EcocriticismEcocriticism was first introduced by William Rueckert in his 1978 essay “Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism” (1978) and was later defined by Cheryll Glotfelty (1996) as “the study of the relationship between literature and the physical world,” a definition that remains widely used today. As an interdisciplinary field, it integrates diverse theories and practices to examine the relationship between literature, culture, and the environment. By integrating these dimensions,ecocriticism offers valuable insights into how narratives influence humanity’s interactions with nature and addresses the urgent need for cultural and academic engagement with environmental crises. At its core, ecocriticism explores how literature represents environmental issues and imagines possible connections between people and their surroundings. This perspective includes not only wild or “natural” places but also human-made environments and the shared spaces of human and nonhuman life.
The field has shifted from a human-centered (anthropocentric) view to one that emphasizes the value of all life forms—an Earth-centered (ecocentric) approach. Literary scholar Lawrence Buell described the field’s growth in successive “waves.” The first wave, influenced by Romantic poetry and nature writing, aimed to give “a voice to nature,” recognizing the intrinsic value of all living beings. The second wave, emerging around 2000, expanded its lens to include urban and industrial landscapes and to address environmental justice, postcolonial ecocriticism, and ecofeminism—fields that highlight how environmental harm often overlaps with social inequality.
The third wave, proposed by Joni Adamson and Scott Slovic in 2009, called for a broader scope that continues to shape the field today. This wave draws insight from areas such as posthumanism, animal studies, and plant studies, highlighting the complex relationships between human and nonhuman life. This expanded perspective has also influenced environmental education and ecopedagogy, emphasizing justice-oriented and experiential learning across diverse classroom settings.
In recent years, ecocriticism has expanded to include a wide range of environmentally themed texts such as fiction, nonfiction, film, and other cultural products. Critics and educators use ecocritical approaches to offer new perspectives for publishing, teaching, and cultural analysis. Ecocriticism can serve both as a lens for examining how books and media represent nature with greater nuance, and as a framework for fostering climate literacy and environmental awareness through storytelling.
©2025 ClimateLit (Alison Han)