The Eco-Self in Early Modern English Literature

Through analysis of Shakespeare, Marlowe, Webster, and Cavendish, the author reveals how this reconceptualized selfhood offered ecological benefits by valuing human rational capacities while maintaining environmental connection.

Dr. Elizabeth D. Gruber is a Professor of English at Lock Haven University in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania. Teaching and research interests include early modern literature, Shakespearean adaptation, and ecocriticism and theory. Recent publications focus on the productive conjunctions of ecocriticism and early modern studies. Several articles as well as an earlier monograph Renaissance Ecopolitics from Shakespeare to Bacon: Rethinking Cosmopolis (Routledge, 2017), advance ecocritical readings of diverse early modern texts. The goal of the present volume, The Eco-Self in Early Modern English Literature, is to track the birth of a new subset of the human, bringing out its eco-psychological implications and tracking their persisting importance.