This volume centers on the study of the relations between literature and the environment and poses important questions to an evolving field: why has ecocriticism focused on narrow, more recent historical periods? What has prevented or discouraged critics from extending environmentally-conscious readings further into the past, and what is lost as a consequence? Early Modern Ecostudies engages directly with such issues and advances a new practice that borrows from the methodologies of current ecocriticism, interrogates its problematic assumptions, and extends its reach and significance. Dealing with a range of subjects, these essays apply ecocritical methods to traditional authors such as Shakespeare, Sidney, More, and Milton; canonical texts such Edward Taylor's poetry and the Florentine Codex; and documents from the literature of discovery, medicine, and natural history.
