•  
  •  
 

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Since its humble beginnings in the Western United States, ecocriticism has grown under the banner of the Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment into an organization of over 1000 members with international affiliates in Australia-New Zealand, Canada, Europe, India, Japan, Koria and the UK. At first sight, it would seem that ecocriticism has achieved global status. But as Ursula Heise remarks in her assessment of ecocriticism, this process of globalisation has been mainly a process of becoming known internationally. In truth, ecocriticism has remained strongly rooted in Anglophone literary studies even as it has been exported to other countries. As Heise explains, "ecocritical work on languages other than English is still scarce" ("Hitchiker's Guide" 513). The present article will attempt to address this problem. Although written in English, it will draw mainly on French texts, those of Michel Serres in particular, to demonstrate how éco-pensée directly speaks to some of ecocriticism's shortcomings and difficulties. In other words, a North American ecological perspective will not be applied to French texts (another example of Anglophone monoculturalism but of a more subtle form than the one to which Heise refers); rather, French éco-pensée will be used to answer some of the questions about ecology, ethics, language, modernity and realism that ecocriticism has been asking since it first emerged. In this way, the article will bring into a cross-cultural dialogue two ways of thinking about nature and our place in it. N.B. I will be referencing Michel Serres's most recent and as yet untranslated texts in this article: Hominescence (2001), Incandescent (2003), Rameaux (2004), and Récits d'humanisme (2005). The English translations will therefore be my own.

Download

Share

COinS