Extending Ecocriticism: Crisis, Collaboration and Challenges in the Environmental Humanities

This book explores the relevance and potential of the still-expanding field of ecocriticism across the wider humanities, at a time when writers and artists are increasingly experimenting with new ways of working and new ways of looking at the world around us. Contributors from across and beyond the humanities interpret the brief in their own way. This collection of essays is wide in scope, and includes contributions from authors across and beyond the humanities, covering such topics as eco-focused writing about death, collaborations between artists, letter carvers and poets, the exploration of 'eco-art', and the application of ecocriticism to professional disciplines such as heritage interpretation and the visualisation of the impact of proposed windfarms. Further essays explore the creative response to the environment across issues ranging from the everyday environmental nuisance of discarded dog mess bags to the science-based climate-change narratives emerging from the Antarctic.Many of the chapters explore subjects from an unconventional point of view. Some visual arts essays take an alternative approach to that of classical narrative art history, while the literary essays often adopt a visual approach to the word, considering site-bound installations and scripts carved in stone as public art. Each chapter will be of special interest to practitioners and students of a particular discipline, and it will also appeal to newcomers and interested enquirers. General readers will find this volume accessible, but it will also prove invaluable to undergraduates and those embarking on a research career in the environmental humanities. Additionally, the book will interest creative writers and artists, helping to inform their collaborative practice.