Towards an Intermedial Ecocriticism

Abstract

AbstractThe starting point for this chapter is that natural scientific research on the ecological crisis must be communicated by media products to the general public, industries, and policymakers. Such communication takes place via a wide array of different media types, from arts and literature to journalism and politics—media types that are, broadly speaking, the objects of environmental humanities. The problem is that it is very difficult to analyse, discuss, and compare such a diversity of texts or media products (here called ecomedia). This chapter tries to combine the basic ideas of ecocriticism concerning the environmental crisis with the vocabulary and analytical possibilities developed in intermedial studies to perform such a task, resulting in what the author calls intermedial ecocriticism. The chapter sketches out the main theoretical backgrounds of this position and suggests taking an analytical approach. It also compares and discusses two different media products: an online popular science article from CarbonBrief and a Danish novel about climate change.