ALEXA WEIK VON MOSSNER

EMPIRICAL ECOCRITICISM

EMPIRICAL ECOCRITICISM
Environmental Narratives for Social Change

Edited by Matthew Schneider-Mayerson,
Alexa Weik von Mossner, W.P. Malecki, and Frank Hakemulder

University of Minnesota Press 2023

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There is a growing consensus that environmental narratives can help catalyze the social change necessary to address today’s environmental crises; however, surprisingly little is known about their impact and effectiveness. In Empirical Ecocriticism, Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, Alexa Weik von Mossner, W. P. Malecki, and Frank Hakemulder combine an environmental humanities perspective with empirical methods derived from the social sciences to study the influence of environmental stories on our affects, attitudes, and actions.

Empirical Ecocriticism provides an approachable introduction to this growing field’s main methods and demonstrates their potential through case studies on topics ranging from the impact of climate fiction on readers’ willingness to engage in activism to the political empowerment that results from participating in environmental theater. Part manifesto, part toolkit, part proof of concept, and part dialogue, this introductory volume is divided into three sections: methods, case studies, and reflections. International in scope, it points toward a novel and fruitful synthesis of the environmental humanities and social sciences.

CONTENT

Introduction: Toward an Integrated Approach to Environmental Narratives and Social Change
MATTHEW SCHNEIDER-MAYERSON, ALEXA WEIK VON MOSSNER, W. P. MALECKI, AND FRANK HAKEMULDER

Part I. Methods

  1. Experimental Methods for the Environmental Humanities: Measuring Affects and Effects
    W. P. MALECKI
  2. Qualitative Approaches to Empirical Ecocriticism: Understanding Multidimensional Concepts, Experiences, and Processes
    PAUL SOPCAK AND NICOLETTE SOPCAK
  3. Exploring the Environmental Humanities through Film Production
    REBECCA DIRKSEN, MARK PEDELTY, YAN PANG, AND ELJA ROY

Part II. Case Studies

  1. Does Climate Fiction Work? An Experimental Test of the Immediate and Delayed Effects of Reading Cli-Fi
    MATTHEW SCHNEIDER-MAYERSON, ABEL GUSTAFSON, ANTHONY LEISEROWITZ, MATTHEW H. GOLDBERG, SETH A. ROSENTHAL, AND MATTHEW BALLEW
  2. The Roles of Exemplar Voice, Compassion, and Pity in Shaping Audience Responses to Environmental News Narratives
    JESSICA GALL MYRICK AND MARY BETH OLIVER
  3. The Reception of Radical Texts: The Complicated Case of Alice Walker’s “Am I Blue?”
    ALEXA WEIK VON MOSSNER, W. P. MALECKI, MATTHEW SCHNEIDER-MAYERSON, MARCUS MAYORGA, AND PAUL SLOVIC
  4. Screening Waste, Feeling Slow Violence: An Empirical Reception Study of the Environmental Documentary Plastic China
    NICOLAI SKIVEREN
  5. All the World’s a Warming Stage: Applied Theater, Climate Change, and the Art of Community-Based Assessments
    SARA WARNER AND JEREMY JIMENEZ
  6. Tracing the Language of Ecocriticism: Insights from an Automated Text Analysis of ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment
    SCOTT SLOVIC AND DAVID M. MARKOWITZ

Part III. Reflections

  1. Empirical Ecocriticism and the Future of (Eco)Narratology
    URSULA K. HEISE
  2. Two Cheers for Empirical Ecocriticism
    GREG GARRARD
  3. Empirical Ecocriticism and Modes of Persuasion
    DAVID I. HANAUER
  4. Stories about the Environment for Diverse Audiences
    Insights from Environmental Communication
    HELENA BILANDZIC

ACADEMIC REVIEWS

Leslie, Victoria. 2024. Review of Empirical Ecocriticism: Environmental Narratives for Social Change, edited by Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, Alexa Weik von Mossner, W.P. Malecki, Frank Hakemulder. Green Letters https://doi.org/10.1080/14688417.2024.2405851

Nixon, Lydia. 2024. Review of Empirical Ecocriticism: Environmental Narratives for Social Change, edited by Schneider-Mayerson, Matthew, Alexa Weik von Mossner, Wojciech Małecki, and Jèmeljan Hakemulder. Ecocene: Cappadocia Journal of Environmental Humanities 5(1): 24.

Shiya Yang, 2024. Review of Empirical Ecocriticism: Environmental Narratives for Social Change, edited by Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, Alexa Weik von Mossner, W. P. Malecki, and Frank Hakemulder. Digital Scholarship in the Humanities 39(2) 809–812.

Abolfotoh, Inas S. 2024. Review of Empirical Ecocriticism: Environmental Narratives for Social Change, edited by Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, Alexa Weik von Mossner, W. P. Malecki, and Frank Hakemulder. Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture 18: 1–3.