Doing Ecocriticism with Shakespeare: An Introduction

Abstract

When I began this project over a decade ago, I started with questions that seemed much more radical than they seem now. Now that ecocriticism has become established as a credible area of study with increasing insights on Shakespeare,¹ it is less provocative and contentious to suggest that there are radical possibilities that may open up when we apply ecocriticism to Shakespeare. Given what is happening in the field, we can assume now that a Shakespearean ecocriticism is unquestionably useful to contemporary environmental discussions. We can assume that literary theories about representations of environmental issues have a place in serious Shakespearean scholarship; that there is a case (many, perhaps) compelling enough to persuade Shakespeareans of the usefulness of ecocriticism and to convince eco-critics that the growth and development of ecocriticism itself stands to gain substantially from readings of Shakespeare; and that applying ecocriticism to Shakespeare is very different from doing thematic nature criticism.