Ecological Literary Criticism: Romantic Imagining and the Biology of Mind by Karl Kroeber (review)

190 Western American Literature opening moments o f two intertwined careers that did much to shape the liter­ ary marketplace o f their time. NICOLAS WITSCHI U niversity o f Oregon E cological L iterary C riticism : Rom antic Imagining and the B iology o f Mind. By Karl Kroeber. (New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. 185 pages, $16.00.) In E cological L iterary C riticism , Karl Kroeber seeks to dispute New Historical interpretations of English romantic poetry by exploring the roman­ tics’ b elief that “humankind belonged in, could and should be at home within, the world of natural processes.” Extending an argument first developed by Jonathan Bate in Romantic E cology (1991), Kroeber exam ines what he calls the “proto-ecological” view s o f W ordsworth and C oleridge, the romantic characteristics of Thomas M althus’s Essay on Population (1798), and the revision of the first generation of romantics by Byron, Shelley, and Keats. The term “proto-ecological,” writes Kroeber, “is meant to evoke an intellectual position that accepts as entirely real a natural environment existent outside of one’s personal psyche,” an environ­ ment that “can be fully appreciated and healthily interacted with only through im aginative acts o f mind.” These im aginative acts are the central contribution of the romantics to our time, according to Kroeber, because romantic imagining anticipates the biolog­ ically materialistic understanding of mind offered by contemporary scientists. In his final chapter, therefore, Kroeber outlines the “Neural Darwinism” of biologist Gerald M. Edelman and draws on Edelman’s findings to assert that “we are superbly fitted to nature and nature is superbly fitted to our develop­ ment, even, as Wordsworth dared to suggest, to underwriting the evolution of culture.” D espite its promising title, the only form of “ecological literary criticism ” offered by this book is Kroeber’s own. A side from his discussion of the New H istoricism , Kroeber fails to engage recent developm ents in deep ecology, eco­ logical spirituality, ecopsychology, ecofem inism , environmental history, or environmental ethics, not to mention current work in ecocriticism , nature writ­ ing, or nature poetry. Moreover, Kroeber’s tendency to assert what ecocriticism “is” undermines his acknowledgem ent that this new critical movement can sup­ port a diversity of political and philosophical perspectives about the relation­ ship between literature and the environment. Finally, by suggesting that no one who has “encountered a forest fire, sailed on the ocean, or been out in a middle-western thunderstorm” could also understand that “nature” is a cultural construct, Kroeber both oversim plifies Reviews 191 New Historicism and overlooks its potential to contribute to an environm ental­ ly informed analysis o f power relations. DANIEL J. PHILIPPON U niversity o f Virginia Where P ast M eets Present: M odern C olorado Short Stories. Edited by James B. H em esath. (N iw ot: U niversity Press o f Colorado, 1994. 200 pages, $22.50/$12.95.) These stories have been brought together by editor James B. Hemesath because they reflect som ething “truly Colorado,” though, as I suspect Hemesath would favor, pinning down what that is can be a difficult task. Colorado is a diverse state, and these stories draw on the cultural diversity and Hispanic folklore of the south and the geographic diversity o f the entire state. There is a story of a community in the eastern plains, one set in the northwest corner near Dinosaur National Monument, stories of the ski towns, and stories o f the cities and suburbia along the Front Range. Many of the stories involve the theme of Colorado as destination, of people com ing to Colorado from somewhere else for some “reason,” as the early settlers once did. The title of the collection draws on what elem ents of its past heritage remain as Colorado struggles to define itself in an increasingly urbanized and com plex present. The “Can M en” by Robert O. Greer, Jr. is a heartfelt story of how two former and now hom eless rodeo cow boys spend a winter afternoon in Denver; Gladys Sw an’s “Backtracking” is about the remnants of dim e-fiction codes and the dreams “that sent...