Research Abstract: 18th Century British Ecocriticism

[Blake's Abstract #2]

Hitt, Christopher. “Ecocriticism and the Long Eighteenth Century.” College Literature. 31.3 (2004): 123-47. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 30 June 2011.

 Christopher Hitt argues that ecocriticism provides a new perspective from which to examine British literature from the long eighteenth century because many current views about nature evolved during this period.  He also sets up a guide for performing ecocritical readings of texts written before the modern evolution of ecocritical theory; his primary concern is to illustrate how to avoid incorrectly associating eighteenth century attitudes towards nature with twenty first century views.

Ecocriticism is defined in a specific manner: it is not simply writing with nature as its central concern.  Hitt suggests that ecocritical writing should feature a political message about human responsibility for and ethical treatment of nonhuman nature.  He also declares that it must include an engagement with complexity.  Reductive thinking prevents the critic from fully acknowledging the paradoxical relationship between humans and nature, as reflected eighteenth century texts.  Problems can occur when critics attempt to directly graft present views of nature onto those in eighteenth century texts, only examine select parts of a text, or read the text literally without considering its context.      

Critics must look past the surface of seemingly proto-environmental rhetoric of eighteenth century writing and instead investigate the contradictory views of nature in the texts because they may serve as predecessors to current attitudes about nature.  Hitt says that dealing with only pastoral elements in a text, can lead to a simplified analysis.  However, the sublime, which presents nature as a simultaneously terrifying and pleasing force that often transports the human beyond actual nature, is significant to investigate because a similar paradoxical relationship exists today.  Hitt explains how the sublime is a result of the eighteenth century influence of scientific thinking on authors trying to accurately describe nature while acknowledging that language is an insufficient tool for the task. Critics may also explore the picturesque, in which man looks at nature but does not allow nature a reciprocal look.  Again, the picturesque is prominent in contemporary culture. 

Finally, critics should not simply dismiss linguistic representations of actual nature because of their inaccuracy but instead address their instability and origins in Newtonian and Lockean philosophies.  Examining how authors struggle to accurately describe nature will reveal more about the text than simply dismissing it because non-literal language is employed. Ecocritical readings must explore contradictions, acknowledge complexity, and be wary that a romantic view of nature can mask abuse of nature.