Timothy Clark. The Cambridge Introduction to Literature and the Environment

Abstract

The title of this volume, Literature and the Environment, may at first seem to indicate a more traditional ecocritical focus on environmentally themed fiction and nature writing, but it proves a flexible choice that allows the inclusion of a wide range of diverging critical approaches to environmental crisis in a broad sense. Indeed, the study points out that, considering the ultimately inconceivable apocalyptic potential of phenomena like climate change and overpopulation, the lack of any “recognized” and standardized bundle of methods may ultimately be one of ecocriticism’s salient qualities: “the unprecedented challenge ... may be the need, literally, to think everything, even to think everything at once” (203). What characterizes ecocriticism, then, is the attempt to overcome boundaries between disciplines and forms of “knowing” the world that have long been considered incompatible, in an effort not only to restructure the relationship of the cultural to the natural world, but also to reconsider what these very concepts might mean. Clark emphasizes that what is called into question is nothing less than “the now dominant liberal humanist conception of the human self” (65), along with its ideas of individual liberty and individual rights. This is a bold and far-reaching statement that needs careful differentiation, especially in an introductory work: while we unquestionably have to rethink what deserves to be recognized as a “right”, few ecocritics would wish to abolish the concept itself. Likewise, although the author is right that environmental damage cannot be kept in check without effective legislation and an “engagement with those national and global structures of economics and forms of government that are ultimately more responsible” (136) than individual lifestyle decisions, this should not lead us to make light of our own, individual, share of responsibilities. Giving an introduction to so polymorphic a field is a tricky task, even more so as the author announces in his preface that he aims for “a tighter synthesis” than the existing essay collections were able to achieve, a “lucid conceptual introduction more familiar to other schools of literary or cultural theory” (xiii). But Clark does indeed meet the challenge. Manageably structured into an introductory outline of the field of study plus twenty concise, thematic chapters, each about ten pages in length, and written in a highly readable style that still tries to avoid reductions and provoke thought, the book is certainly a suitable source for students wishing to get a general overview of the subject area. Lists of further reading, a detailed index and highlighted boxes with additional examples and explanations, as well as socalled “quandaries” (ongoing critical debates and unresolved conflicts), contribute to its user-friendly lucidity. In terms of content, the volume makes a point of demonstrating the wide scope of concerns connected with the study of literature and the environment, dealing with issues that range from romanticism to postcolonialism, and from politics to ethics and philosophy. However, both the selection of topics and the positions