Print ISBN: 978-1-4298-3738-5
# of Pages: 368
# of Volumes: 1
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Critical Insights: Nature & the Environment

Editor: Scott Slovic, Professor of Literature and Environment
September 2012

Tags: Current Critical Analysis by Top Literary ScholarsIntroductory Essay by the EditorAdditional Works on ThemeDetailed Bio of the EditorGeneral BibliographyGeneral Subject Index

Download: Table of Contents Sample Pages
This volume in the Critical Insights series addresses the themes of nature and the environment in literature through a diverse set of texts and through multiple methodologies. Great starting point for students seeking an introduction to the theme and the critical discussions surrounding it.

As far back as ancient Greece, nature has inspired countless poets, novelists, and playwrights with its beauty and power. From the early pastoralism of the Greeks, to the brute realism of the naturalists, to the environmental concerns of contemporary writers, it has proved to be a perennial theme that can be viewed in a multitude of ways. Alternately a solace from modern life, an inhuman force, and a fragile ecosystem in need of protection, nature and the environment have appeared in a variety of guises in literature from around the world.

Critical Contexts
For readers who are studying the themes for the first time, four essays survey the critical conversation regarding the theme, explore its cultural and historical contexts, and offer close and comparative readings of key texts containing the theme.

Critical Readings
Readers seeking a deeper understanding of the themes can then move on to other essays that explore them in depth through a variety of critical approaches. Classic works discussed include Walden, Call of the Wild, O Pioneers!, The Old Man and the Sea, and selections from the poetry of William Wordsworth, while contemporary works include …and the earth did not devour him, Desert Solitaire, Prodigal Summer. Among the contributors are Robert Bernard Hass, Richard J. Schneider, Ashton Nichols, Brian Railsback, Priscilla Leder, and Barbara J. Cook.

Each essay is 2,500 to 5,000 words in length, and all essays conclude with a list of "Works Cited," along with endnotes.

Resources

  • Additional Works on Nature & the Environment
  • Bibliography
  • Contributors
  • About the Editor
  • Index

View a Full List of Literature Titles

Additional Titles of Interest

October 2009

Critical Insights: Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway's public persona and reputation, literary style, affinity with modern painting, and conception of character are among the subjects of these essays on the author's life and work. Readers will be introduced to Hemingway's life, described by Petrina Crockford in The Paris Review as an "adventurous life as brash and uncompromising as that of his greatest characters."

September 2011

Critical Insights: Willa Cather

Original essays discuss Cather's cultural position and her use of radical new literary techniques. The intention of this volume is to serve as a guide for important individual works and their contribution to literature and culture as a whole.

October 2010

Critical Insights: John Steinbeck

This volume in the Critical Insights series brings together a variety of classic and contemporary essays on this American author. In-depth critical discussions of his life and works - Plus complimentary, unlimited online access to the full content of this great literary reference.