On (Not) Hugging Trees: Affect, Emotion, and Ecology in Wordsworth's “Nutting”

Abstract

AbstractThis article applies the insights of affect studies to William Wordsworth's controversial “Nutting” (1800), a poem whose sudden shifts in tone fuel continued debate over its utility as a green text. Reading “Nutting” alongside another poem with the same title by John Clare, I argue that affect theory not only recasts the poem's “ecological” potential but also expands possibilities for teaching “Nutting” and similarly ambiguous texts in an ecocritical context. Ultimately, I call upon ecocritics to embrace affect theory toward two ends: first, in order to redefine “green” art in more complex and nuanced terms; second, in order to expand environmentalism's affective repertoire beyond apocalypticism.