Promotions - Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2014 -

As this outstanding handbook makes clear, environmental humanities is in full bloom.  Comprising 34 essays by prominent scholars of literature and ecology, this handbook is variously interested in the forms, genres, histories, politics, and theories of ecocriticism and thus embodies the diverse, sometimes tangled, sometimes contradictory approaches that characterize this diffuse field.  Although the collection seeks to be representative rather than comprehensive, it is the most thorough introduction to ecocriticism available. The volume's range is evident in the four sections.  History offers seven studies of nature and ecology in medieval through postmodern writing and culture.  "Theory advances a range of ecocritical theories indebted to and/or in conversation with posthumanism, materialism, deconstruction, postcolonialism, and queer theory.  The third section, Genre, moves beyond nature writing to advocate for ecocritical approaches to less-studied genres, including bluegrass music and comedy.  The handbook concludes with a short section, The Views from Here, that examines ecocriticism from the vantage of non-Anglophone cultures.  Many of the handbooks essays will likely become essential reading for students and scholars interested in environmental approaches to literature, nature writing, and ecological theory.Summing Up: Essential. Lower-division undergraduates (including those in two-year programs) through faculty.