Empirical Ecocriticism: Environmental Texts and Empirical Methods

Since its inception, ecocriticism has been premised on the assumption that the texts it studies have a significant impact on readers and the world at large. In her introduction to the seminal Ecocriticism Reader (1996), Cheryll Glotfelty asserted that one of the typical questions posed by ecocritics is “How do our metaphors of the land influence the way we treat it?” (xix). In Seeking Awareness in American Nature Writing (1992), Scott Slovic explored the way that creative nonfiction stimulates “environmental consciousness” in readers (7). And in Writing for an Endangered World (2003), Lawrence Buell expressed a similiar hope that “‘ecocentric’ forms of literary imagining” would lead to a “reorientation of human attention and values” that will “make the world a better place” (6). Other ecocritics have been more cautious when assessing the potential impact of environmentally oriented texts, while some have downplayed or objected to treating texts as instruments of social change. But whatever our position in print, most of us believe that studying environmentally engaged texts is a valuable and even important enterprise not only because this work is interesting and gratifying, but because these texts matter—socially, culturally, politically. This is especially the case in this time of accelerating environmental crises, when ecocriticism’s long-standing desire to transform culture is unambiguously aligned with planetary imperatives.