Ecocritical theory : new European approaches /

Applying contemporary European perspectives on philosophy, politics, ethics, feminism, phenomenology, and science to ecocritical theory, this coherent collection of essays and commentaries promises to open new vistas in the study of literature and the environment. Goodbody (Univ. of Bath, UK) and Rigby (Monash Univ., Australia) have assembled a striking cast of authors: Catriona Sandilands (on the politics of Walter Benjamin's Arcades Project), Kate Soper (Romantic memory), Linda Williams (the socio-genetic theory of Norbert Elias), Patrick Murphy (Bakhtinian ethics), Louise Westling (Merleau-Ponty's ecophenomenology). The contributors enrich ecocritical studies by challenging the early movement's didactic undertones, which emphasized immediate action over what may have been perceived as merely academic reactions to global environmental crisis. As ecocriticism has become a distinct field in the study of literature, it has at the same time merged with other disciplines under the umbrella of environmental studies and environmental science. The "new European approaches" apply poststructural critiques to present understanding of the environment. The essays visit traditional methods of inquiry and apply them to the real world. All the essays are tours de force, but worthy of particular mention is French feminist Luce Irigaray's "There Can Be No Democracy without a Culture of Difference." Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty. L. L. Johnson Lewis & Clark College