ECOCRITICISM

Introduction

Ever wonder what goes through the mind of a squirrel as it eats an acorn? No? How about what goes through the mind of an acorn as it's being eaten by a squirrel? Still no?

Well, maybe it's time to start. Let's get green, people. And we don't just mean in a treehugger kind of way. If you use ecocriticism to analyze a text, you'll discover just how much nature is looking back at you while you read.

Take, for example, the story we began with: that squirrel and his tasty acorn. If you analyze this narrative using more established modes of literary theory, you probably won't think much about what a squirrel actually is. And why it loves to eat acorns so stinkin' much. Instead, your analysis will probably sound something like this:

"The acorn in this story is a symbol of a woman's broken heart. The squirrel is a stand-in for a cheating husband chewing up the love of his wife and spitting it out onto the cold, hard ground."

(Now picture us saying that in a tweed jacket, puffing on a pipe. Stop. Giggling. Stop it.)

When people engage with stories about animals or acorns or trees, we have this wacky tendency to think they're all about us. Take that old classic, Animal Farm. As you read Animal Farm, you might think, "Man, the mean pig acts a lot like my gym teacher. This story reminds me so much of my childhood."

Soon, you arrive at a literary analysis that's totally centered on your puny little human thoughts, actions, desires, and motivations. But whatever happened to the pig itself? And the squirrel? And the acorn? (Sorry, the internet has made us kind of obsessed with squirrels.)

Anyway, our point is this: in case you haven't noticed, humans can be very self-centered. Or, to dress our claim up in fancier terms, we often think in anthropocentric ways. Ecocriticism wants us to take a step back from our navel-gazing and ask such questions as:

What do we mean, exactly, when we say "nature"? What is and isn't part of "nature"?

How have people related to nature in different ways at different points in history?

What's all that got to do with evolving technologies, industrialism, and post-industrialism?

Is "place"-like, under an oak tree with a squirrel eating a nut-a distinctive lens through which we should read literature and see the world?

What do our different approaches to the natural world-e.g., Rape and pillage? Preserve? Adore? What?-and to writing about the natural world, tell us about human development throughout history? What do they tell us about nature itself? About subjectivity and objectivity?

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