The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology

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The Ecocriticism Reader

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LANDMARKS IN LITERARY ECOLOGY

Edited by Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm

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THE UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA PRESS

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ATHENS AND LONDON

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@ t996 by the University of Georgia Press Athens, Georgia lo6oz "Some Principles of Ecocriticism" @ tggS by \Tilliam Howarth "The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction" @ 1986 by Ursula K. Le Guin

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CONTENTS

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This book is printed on recycled PaPer that meets the guidelines for permanence and durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on

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Preface ix Acknowledgments xi

Printed in the United States of America

96 OL

xv Introduction: Literary Studies in an Age of Environmental Crisis

979899ooc543z, oJ040506P8765

CHERYLL GLOTFELTY

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data The ecocriticism reader : landmarks in literary ecology Cheryll Glotfelty, ed., Harold Fromm, ed. P. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index.

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rssN o-82o3-r78o-z (alk. paper). - lsrN o-82o3-r78r-o (pbk. : alk. paper)

r. Criticism. z. Ecology in literature. 3. Nature in literature. I. Glotfelty, Cheryll. II. Fromm, Harold.

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8or'95-dczo

1996 95-1i-150

pARr oNE Ecotheory: Reflections on Nature and Culture 3

The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis

LYNN WHITE, JR. r5

Nature and Silence CHRISTOPHER MANES

British Library Cataloging in Publication Data available Text illustrations by Susan Nees

30

From Transcendence to Obsolescence: A Route HAROLD FROMM 4o

Cultivating the American Garden FREDERICK TURNER

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Yi I CONTENTS

CONTENTS

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vii

52

170

The Uses of Landscape: The Picturesque Aesthetic and the National Park System ALISON BYERLY

Unearthing Herstory: An Introduction ANNETTE KOLODNY

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69

" Tl'J :; Tf '"': i::'; :.'',"

x8z Speaking a Word for Nature SCOTT RUSSELL SANDERS

rg6 92 Beyond Ecology: Self, Place, and the Pathetic Fallacy NEIL EVERNDEN

The Postnatural Novel: Toxic Consciousness in Fiction of the rggos

r05

Is Nature Necessary?

Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism WTLLIAM RUECKERT

DANA PHILLIPS

CYNTHIA DEITERING 2o4

pARr rHREE critical Studies of Environmental Literature

124 The Land and Language of Desire: !7here Deep Ecology and Post-Structuralism Meet

225

SUEELLEN CAMPBELL

Revaluing Nature: Toward an Ecological Criticism GLEN A. LOVE

47 American Liter ary Environmental ism as Dome stic DAVTD MAZEL

pARr

rwo

O

rientalism

Ecocritical Considerations of Fiction and Drama

24r The Sacred Hoop: A Contemporary perspective PAULA GUNN ALLEN 264 Landscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination LESLIE MARMON SILKO

The Carri., r"gtfheory of Fiction URSULA K. LE GUIN

276

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A Taxonomy of Nature'S7riting THOMAS J. LYON

The Comic Mode JOSEPH W. MEEKER

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Indexing American Possibilities: The Natural History rilTriting of Bartram,'Wilson, and Audubon M

I(;llAI..1. l]RANCII

Yiii I CONTENTS

303

Desertsolitaire:Counter-FrictiontotheMachineintheGarden DON SCHEESE

PREFACE

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3L3

to the American Landscape Heroines of Nature: Four \romen Respond VERA L. NORWOOD 35L

Nature Writing and Environmental Psychology: The Interiority of Outdoor Experience SCOTT SLOVIC 37r

The Bakhtinian Road to Ecological Insight

MICHAEL J. MCDOWELL RecommendedReading

393

periodicals and Professional Organizations 4or

Contributors 4oj

Index

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One day late in the r98os an unsolicited packet arrived in the mail that *r, ,rii.ally to alter my professional life as a literary scholar-critic and to have repercussions in my private life as well. The contents consisted of a form i.tt., and bibliography from a Cornell graduate student in English named Cheryll Burgess. She was finishing up a dissertation on three American women writers, but her most intense interest seemed to be the anything-but-apparent connection between literature and the environment. Her pl""s were ambitious, not to say grandiose: to Pursue an interest in .cology while remaining a literary professional, to promulgate the concePtion of "ecocriticism" while producing an anthology of ecocritical essays, and formally to become the first American professor of literature and the environment. The bibliography contained more than two hundred essays and books that bore some relation to the idea of ecocriticism, but even more useful was the potential mailing list it provided of authors who might be of some assistance in producing the ecocritical anthology.'til(riting to most of them, Cheryll Burgess described her aims, included a coPy of the bibliography, and waited for replies-which soon began to Pour in. One result of this large-scale operatircn was that I found myself agreeing to serve as chief as,irlnt, although not without some unease that with most of the hard and creative work already done I would emerge in the role of an unearned beneficiary of someone else's groundbreaking labors. Although I have helped t, make some decisions and discovered a number of essays to include, this preface gives me the opportunity to disclaim maior status. As tlrilgs turned out, much more than Cheryll Burgess Glotfelty's origiIr:rl rtinrs lrrtvc becrt realiz.cd. She has in fact promulgated an awareness lx

