The contributors to Ecocriticism and Geocriticism survey the overlapping territories of these critical practices, demonstrating through their diversity of interests, as well as their range of topics, texts, periods, genres, methods, and perspectives, just how rich and varied ecocritical and geocritical approaches can be. As diffuse 'schools' of criticism, ecocriticism and geocriticism represent two relatively recent discourses through which literary and cultural studies have placed renewed emphasis on the lived environment, social and natural spaces, spatiotemporality, ecology, history, and geography. These loosely defined practices have also fostered politically engaged inquiries into the ways that humans not only represent, but also organize the spaces and places in which they, their fellow humans, and many other forms of life must dwell. These essays exemplify the ways in which critics may bring environmental and spatial literary studies to bear on each other, enabling readersto looks at both literature and their surroundings differently.
"This book's most notable achievement is its interdisciplinary synthesis of the disciplines of literature and geography more broadly. The wide-ranging scope of the literature considered is certainly a strength of work, ranging from North Atlantic environmental multimedia and practice-based poetry to gothic writing and world literature. Through careful handling, the collection moves critically between post colonialism and ecology, psychoanalysis, ecofeminism and post naturalism, acknowledging the literary significance of spatiality and the environment." (Chloe Ashbridge, Literary Geographies, Vol. 4 (2), 2018)
"This is a timely volume that engages with a significant and growing area of literary and cultural studies. For some time there have been two largely distinct schools - place studies and spatial theory - that explore related but rarely linked ideas. This collection is designed to help bring these two approaches together. And it does so admirably. It is a significant contribution and will help to reconcile the differing strands of place and spatial theory. I learned a lot from it and I am sure other readers will as well." - Tom Lynch, Professor of English, University of Nebraska, USA
"This is a timely volume that engages with a significant and growing area of literary and cultural studies. For some time there have been two largely distinct schools - place studies and spatial theory - that explore related but rarely linked ideas. This collection is designed to help bring these two approaches together. And it does so admirably. It is a significant contribution and will help to reconcile the differing strands of place and spatial theory. I learned a lot from it and I am sure other readers will as well." - Tom Lynch, Professor of English, University of Nebraska, USA