"Sustainability" of Literary Studies: The Dynamism of "Environmental Sensibility" in the Romantic Age and Its Significance to Modern Times

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22320061
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Literature in English
• Research Institution: Waseda University
• Principal Investigator: NISHIYAMA Kiyoshi 早稲田大学, 教育・総合科学学術院, 教授 (00140096)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): UETSUKI Keiichiro 日本大学, 芸術学部, 教授 (10213373) ; KAWATSU Masae 名古屋経済大学, 法学部, 教授 (30278387) ; OISHI Kazuyoshi 東京大学, 大学院総合文化研究科, 准教授 (50348380) ; YOSHIKAWA Saeko 神戸市外国語大学, 外国語学部, 教授 (60316031) ; KANATSU Kazumi 同志社大学, 文学部, 准教授 (90367962) ; KOGUCHI Ichiro 大阪大学, 大学院言語文化研究科, 准教授 (70205368)
• Research Collaborator: NAOHARA Noriko
• Project Period (FY): 2010-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: イギリス・ロマン主義 / 環境感受性 / エコクリティシズム / ロマン主義哲学 / 場所 / 動物愛護 / 環境倫理 / 文学観光

Outline of Final Research Achievements

"Environmental sensibility," the sensitive response of life forms to the environment, has recently drawn much attention in natural science. Applying this concept in the field of the humanities, the present project investigates how environmental sensibility operates in philosophical, literary, and cultural texts, and analyze the formation of modern ecological thinking and its subsequent development.
The project examines texts from around the British Romantic age, as the inception of modern forms of nature-environmental perception are most conspicuously observed in this era.
This project has successfully studied multifaceted modes in which environmental sensibility was born and then developed into its modern forms. The outcomes of the project have also demonstrated that literary studies are a "sustainable" academic practice that can proceed by holding close, organic connections with other disciplinary fields.

Free Research Field

イギリス・ロマン主義文学