Ecocritical and Environmental Approaches: Teaching Victorian Poets and Novelists in the Age of the Internet

Abstract

One value of studying the Victorians is that they connect the world of “new” historicism, formalism, and theory to an earlier pedagogy of close reading, literary biography, and “old” history. Tennyson has important connections to Darwinian thinking, while his knowledge of fossils and “Nature red in tooth and claw” contributes to ecocritical readings of many of his poems. Browning is environmentally significant for his careful attention to plants and animals, as well as his understanding of Darwin in a poem like “Caliban Upon Setebos.” Arnold’s masterpiece “Dover Beach” relies on a distinction between natural images of sea, beach, and tide and human weaknesses embodied in doubt, ambiguity, and uncertainty. Emphasis on “nature” and “the natural” helps students to appreciate aspects of the wilderness, animals, plants, and climate that will all play a crucial role in our shared future.