Green Writing: Romanticism and Ecology

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Overview

This book describes the emergence of ecological understanding among the English Romantic poets, arguing that this new holistic paradigm offered a conceptual and ideological basis for American environmentalism. Coleridge, Wordsworth, Blake, John Clare, and Mary Shelley all contributed to the fundamental ideas and core values of the modern environmental movement; their vital influence was openly acknowledged by Emerson, Thoreau, John Muir, and Mary Austin. By revealing hitherto unsuspected links between English and American nature writers, this book elucidates the Romantic origins of American environmentalism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780312234485
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	01/01/1900
Edition description:	2000
Pages:	261
Product dimensions:	5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.03(d)

About the Author

James McKusick is Associate Professor of English at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He is the author of Coleridge’s Philosophy of Language and numerous scholarly articles on Coleridge, Byron, and John Clare.

Table of Contents

Introduction
• Coleridge and the Economy of Nature
• Wordsworth’s Home at Grasmere
• The Ecological Vision of John Clare
• The End of Nature: Environmental Apocalypse in William Blake and Mary Shelley
• Ralph Waldo Emerson: Writing Nature
• Henry David Thoreau: Life in the Woods
• John Muir: A Wind-Storm in the Forests
• Mary Austin: The Land of Little Rain
• Conclusion: Roads Not Taken

Editorial Reviews

McKusick provides insight into this transatlantic tradition by combining traditional literary analysis with interdisciplinary environmental history. Choice

Green Writing is a splendid and provocative work of socially engaged ecological criticism, offering readers much food for thought.
-Romantic Circle Review

From the Publisher

Describes the emergence of ecological understanding among the English Romantic poets<-->Coleridge, Wordsworth, Blake, John Clare, and Mary Shelley<-->arguing that their approach offered a foundation for American environmentalism as transmitted through Emerson, Thoreau, John Muir, and Mary Austin. McKusick (English, U. of Maryland) is a Romantic scholar who employs an interdisciplinary approach that encompasses the history of science and environmentalism, as well as more traditional approaches to literary criticism. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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