The volume takes stock of the various extensions the growing field of ecocriticism has seen
over the last decade or so. Contributions from 15 specialists examine the increasing
theoretical and methodological self-reflection of the field its expanding range of literary
analysis across canonical thematic and national boundaries as well as the interdisciplinary
perspectives that have developed around it. The volume stresses two aspects in particular: the
ethical questions raised by ecocritical inquiry and the importance and variability of close
reading as a core technique of ecocritical analysis. It includes a selection of representative
case studies from American French Italian and Spanish literature.
