Elemental Ecocriticism

Although the elements have been exploited for human ends in early modern discursive practices, they have so saturated social and cultural life that writers of the period could not avoid mentioning elemental formations. Marlowe's Tamburlaine, Part I and Part II (1587) and Doctor Faustus (1592) are significant representatives of early modern English drama that highlight the interrelationships between the human body and the elements. This study examines elemental agency, to show how the agential capacity of the four classical elements unveils ecophobic treatment; and how the ecophobic strain in the human psyche is reflected in Christopher Marlowe's Tamburlaine and Doctor Faustus.

I discuss encounters with the sensuous surface of the elemental earth in the everyday enterprise of human motility and ambulation—that is, walking. How and why are we drawn along on foot and seduced by the charms of the tellurian domain? Are there sensuous imperatives that hold, command, or channel our unfolding actions and attractions as we walk? Might a sense of style or even an aesthetic sensibility emerge through regular and reflective walking practices that could inform practical work in urban design, ecological theory, or the politics of the pedestrian world?
As an exploratory effort to address a few of these issues, I consider the sensuous surface in some of its common manifestations as we walk or stalk urban and other-than-human terrains. Through the medium of our bodily senses and a vocabulary cobbled together from experiences of physical texture and tactility, furtive glancing and more protracted beholding, temporal rhythms and emergent patterns of repetition, or simply attention to the earth’s lines, colors, fissures, shapes, and curves, we might learn a great deal about our surroundings.

I examine the ancient and perennial notion of the elements (stoicheia) and its relation to an idea of place proper (topos) and natural place (topos oikeios) in Aristotle's work. Through an exploration of his accounts, I argue that Aristotle develops a robust theory of place that is relevant to current environmental and geographical thought. In the process, he provides a domestic household and home for earth, air, fire and water that offers a supplement or an alternative to more abstract and controversial uses of a conception of 'nature' (physis). I identify and elaborate upon environmental aspects of place-based and elemental philosophy.

I examine the kindred phenomena of shadows and night in order to reveal their significance for better understanding our lifeworld and the elemental environment. I first describe how light is primary to ecological perception and how it conditions our conceptions of space, truth and beauty. Light and darkness are involved in a dialectical relationship rather than conceived as polar opposites. Borne of the interplay of both realms, shadows have been disparaged historically and deserve to be reconsidered for their aesthetic appearance and their relevance to an ecology and anthropology of perception. Night, in turn, is often marked by a negative ontology that points toward the possibility of a kind of elemental a priori, but it is important to characterize darkness in terms of its subtle shades and its filtering through the creative matrix of the human imagination. Seeing the night in novel and unexpected ways, especially via the insights and descriptions of phenomenologists, poets, and artists, enables us to grasp the depth and atmosphere of the surrounding world and to light up our geographical perspectives, our philosophical visions, and our environmental awareness.

I examine the ancient and perennial notion of the elements (stoicheia) and its relation to an idea of place proper (topos) and natural place (topos oikeios) in Aristotle's work. Through an exploration of his accounts, I argue that Aristotle develops a robust theory of place that is relevant to ...