Literary and theoretical texts for all your Ecocriticism needs.
Primary Literary Texts
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (1851)
As we imagine the story of this text, Captain Ahab comes along and interrupts the great whale's Sunday morning swim. And old Moby-Dick thinks, "Oh boy. Yet another crazy guy giving some insane spee...
Animal Farm by George Orwell (1945)
In this exciting text, some pigs organize a revolt against a drunk farmer. They write songs and compose a cool manifesto, build a windmill, and overtake the humans. But soon after they rise to powe...
Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller (1949)
The American dream-cum-nightmare drives the protagonist of this play straight into the ground. Literally. Why do ecocritics care? The only thing that Willy Loman can think to do to keep from going...
Watership Down by Richard Adams (1974)
In this novel, rabbits are rad and humans, once again, are the destroyers. Hazel and Fiver lead their rabbit-friends to a new home after theirs is destroyed by evil people-things. But they find the...
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (1815)
We're sure you've read this one. But still, we'll lay it out for you: a scientist wants to make a beautiful guy. Instead, he makes an ugly guy. Then the scientist runs away from his creation, even...
Primary Theoretical Texts
Walden by Henry David Thoreau (1854)
A Victorian hippie sporting an epic neck beard goes into the woods to reduce life "to its lowest terms." Not low as in, "down-in-the-dumps" low. Low as in, "what are the things I can live without?"...
A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold (1949)
Killing animals for fun ain't no joke, says Aldo Leopold. He saw a "green fire" die in the eyes of the female wolf he killed. And the entire Green Movement—you might have heard of it—takes its...
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1964)
A whole spring without any birdsongs? No thanks. This sad, sad world is what Rachel Carson considers in Silent Spring. Her main point is that all living things exist together. So what humans do to...
Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey (1968)
Grandpa-Environmentalist Ed Abbey is one grumpy dude. He cusses when he gets upset, which is a lot. But he sure does love that wilderness.In this work, he talks about wilderness as a "human necessi...
The Ecological Imagination by Lawrence Buell (1995)
This famed ecocritic wants to tell us that there's more to nature than The Sound of Music. It isn't all beautiful mountains and tall green grass and blue sky (and a twirling, singing nun). And Buel...