Ecocriticism,Urban Environments and Environmental Criticism
1.Research Center for Literary Theory and Aesthetics,Shandong University;2.The Department of English and American Literature and Language,Harvard University
Abstract:Lawrence Buell has been focusing on eco-criticism during the past decade.Cheng Xiangzhan proposes there are two kinds of eco-criticisms: one may be called "Ecological Literary Criticism," a kind of ecocritical literary theory,another may be called "Ecological Cultural Criticism," which takes on the task of reexamining a culture's attitudes toward nature through examining cultural constructions of environment.Buell does not find so clear-cut a distinction between the two.He discusses the history of the movement of ecocriticism and sums up theoretically several related ways of research for it.He points out that revisionist ecocriticism increasingly bases itself on an ethical paradigm of "environmental justice." Cheng thinks that environment is not only natural,but also built.Urban and metropolitan areas are most important built environments.So,the technical term of "environmental criticism" is more comprehensive than ecocriticism.One of the reasons for Buell's works to adopt mainly the technical term of "environmental criticism" is his awareness of the importance of urban environment.His research is in accordance with today's environmental aesthetics.