Main content

Eco-Criticism

Lisa Mullen looks at the rising popularity in universities of the study of literature about nature, from Romantic poets like Wordsworth to the Scottish mountain walker Nan Shepherd.

From Bessie Head to Keats, Rachel Carson to Lorine Niedecker, Lisa Mullen and guests analyse links between literature and nature as an increasing number of university departments offer eco-criticism courses focusing on the way writers past and present have thought about the environment.

Samuel Solnick specialises in environmental humanities at the University of Liverpool, and is particularly interested in the relationship between literature and science. His books include Poetry and the Anthropocene: Ecology, biology and technology in contemporary British and Irish poetry (Book - 2018)
Samantha Walton is an academic and poet at Bath Spa University, specialising in ecological feminism and the relation between nature and mental health. Her books include The Living World: Nan Shepherd and Environmental Thought (2020), Bad Moon (poetry - 2020), and Everybody Needs Beauty: In Search of the Nature Cure (2021).
Harriet Tarlo, is both a poet and a critic at Sheffield Hallam University, where she practices and preaches the importance of radical nature writing. Published work includes On Ecopoetics: Harriet Tarlo and Jonathan Skinner in Conversation and Off path, counter path: contemporary walking collaborations in landscape, art and poetry and a Shearsman Press book Poems 2004-2014.

You might also be interested in the Green Thinking playlist on the Free Thinking website /programmes/p07zg0r2 which includes
Amitav Gosh /programmes/m00066px on his most recent novel and on his arguments about the need for literature to engage with the climate /programmes/b07z7bnd
Poet Elizabeth Jane Burnett sharing her Soil Stories /programmes/b08fj505
A discussion of the influential writing of Rachel Carson /programmes/m0005gwk
There's more on researching Wordsworth from the directors of Lancaster University's Wordsworth Centre for the Study of Poetry
/programmes/p087kr4n
Bessie Head is discussed in this Free Thinking episode /programmes/m0001dt8

Ian McMillan on Radio 3's The Verb has been speaking to a whole host of writers and poets about nature, the environment and our changing times
/programmes/b006tnsf/episodes/downloads

Radio 3 is also part of a Soundscapes for Wellness project where you can find mixes involving natural sounds on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Sounds. https://canvas-story.bbcrewind.co.uk/soundscapesforwellbeing/ On this link you can find out how to take part in a Virtual Nature Experiment organised by the University of Exeter co-created by sound recordist Chris Watson and film composer, Nainita Desai.

Producer: Luke Mulhall

Available now

44 minutes

Last on

Tue 2 Feb 2021 22:00

Broadcast

  • Tue 2 Feb 2021 22:00

Featured in...

The Arts & Ideas Podcast

The Arts & Ideas Podcast

You can download all the past episodes of Radio 3's Free Thinking

Discussions and talks from the Free Thinking Festival 2019

Discussions and talks from the Free Thinking Festival 2019

Angry politics, what we can’t say, being diplomatic, weeping, emotion in music, film & TV

Click to listen to discussions, talks and music as the Free Thinking Festival 2019 Gets Emotional

Click to listen to discussions, talks and music as the Free Thinking Festival 2019 Gets Emotional

Angry politics, what we can’t say, being diplomatic, weeping, emotion in music, film & TV

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE programmes from the Free Thinking Festival 2018: The One & the Many

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE programmes from the Free Thinking Festival 2018: The One & the Many

We examine the fast-changing relationship between the individual & the crowd

CLICK to LISTEN & SEE all programmes, images, clips & features from 2017's festival

Free Thinking Festival 2017: The Speed of Life