1 * Ecocriticism

Abstract

This first review of ecocritical theory in The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory covers the years 2007 and 2008. It is divided into five sections: 1 . Normal Science: The Usual Practice of Ecocriticism; 2 . Re-enchantment: The Argument against ‘Scientism’; 3 . Against Nature: The Ecocritical Challenge to Extant Ideas of Nature; 4 . Ecological Materialism: Approaches Founded in Marxism or Science; 5 . Globality/Postcoloniality: The Shift from a Sense of Place to a Sense of Planet. A note on terminology: as leaders in the field, Lawrence Buell and Jonathan Bate have expressed a preference for the names ‘environmental criticism’ and ‘ecopoetics’, respectively. Nevertheless, while ‘ecocriticism’ risks sounding faddish or raising scientistic expectations, it is the most prevalent and widely accepted name for cultural criticism from an environmentalist perspective, and I call it ‘ecocriticism’. The years 2007 and 2008 have seen a range of fundamental challenges to the dominant critical paradigm, none of which on its own is unprecedented but which, taken together, constitute a genuine alteration of the theoretical terrain. So first it seems wise briefly to canvass establish practice—or ‘normal science’—the better to highlight how significant the rival paradigms might be.