by Cheryll Glotfelty (Editor), Harold Fromm (Editor), Michael P. Branch (Contribution by) The Ecocriticism Reader is the first collection of its kind, an anthology of classic and cutting-edge writings in the rapidly emerging field of literary ecology. Exploring the relationship between literature and the physical environment, literary ecology is the study of the ways that writing both reflects and influences our interactions with the natural world. An introduction to the field as well as a source book, The Ecocriticism Reader defines ecological literary discourse and sketches its development over the past quarter-century. The twenty-five selections in this volume, a mixture of reprinted and original essays, look backward to origins and forward to trends and provide generally appealing and lucidly written examples of the range of ecological approaches to literature. Lists of recommended readings, relevant periodicals, and professional organizations offer direction for further study. The Ecocriticism Reader is an illuminating entree into a field of study fully engaged with our most pressing contemporary problem--the global environmental crisis. Back Jacket This book is the first collection of its kind, an anthology of classic and cutting-edge writings in the rapidly emerging field of literary ecology. Exploring the relationship between literature and the physical environment, literary ecology is the study of the ways that writing - from novels and folktales to U.S. government reports and corporate advertisements - both reflects and influences our interactions with the natural world. Author Biography Cheryll Glotfelty (Editor) CHERYLL GLOTFELTY is a professor of literature and the environment at the University of Nevada, Reno. She is the editor of Literary Nevada: Writings from the Silver State and a coeditor of The Bioregional Imagination: Literature, Ecology, and Place. She is a founding officer of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment. Harold Fromm (Editor) HAROLD FROMM lives in Tucson and is University Associate in English at the University of Arizona as well as a member of the university's Institute of the Environment. He is the author of The Nature of Being Human: From Environmentalism to Consciousness and Academic Capitalism and Literary Value. His writings have appeared in a wide range of journals and he is a regular contributor to the Hudson Review. Number of Pages: 456 Dimensions: 1.22 x 8.9 x 6.46 IN Publication Date: May 01, 1996