Ecocritical Shakespeare

Can reading, writing about, and teaching Shakespeare contribute to the health of the planet? To what degree are Shakespeare's plays anthropocentric or ecocentric? What is the connection between the literary and the real when it comes to ecological conduct? This collection, engages with these pressing questions surrounding ecocritical Shakespeare, in order to provide a better understanding of where and how ecocritical readings should be situated. The volume combines multiple critical perspectives, juxtaposing historicism and presentism, as well as considering ecofeminism and pedagogy; and addresses such topics as early modern flora and fauna, and the neglected areas of early modern marine ecology and oceanography. Concluding with an assessment of the challenges-and necessities-of teaching Shakespeare ecocritically, Ecocritical Shakespeare not only broadens the implications of ecocriticism in early modern studies, but represents an important contribution to this growing field.

Introduction Warbling Invaders; I: Contexts for reading; 1: Vermin and Parasites; 2: The Ecology of Self in Midsummer Night's Dream; 3: Gaia and the Great Chain of Being; 4: Is it Shakespearean Ecocriticism if it isn't Presentist?; II: Flora, Fauna, Weather, Water; 5: “The Nobleness of Life”; 6: The Well-Hung Shrew; 7: Felling Falstaff in Windsor Park; 8: It's all about the gillyvors; 9: Tongues in the Storm; 10: Shakespeare and the Global Ocean; III: Presentism and Pedagogy; 11: An Ecocritic's Macbeth; 12: Ophelia's Plants and the Death of Violets; 13: Teaching Shakespeare in the Ecotone 1; Afterword

Lynne Bruckner is an Associate Professor of English at Chatham University, USA, and Daniel Brayton is an Assistant Professor of English and American Literatures at Middlebury College, USA