Romantic ecocriticism: History and prospects

Abstract

AbstractThis essay examines the origins, development, and future of Romantic ecocriticism. British Romanticism has always been central to discussions of literature and the environment. Here, I offer the most extensive assessment to date of relevant scholarship. I concentrate on book‐length studies of British literature circa 1780–1830, generally excluding books about individual authors. I close by outlining a new agenda for the field. Instead of claiming to reveal the origins of contemporary environmental sensibilities, I argue, Romantic ecocritics should work towards a critical history of regimes of environmental exploitation. Part one of the essay analyses the paths taken and not taken in ecocritical studies of the Romantic period between 1970 and 2000. Part two parses the diversity of Romantic ecocriticism in the early twenty‐first century. Part three argues that Romantic ecocriticism's central concern should be the environmental changes associated with the industrial revolution.