Perceptions of the environment in Maritime literature

Abstract

This thesis investigates the way in which perceptions of the natural world have evolved in Maritime literature from the early Nineteenth Century to the present. While it has been commonplace in the critical tradition for landscape to be evaluated as an aesthetic component of literature, it is largely within the last two decades that the idea of nature as a political entity in written expression has taken root. Loosely adhering to the principles of ecocriticism, this thesis argues that as Maritime society gains an awareness of the degree to which industrial development threatens human life in the region, the texts that it produces embody a clear struggle for recognition of the importance of our relationship with the natural world.