Review of 'Ecology and Modern Scottish Literature' By Louisa Gairn. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2008. ISBN 9780748633111. 208pp. hbk. £55.

Abstract

At first glance one could think that this book might appeal primarily to those interested in the history of literary representations of the British environment. However, Gairn's selective survey of nineteenth to twenty-first century literature is broad enough to open cultural debates on the interplay of science and art in Scottish literature while simultaneously laying innovative critical ground that takes the reader throughout new territory, namely ecocriticism. This project critiques representations of nature and proposes its own canon of ecopoets and artists interested in the study of living relations. Throughout Gairn's ecocritical study there is a tension between local culture and international philosophy, between native tongue and landscape and global ecological concepts. This complex dynamic is the single most valuable attribute of Gairn's interdisciplinary remapping of literature according to a marginalised thematic perspective.