Book Review: Ecocriticism on the Edge: The Anthropocene as a Threshold Concept by Timothy Clark

Abstract

In literary criticism, the term ‘ecocriticism’ is employed to capture the various aspects of the relation between literature and environment; it “expresses a desire to bring to the study of literature the concerns of ecopolitics”. Timothy Clark brings together his expertise in philosophy, literature and literary theory in addressing the question of ecocriticism, giving directions as well as discussing the possible challenges this task might encounter. He is dissatisfied equally with the global capitalist thinking that least bothers about the earth, with the anthropocentric tendencies inherent in postcolonial thinking, with the romanticists who want to preserve the forest and with the progressives interested in the rights of oppressed groups insofar as the solution each camp suggests does not first understand the intellectual challenges set forth by the recognition of the anthropocene epoch.