EMPIRICAL ECOCRITICISM

Empirical ecocriticism investigates the influence of environmental narratives (across a wide variety of media) on their audiences. We think of it as a fruitful commingling of existing fields of study, such as traditional ecocriticism, ecomedia, the empirical study of literature and art, environmental communication, and environmental psychology. For us, empirical ecocriticism is 1) Empirically grounded. Empirical ecocriticism is an emerging subfield of ecocriticism that focuses on the empirically-grounded study of environmental narrative – in literature, film, television, etc. – and its influence on various audiences. The main objective of empirical ecocriticism is to put to empirical test claims made within ecocriticism, and the environmental humanities more generally, about the impact of environmental narratives. To this end, it employs empirical methods used in disciplines such as environmental communication, environmental psychology, and the empirical study of literature. These include correlational and experimental studies, and others.

For more information visit the Empirical Ecocriticism website.

Empirical ecocriticism is now an IGEL Emerging Research Coalition

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ASSOCIATED PUBLICATIONS

Schneider-Mayerson, Matthew, Alexa Weik von Mossner, W.P. Małecki, Frank Hakemulder, eds. 2023. Empirical Ecocriticism: Environmental Narratives for Social Change. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press

Schneider-Mayerson, Matthew, Alexa Weik von Mossner, W.P. Malecki, and Frank Hakemulder. 2023. “Introduction.” In Empirical Ecocriticism: Environmental Narratives for Social Change, edited by Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, Alexa Weik von Mossner, W.P. Malecki, and Frank Hakemulder. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Weik von Mossner, Alexa, W.P. Malecki, Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, Marcus Mayorga, and Paul Slovic. 2023. “The Reception of Radical Texts: The Complicated Case of Alice Walker’s ‘Am I Blue?’” In Empirical Ecocriticism: Environmental Narratives for Social Change, edited by Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, Alexa Weik von Mossner, W.P. Malecki, and Frank Hakemulder. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Malecki, W.P., Alexa Weik von Mossner, Piotr Sorokowski, and Tomasz Frackowiak. 2021. “Extinction Stories Matter: The Impact of Narrative Representations of Endangered Species Across Media.” ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment.

Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, Alexa Weik von Mossner, and Wojciech Małecki, eds. 2020. “Empirical Ecocriticism: Environmental Texts and Empirical Methods.” Introduction to a thematic cluster of articles on “Empirical Ecocriticism” in Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment.

Małecki, Wojciech, Alexa Weik von Mossner and Małgorzata Dobrowolska. 2020. “Narrating Human and Animal Oppression: Strategic Empathy and Intersectionalism in Alice Walker’s ‘Am I Blue?’” Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment.