ILAe – International Lexycon of Aesthetics
A critical practice that investigates representations of non-human entities and their relationships with humans in literature. The term is commonly used without “literary” in all the aforementioned five languages, unless the context requires the field of study to be specified. The prefix “eco” derives from “ecology”, understood both as a discipline that studies the interrelationships between living beings and their environment and as a cultural movement that promotes the protection of ecosystems. Ecocriticism therefore has a strong interdisciplinary vocation, combining two broad approaches: historical-philological and ethical-pedagogical (Scaffai, 2017). The former analyses literary representations of non-human beings and environments as symbolic figures, presenting typical characteristics shaped by their socio-cultural and historical context (e.g. ‘Arcadia’ in the nineteenth century). It ranges from the analysis of singular figures, such as the Moon in Giacomo Leopardi’s poetry, to ecological worldviews that emerge from the author’s process of worlding, whether as an unconscious restitution of their own interpretation or as a conscious fictional construction. The latter approach focuses on how literary practice is or can be used as a tool to enhance ecological awareness (e.g. Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring).
Ecocriticism is generally considered to have emerged as a discipline in the 1980s and 1990s within Anglo-American academia. As a practice, however, it developed simultaneously in various context, so its origin cannot be attributed unambiguously to a single context. Since the 2000s, Ecocriticism has become widespread and it is now a recognized branch of Literary Criticism in many countries worldwide, diversifying its concepts and critical perspectives in relation to different cultures, habitats and worldviews.
Ecocriticism constitutes a branch of the broader fields of Ecological and Environmental Aesthetics, focusing on literary forms of Ecological and Environmental Arts, and typically addressing themes such as the environmental crisis and the concept of Anthropocene. Consequently, it may also be understood as a development within Political Aesthetics.
[…]
The Lexycon’s entry continues here.
C. Diotto, “Literary Ecocriticism”, International Lexycon of Aesthetics, Spring 2026. DOI: 10.7413/18258630167
Photographer: Ksenia Makagonova on Unsplash
