Empirical Ecocriticism

Environmental Narratives for Social Change

2023
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Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, Alexa Weik von Mossner, W. P. Malecki, and Frank Hakemulder, Editors

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A groundbreaking book that combines the environmental humanities and social sciences to study the impact of environmental stories

Part manifesto, part toolkit, part proof of concept, and part dialogue, Empirical Ecocriticism studies the influence of environmental stories on our affects, attitudes, and actions. The contributors leverage 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, ultimately pointing toward a novel and fruitful synthesis of the environmental humanities and social sciences.

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.

Matthew Schneider-Mayerson is associate professor of English and environmental studies at Colby College. He is author of Peak Oil: Apocalyptic Environmentalism and Libertarian Political Culture and coeditor of An Ecotopian Lexicon (Minnesota, 2019).

Alexa Weik von Mossner is associate professor of American studies at the University of Klagenfurt. She is author of Affective Ecologies: Empathy, Emotion, and Environmental Narrative and Cosmopolitan Minds: Literature, Emotion, and the Transnational Imagination.

W. P. Malecki is university professor of literary theory at the University of Wrocław. He is coeditor of What Can We Hope For? Essays on Politics and Human Minds and Animal Stories: How Narratives Make Us Care about Other Species.

Frank Hakemulder is affiliated full professor at the Reading Center (Stavanger) and teaches media psychology and communication at Utrecht University. He is coeditor of Science and Humanities: New Research Methods and Muses and Measures: Empirical Research Methods for the Humanities.

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