Introduction : Ourselves Our Renaissance: The Verdancy of Critical Practice

Abstract

This chapter lays out the rationale for the eco-self, a hybrid entity whose properties are discernible across broad swathes of early modern literature. In brief, the eco-self acknowledges humans’ embedment in the world while simultaneously confirming the necessity of periodically claiming a space apart from it. While ecological discourse has offered a necessary corrective to certain aspects of Enlightenment thought, the time is ripe for revisiting proprietarily human concerns. In undertaking this work, the introduction offers fresh conceptualizations of such key ideas as vulnerability, indistinction, and aesthetics.