Greg Garrard, Ecocriticism, London: Routledge, 2004 – chapter 1

General

This was a robust text to start the module with, having read so much this year including both fiction and nonfiction and being the type of person I am, who wants to believe and immerses myself into the page, this chapter was a wake-up call, demanding that I question why and in what style and for whom something has been written.

Being aware of Rachel Carsen's book, Silent Spring I was interested to understand that she wrote in both a pastoral and apocalyptic style that appealed to a generation of people. Both the timing and language was right, making it one the most important political books to grab an international audience and challenge the politically entrenched agrochemical companies, whose only leverage regarding criticism was the literary style.

This text has challenged me to analyse gathered data surveying for trends. Having picked up SDNP literature, I am now looking at it with new eyes, what is the metamessage? What do the colours mean? What is its corporate appeal? Who is it aimed at? Does it appeal to a ‘certain’ type of person? This mindset will help me to see a bigger picture when reading material, challenging me to consider the audience and the authors angle on the material.

Ecocriticism is the relationship between literature and the physical environment (Glotfelty 1996:xix)

ASLE Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment (look up in relation to parks)

John Passmore Man’s Responsibility for Nature (1974) creates the example that, Ecology = Science and Ecological = Features of our society

Rhetoric = Style or effect aiming to create a feeling/political/change (hot air)

Trope = A type/style of art or literature

Structuralism = the human cognition/behaviour/culture and experience through conceptual systems.