With the increasing industrialisation of our society and the rise of new technologies and social media, it might come as a surprise the recent literary boom that nature writing is experiencing. This literary boom has led to the denomination of a new movement within the genre: the New Nature Writing movement. This new movement brings with it the delicacy of language and acute observation found in old-style nature writing, and promises a re-imagination of ourselves into purer, more authentic, beings in touch with nature; breaking down the shackles of our concrete jungles and running free into the wild, English countryside.
This latter, is one of the main characteristics of the so-called New Nature Writing movement: the positioning of the author, and, by extension, the reader, at the centre of the experience. In fact, it could be argued that, as Tim Dee suggests in his article on the New Nature Writing movement for The National, ‘if they were dependent on facts alone these books of new nature writing would fail; their strengths and authenticity come from their subjective eye.’ This ‘subjective eye’ makes the text relatable to an audience that is increasingly consumed by the anxieties of human disconnection from the natural world that surrounds us and the impending environmental crisis.
This brings into question the potentiality of these new titles to influence environmental action, as, by inserting the human at the centre of the narrative, these new titles could be interpreted as yet another way to present an anthropocentric perspective with the contrary effect of creating more barriers between the human and nature. Zoe Gilbert, in a Guardian article, questions this same influence in a critical way:
Has the proliferation of nature writing led to a proliferation of countryside explorers? Are we following the example of intrepid writers and becoming re-enchanted with the world as a result? I rather hope so, though the cynic in me suspects that where nature is not Instagrammable, some will not tread.
Therefore, these texts have the danger of becoming just a form of escapism from our urban, technologically-congested realities. However, they also carry the potential to instigate environmental action, as they promote a more personal conversation on the emotional impacts of our changing climate, and reflection of our everyday connections with the natural world around us. Because, as Naomi Klein suggests in her seminal work This Changes Everything, it’s the personal conversations about our experiences and connections to nature that might help us re-write narratives about technological progress and consumption that sustain our current, environmentally-damaging economic system.
Sources:
Super natural: the rise of the new nature writing (The National)
Nature writing is booming – but must a walk in the woods always be meaningful? (The Guardian)
New Nature Writing: a force for sustainability and the common good? (CUSP)
This Changes Everything by Naomi Klein