Description
Book SynopsisA groundbreaking book that combines the environmental humanities and social sciences to study the impact of environmental stories
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.
Contributors: Matthew Ballew, Yale U; Helena Bilandzic, U of Augsburg; Rebecca Dirksen, Indiana U; Greg Garrard, UBC Okanagan; Matthew H. Goldberg, Yale U; Abel Gustafson, U of Cincinnati; David I. Hanauer, Indiana U of Pennsylvania; Ursula K. Heise, UCLA; Jeremy Jimenez, SUNY Cortland; Anthony Leiserowitz, Yale U; David M. Markowitz, U of Oregon; Marcus Mayorga; Jessica Gall Myrick, Penn State U; Mary Beth Oliver, Penn State U; Yan Pang, Point Park U; Mark Pedelty, U of Minnesota; Seth A. Rosenthal, Yale U; Elja Roy, U of Memphis; Nicolai Skiveren, Aarhus U; Paul Slovic, U of Oregon; Scott Slovic, U of Idaho; Nicolette Sopcak, U of Alberta; Paul Sopcak, MacEwan U; Sara Warner, Cornell U.
Table of Contents Contents
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
4. 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
5. The Roles of Exemplar Voice, Compassion, and Pity in Shaping Audience Responses to Environmental News Narratives
Jessica Gall Myrick and Mary Beth Oliver
6. 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
7. Screening Waste, Feeling Slow Violence: An Empirical Reception Study of the Environmental Documentary Plastic China
Nicolai Skiveren
8. All the World’s a Warming Stage: Applied Theater, Climate Change, and the Art of Community-Based Assessments
Sara Warner and Jeremy Jimenez
9. 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
10. Empirical Ecocriticism and the Future of (Eco)Narratology
Ursula K. Heise
11. Two Cheers for Empirical Ecocriticism
Greg Garrard
12. Empirical Ecocriticism and Modes of Persuasion
David I. Hanauer
13. Stories about the Environment for Diverse Audiences: Insights from Environmental Communication
Helena Bilandzic
Acknowledgments
Contributors
Index
