What is Eco-Criticism?

by Thomas K. Dean

Eco-criticism is a study of culture and cultural products (art works, writings, scientific theories, etc.) that is in some way connected with the human relationship to the natural world. Eco-criticism is also a response to needs, problems, or crises, depending on one's perception of urgency. First, eco-criticism is a response to the need for humanistic understanding of our relationships with the natural world in an age of environmental destruction. In large part, environmental crises are a result of humanity's disconnection from the natural world, brought about not only by increasing technology but also by particularization; that is, a mentality of specialization that fails to recognize the interconnectedness of all things. In terms of the academy, eco-criticism is thus a response to scholarly specialization that has gone out of control; eco-criticism seeks to reattach scholars to each other and scholarship to the real concerns of the world.

Inherently, then, eco-criticism is interdisciplinary. In order to understand the connectedness of all things--including the life of the mind and the life of the earth--one must reconnect the disciplines that have become sundered through over-specialization. Inherent in the idea of interdisciplinarity is the wholistic ideal. Therefore, eco-criticism must remain "a big tent"--comprehensiveness of perspectives must be encouraged and honored. All eco-critical efforts are pieces of a comprehensive continuum. Eco-critical approaches, thus, can be theoretical, historical, pedagogical, analytical, psychological, rhetorical, and on and on, including combinations of the above.

As a response to felt needs and real crises, and as an inherently wholistic practice, eco-criticism also has an inherent ideological if not moral component. A wholistic view of the universe is a value-centered one that honors the interconnectedness of things. As the interconnectedness of things is valued, so too is the integrity of all things, be they creatures of the earth, critical practices, spiritual beliefs, or ethnic backgrounds. For example, as eco-criticism invites all perspectives into its tent in order to understand the human relationship to the universe, the philosophies and understandings of different ethnic groups will be shared by all. Eco-criticism can be, for individuals who choose to make it so, socially activist or even spiritual. While some may criticize eco-criticism for being undisciplined because of such comprehensiveness, it is that very wholistic view that marks it off from the particularized critical approaches of the past that have led to the types of disconnections that eco-criticism seeks to heal.

Although eco-criticism can touch virtually any discipline, when it translates into action, it generally comes back to its home ground--the human relationship with the earth. Eco-criticism, then, can be, but need not be, politically active, as it advocates for an understanding of the world that works to heal the environmental wounds humans have inflicted upon it.

Thomas K. Dean, Cardinal Stritch College (now at University of Iowa)