In The Truth of Ecology (2003), Dana Phillips critiques ecocriticism for the problematic separation of the literal and the literary; Phillips reminds us that texts written or read from an ecological perspective may well be literal (or descriptive or realistic or naturalistic) in mode but can't avoid being literary in medium. ... Though I share Phillips's belief that "we need to cure ecocriticism of its fundamentalist fixation on literal representation," the larger theory and critique of ecocriticism of the sort he pursues is beyond my scope here. (8) Rather, in paying greater attent...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate