A Borderland between Green and Brown Landscapes: An Ecocritical Road to Urban Nature Writing

녹색과 갈색의 경계지대 - 미국 도시근교자연문학과 생태비평의 영역확장

As a way to situate environmental literary study, urban nature recently seems to have become an increasingly important part of ecocritical studies. Considering the recent deprecation on the alleged ecocriticism's ecocentric position, this move looks promising. However, a scrutable review of recent publications of ecocritical studies reveals a contradicting result that an ecocritical approach to urban nature not only lacks substance but also makes too much of the cultural and political issues of 'environmental justice' in which the traditional value and beauty of nature is totally sacrificed and neglected for its political purpose. Under the current circumstance that the environmental crisis threatens all landscapes of wild, rural, and urban, ecocriticism needs to put together "green" landscapes of wildness and "brown" landscapes of urban environment. The interdependence between outback and urban landscapes is best observed in suburban areas in which both landscapes coexist and merge. Provided with due learning and attention of nonhuman environment in their backyard, suburban residents have privilege of both appreciating nature's beauty and value of its own, on the one hand, and acutely reckoning urban environmental concerns related to their health, safety, and sustenance, on the other, in their own home grounds. The post-1980s in the United States has witnessed the emerging voices of suburban nature writings that speak for both green and brown landscapes, which have escaped from ecocritical attention. Among the suburban nature writings, those of Michael Pollan and Thomas Mitchell well illustrate how the green and brown landscapes are interwoven and, accordingly, how environmental awareness of both landscapes can start in suburban 'home.' Ecocriticism's validation as relevant studies of literature and environment may depend on these suburban nature writings which demonstrate an 'ancient-future' ethic of "home" based environmentalism.