
that literature does not float
above the material world in some aesthetic
ether, but is part of an
immensely complex global system in which energy,
matter, and
ideas interact.

Taxonomy

The taxonomic name of this green branch of literary study is

still
discussed. J.W. Meeker called it 'literary ecology'. The term,
'ecocriticism’, was
suggested by William Rueckert.   By
ecocriticism he meant "the application of ecology and ecological
concepts
to the study of literature". Other terms in circulation
include ecopoetics, environmental literary criticism,
and green
cultural studies. But the
term ‘ecocriticism’ is preferred by most
scholars. It implies interdependent
communities, integrated
systems, and strong connections among constituent
parts.

The Humanities and

the Environmental Crisis

Most ecocritical works share a common motivation. It is the

troubling awareness that we have reached the age of
environmental limits. ‘We
are there. Either we change our ways or
we face global catastrophe, destroying
much beauty and
exterminating countless fellow species in our headlong race to
apocalypse’. English departments cannot work as usual forgetting
the looming
environmental crisis. 'If we're not part of the solution,
we're part of the
problem'.

How can the English departments contribute to environmental

restoration? The answer lies in recognizing that current
environmental problems
are largely of our own making. It is a by-
product of culture.  Scholars in humanities are finding ways to
add
an environmental dimension to their respective disciplines.

The Future of
Ecocriticism

An ecologically focused criticism takes us to matters that

need our
urgent attention. ‘Consciousness raising’ is its most important
task.
We can solve environmental problems only by thinking about
them. Glotfelty
feels that ecocriticism would redraw the
boundaries of literary studies. Strong
voice in the profession will
enable ecocritics to bring about important changes
in the canon,
the curriculum, and university policy. Aldo Leopold's A Sand
County Almanac and Edward Abbey's
Desert Solitaire must
become standard
text books. Students taking literature will be
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encouraged to think seriously

about the relationship of humans to
nature, about the ethical and aesthetic
dilemmas posed by the
environmental crisis, and about how language and literature
transmit values with profound ecological implications. Colleges
and
Universities will require that all students complete at least one
interdisciplinary course in environmental studies.

Glotfelty feels that ecocriticism has been predominantly a

white
movement. It will become a multi-ethnic movement when stronger
connections are made between the environment and issues of
social justice, and
when divergent views are encouraged to
contribute to the discussion. She
concludes her arguments in this
section with the words of Loren Acton, a
Montana ranch boy who
flew on the Challenger Eight space shuttle as a payload
specialist.
Glotfelty feels that the boy's observations will remind us of the
global context of ecocritical work:

Below was a welcoming planet. There,

contained in
the thin, moving, incredibly fragile shell of the
biosphere is
everything that is dear to you, all the
human drama and comedy. That's where
life is; that's
where all the good stuff is.
                        
[This is a summary of the views of Cherryl
 Glotfelty on
Ecocriticism. The piece entitled
‘Literary Studies in an Age of
Environmental Crisis’ is summarized for undergraduate
/
graduate students of Indian Universities].

S. Sreekumar

Posted by
drsreekumarenglishliterature
at
10:25

Labels:
Criticism & Theory,
Ecocriticism,
Enviornmental studies,
Green Studies,
Literary Studies in an
Age of Environmental Crisis Cheryll Glotfelty
Location:
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

11 comments:
Himani Choudhary 30 January 2018 at 05:52

thanks a lot sir :)

Reply

Unknown 11 April 2019 at 20:51

Very helpful thank you so much sir

Reply

Unknown 26 April 2019 at 07:46

This essay give a super outline for my preparation.thank u sir

Reply

Sukumar Narmalwar 10 May 2019 at 21:38

Thanks sir

Reply

Unknown 16 December 2019 at 06:33

Thank you so much for assisting us, sir.

Reply

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