Ecocritical Explorations in Literary and Cultural Studies: Fences, Boundaries, and Fields

Abstract

Patrick D. Murphy's latest volume, Ecocritical Explorations in Literary and Cultural Studies: Fences, Boundaries, and Fields, is important to the fields of cultural, literary, and ecocritical studies. In keeping with his previous work, Murphy grounds this book in theoretical and conceptual issues, here shifting toward referentiality and Bakhtin's “non-alibi” concept. In a new vein, this text includes explorations of popular genres—the novel, mysteries, and science fiction—and suggests the merits of ecocritical examinations of such texts. In Part 1, “Climbing through Conceptual Fences,” Murphy focuses on theoretical issues and concepts. Chapter 1 describes how the current practices and future possibilities of ecocriticism can be articulated and affected by theory. In particular, Murphy tracks constructions of simplicity in reference to urban life and economic environmental responses, investigating how people hesitate to respond to disasters if their immediate notions of simplicity and ease of life seem threatened. Chapter 2 introduces and applies the concept of the nation-state to ecopolitical theoretical discussions, and Murphy grounds his analysis in fiction, poetry, and nonfiction. Chapter 3 examines “real and virtual terrains to be traversed by tomorrow's college students” (viii), and here Murphy's arguments are limned with examples from popular genres of contemporary fiction. He urges ecocritics to “develop a transnational ecocritical theory” and reviews multicultural examples of contemporary American fiction and nonfiction in chapter 4 (ix).

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