PREFACE

of ecocriticism (a term often credited to the essay we have included by 'STilliam H. Rueckert), she has produced her anthology, and (believe it or not) she has indeed become, as far as we know, the first academic whose appointment includes "literature and the environment" in its title. Furthermore, my own ecological consciousness, which was very great to start h^ b..r, raised L.yo.d anything I could have imagined, because the

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS IIT

with,

present enterprise changed the direction of my Personal and professional iir., by fusing together what had previously been disparate and unrelated activities in literature and in ecology. Professor Glotfelty's substantial has influence in the ecological/nature-writing wing of American Studies conmany her well-through as people touched a large number of other Fired ference papers, networking activities, and the original bibliography' ecocriticism on by her d.di."tion, I organized andchaired the first session to be offered at the Modern Language Association convention (in r99t), a remarkably well-attended event, at which we discovered the large number ecocritics that we knew nothing about, many of them starved

of practicing for colleagues. In all, i"- h"ppy to own up to my pleasure and my debt in having been a part of this fertile enterprise Harold Fromm

A researcher friend in physics once said that if you want to know how long it will take to complete a project, you must multiply the time you think it will take by rwo and then raise the answer to the next higher order of magnitude. One indication that the so-called gap berween the sciences and the humanities is indeed bridgeable is that the formula that describes experimental physics also obtained in editing this anthology, which has taken not three months but six years to produce. As the years have stretched on, the number of people who have offered help and encouragement has increased exponentially. It is a privilege to thank them here and to acknowledge our indebtedness for their friendship, advice, and support. For early belief in this book and for their steadfast backing, we owe a great deal to Jean Frantz Blackall, IilTilliam Howarth, and Glen Love. A four-year Jacob Javits fellowship allowed Cheryll to begin this book while still in graduate school. For their enthusiasm and generosity we would like to thank each of the contributing authors and, in addition, James Applewhite, Lawrence Buell, Del Ivan Janik, Leo Marx, ames C. McKusick, Patrick D. Murphy,Val Plumwood, Ann Ronald, Peter .f Schwenger, Patricia Clark Smith, Denys Trussell, and Frederick'Waage. For their assistance in compiling the list of recommended reading, "virtual" thanks goes to members of the e-mail network for the Association firr the Study of Literature and Environment, most especially to Stephen Aclams, Karla Armbruster, Jonathan Bate, Ruth Blair, Michael Branch, Lawrence Buell, SueEllen Campbell, Tom Dean, Jim Dwyer, Sara Farris, .f lrarr Hochman, Mary.fenkins, Michael Kowalewski, Glen Love, Ralph l,rrtts, I)an Nolantl, Serrn ()'Orirdy, Daniel Patterson, Steve Phelan, Daniel l)hilipporr, l)i;lnc ()rrrrrtic, lrliz.rrbcth llaymond, Stephanie Sarver, Tom

xii I ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Scanlan, Jim Stebbings, Philip Terrie, Paul Tidwell, H. Lewis Ulman, Kathleen'V7allace, Louise'Westling, and David \Tilliams. The members of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment have given us a welcome sense of community, leavening the work with a good deal of fun. Best wishes to Lorraine Anderson, Ralph Black, Paul Bryant, Lawrence Buell, SueEllen Campbell, Carol Cantrell, John Calderazzo, Michael P. and Valerie Cohen, Chris Cokinos, Nancy Cook, Terrell

Dixon, Elizabeth Dodd, Jim Dwyer, john Elder, Greta Gaard, Michael Hood, \Tilliam Howarth, Mark Hoyer, Verne Huser, Zita Ingham, Rochelle Johnson, Glen Love, Tom Lyon, Ian Marshall, Thomas Meyers, David Morris, Michael Munley, Molly Murfee, Patrick Murphy, Alicia Nitecki, Daniel Patterson, Daniel Philippon, Anne Phillips, Michele Potter, Lawie Ricou, David Robertson, Ann Ronald, Susan Rosowski, Suzanne Ross, Kent Ryden, Don Scheese, Mark Schlenz, Matthias Schubnell, Julie Seton, Gary Snyder, Lisa Spaulding, Ron Steffens, Tom Stuckert, Stan Tag,

David Taylor, David Teague, Mikel Vause, Allison'Wallace, and Louise Westling. Special praise and affection go to Mike Branch, Sean O'Grady, and Scott Slovic. At the University of Nevada, Reno, Cheryll would like to thank her colleagues for their friendship and support. Stacy Burton and Mary Webb have been particularly wonderful. Sincere thanks are due to Dean of Arts and Sciences Ann Ronald for bold vision and for making things happen, to Robert Merrill for his editorial acumen and dedication to the English Department he chairs, and to secretaries Linda Gorelangton and Geri McVeigh, who make otrr academic lives not only possible but pleasant. Cheryll would like to acknowledge the students in her Spring r99r graduate seminar, "Ecocriticism: Literary Criticism and Ecological Consciousness," as well as the graduate students she currently advises, all of whom bring her great intellectual treasures. Finally, we send love to our family and friends, who make life a ioy. Loren, Evelyn, and Stan Acton, Eileen Pape, Laura Koeninger, Gretchen Diether, and Elizabeth Doherty-warmest thanks to you all. Gloria Fromm and Steve Glotfehy, you are always in our hearts and in our lives.

r r r Jhs authors and the Press gratefully acknowledge permission to reprint the following pieces: Paula Gunn Allen, "The Sacred Hoop: A Contemporary Perspective." Fr