EMPIRICAL ECOCRITICISM is a branch of ecocriticism that focuses on the empirically-grounded study of environmental narrative – in literature, film, television, etc. – and its influence on various audiences. The main objective of empirical ecocriticism is to empirically examine common claims made within ecocriticism, and the environmental humanities more generally, and to generate new questions, theories, and areas of study. Read More.
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Cluster of Empirical Ecocriticism Published in ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment
In the Spring 2020 issue of ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, Alexa Weik von Mossner, and W.P. Małecki edited a thematic cluster of articles dedicated to introducing empirical ecocriticism. The introduction to the cluster, “Empirical Ecocriticism: Environmental Texts and Empirical Methods,” was co-authored by Schneider-Mayerson, Weik von Mossner, and Małecki. It…
Empirical Ecocriticism Featured in Annual Review of Scholarship in Cultural Theory
The journal This Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory, published once a year by Oxford University Press, reports on the some of the most important publications and developments in literary and cultural criticism. In the recently-published 2018 version, the article covering developments in ecocriticism, written by John Charles Ryan, describes the “germination” of empirical…
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Empirical Ecocriticism now an IGEL Emerging Research Coalition
We are pleased to announce that empirical ecocriticism has been recognized as an Emerging Research Coalition by the International Society for the Empirical Study of Literature (IGEL). IGEL Research Coalitions are groups of researchers concerned with specific topics in empirical studies of literature. Coalition abstract: Empirical ecocriticism is an emerging subfield of ecocriticism that focuses…
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Roundtable on Empirical Ecocriticism at the 2019 ASLE Conference in Davis
This roundtable brings together five experienced ecocritics engaged in research on “empirical ecocriticism” – Wojciech Malecki, Salma Monani, Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, Scott Slovic, and Alexa Weik von Mossner – for a conversation on the possibilities, limitations, and potential future directions of this subfield.
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Workshop Report (14–15 December 2018, Rachel Carson Center, Munich, Germany)
Workshop Report (14–15 December 2018, Rachel Carson Center, Munich, Germany) By Alexa Weik von Mossner and Matthew Schneider-Mayerson On 14 and 15 December 2018, the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society hosted the workshop Empirical Ecocriticism. Empirical ecocriticism is an emerging subfield of ecocriticism that focuses on the empirically grounded study of environmental narrative—in literature,…
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Article on “The Influence of Climate Fiction” Published by Matthew Schneider-Mayerson
Climate fiction—literature explicitly focused on climate change—has exploded over the last decade, and is often assumed to have a positive ecopolitical influence by enabling readers to imagine potential climate futures and persuading them of the gravity and urgency of climate change. Does it succeed?
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New Book on Human Minds and Animal Stories by Wojciech Malecki et al.
This is the first book to investigate the power of stories to raise our concern for animals, which has been postulated across decades by numerous scholars, activists, and writers, including such greats as Thomas Hardy.
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Call for Papers for “Powerful Literary Fiction Texts” conference in Brighton, June 19-21, 2019
Not only poetry, but also works of fiction include pieces of writing that are prone to provide both emotional and cognitive pleasure because they are made of “language at its most distilled and most powerful” (Rita Dove).
Empirical Ecocriticism Workshop at the Rachel Carson Center in Munich, December 14-15, 2018
There is a growing understanding across disciplines that narratives are of central importance to our relationships with other humans and nonhumans, as well as the broader environment. However, there is a need for more interdisciplinary cooperation and transdisciplinary convergence in order to explore further, in both the theoretical and the empirical realms, how environmental narratives across various mediums contribute to our understanding of the world around us and our place in it.