"Environmental criticism is a relatively new discipline that brings the global problem of environmental crisis to the forefront of literary and cultural studies. This introduction defines what ecocriticism is and provides a set of conceptual tools to encourage students to look at the texts they're reading in a new way"-- "The degrading environment of the planet is something that touches everyone. This book offers an introductory overview of literary...

In this heuristic study, I explore how four ecological writers, or wild writers, experience Nature. I identify with and participate in this inquiry because I am an ecological writer searching to understand my relationship to the natural world. That relationship begins in primary experience. The term "Nature" core to this exploration includes interactions of all dispositions of Gaia, organic and inorganic, human and not human, constructed by humans...

"Scott Slovic has spent his life as a teacher, writer, environmental activist, and leader in the field of ecocritical literary studies. In Going Away to Think, he reflects on the twin motivations of his life - the commitment to do some good in the world and the impulse to enjoy life and participate fully in its most intense moments - and he examines the tension created by his efforts to balance these two poles of his responsibility. These essays reveal...

"Out on the edges of our frantic twenty-first-century nation, bands of wild horses stand nestled together, calmly nuzzling each other to maintain the bonds of family. Prairie hills unfurl around them, and the sky provides their shelter. In the same states where factories churn, offices bustle, and cell phones demand our attention, remote places of solace and beauty rest, mostly undiscovered, in a parallel world that lies closer than we often imagine....