Beyond Nature Writing: Expanding the Boundaries of Ecocriticism (Under the Sign of Nature: Explorations in Ecocriticism)

Rating:
Summary: Outstanding, but dramatic lit deserves more
Review: A fascinating, erudite collection, _Beyond Nature Writing_ contains some gems and is published in a truly beautiful edition. Especially worth reading are the essays by Glotfelty and Ulman--Ulman's being especially at the forefront of ecocriticism as it considers virtual and cyber environments. The digital worlds we as humans increasingly create and how we treat them (and what we place in their content) are going to have ethical implications on the world in which we live. Ulman's article thus comes at the right time--although it is by far not the only essay in here worth reading. One thing noticeably missing from this anthology, and ecocritism in general, is a lengthy consideration of dramatic literature. There is the essay by Sweeting, and that's good, but I got the (bad) feeling that this might be the first ecocritical essay on drama I've ever read. Although the problem lies more with the narrow interests of some ecocritics, imagine if this collection included only one essay on the novel. _Beyond Nature Writing_ would have challenged ecological criticism even greater by including more essays on drama, something ecocritics seem to neglect beyond _A Winter's Tale_. Perhaps Ulman's work on cyber-created environments could be used to revert to open eco-consideration of the word-based world of the stage. Maybe the next major ecocritical anthology will include at least two essays on drama! Overall, though, this collection is really worth reading and might just replace _The Ecocriticism Reader_ as the benchmark text in this area of criticism.