New Thinking: Eco-Criticism

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.

This episode was made in partnership with the AHRC, part of UKRI. You can find more about New Research in a playlist on the Free Thinking programme website - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03zws90 - where you’ll find other episodes in the New Thinking strand showcasing academic research.

You might also be interested in the Green Thinking playlist on the Free Thinking website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07zg0r2 which includes Amitav Gosh https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00066px on his most recent novel and on his arguments about the need for literature to engage with the climate https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07z7bnd Poet Elizabeth Jane Burnett sharing her Soil Stories https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08fj505 A discussion of the influential writing of Rachel Carson https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0005gwk There's more on researching Wordsworth from the directors of Lancaster University's Wordsworth Centre for the Study of Poetry https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p087kr4n Bessie Head is discussed in this Free Thinking episode https://www.bbc.co.uk/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 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tnsf/episodes/downloads

Radio 3 is also part of a Soundscapes for Wellness project where you can find mixes involving natural sounds on BBC 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