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Timothy Morton Professor of Literature and Environment

D.Phil. Magdalen College, Oxford University

Professor Morton's intrests include literature and the environment, theories of ecology, food studies, Romanticism, the eighteenth century, literary theory, and philosophy. He teaches Romantic-period literature and literary theory.

Publication Spotlight

	Ecology Without Nature By Timothy Morton
	"Rigorous and unsettling, Timothy Morton's book is a vividly realized critique of the political and ethical meanings of 'place' and 'space.' Steeped in philosophical and literary history, Ecology without Nature is a profoundly convinced and convincing intervention, calling as it does for a more intellectually robust and politically supple environmentalism, one much better suited to the realities of twenty-first-century life. A more thoughtful reflection on the future of dwelling together in a vulnerable world would be hard to find." — David L. Clark, Professor of English and Cultural Studies, McMaster University
Ecology without Nature investigates our ecological assumptions in a way that is provocative and deeply engaging. Ranging widely in eighteenth-century through contemporary philosophy, culture, and history, he explores the value of art in imagining environmental projects for the future. Morton develops a fresh vocabulary for reading "environmentality" in artistic form as well as content, and traces the contexts of ecological constructs through the history of capitalism. From John Clare to John Cage, from Kierkegaard to Kristeva, from The Lord of the Rings to electronic life forms, Ecology without Nature widens our view of ecological criticism, and deepens our understanding of ecology itself. Instead of trying to use an idea of nature to heal what society has damaged, Morton sets out a radical new form of ecological criticism: "dark ecology."

Selected Publications

Ecology without Nature: Rethinking Environmental Aesthetics (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, March 2007).

Ed., The Cambridge Companion to Shelley (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006).

Ed., Cultures of Taste/Theories of Appetite: Eating Romanticism (London and New York: Palgrave, 2004).

"Hegel on Buddhism," in Romantic Praxis (e-journal, 2007).

"Bryon's Manfred and Eco-Criticism," in Jane Stabler, ed., Palgrave Advances in Byron Studies (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).

"Introduction," in Timothy Morton, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Shelley (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 1—13.

"Receptions," in Timothy Morton, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Shelley (Cambridge and New York:Cambridge University Press, 2006), 35—41.

"Shelley, Nature and Culture," in Timothy Morton, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Shelley (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 185—207.

"Joseph Ritson, Percy Shelley and the Making of Romantic Vegetarianism," Romanticism 12.1 (2006): 52—61.

"Food Studies in the Romantic Period:(S)mashing History," Romanticism 12.1 (2006: 1—4.

"Percy Shelley, Snacker Poet," Moving Worlds: A Journal of Transcultural Writings 6.2 (2006): 22—9.

"Environmentalism," in Nicholas Roe, ed., Romanticism: An Oxford Guide (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 696—707.

"Wordsworth Digs the Lawn," European Romantic Review 15.2 (2004): 317—27.

"Preface," in Timothy Morton, ed., Cultures of Taste/Theories of Appetite: Eating Romanticism (London and New York: Palgrave, 2004), xv—xxi.

"Consumption as Performance: The Emergence of the Consumer in the Romantic Period," in Timothy Morton, ed., Cultures of Taste / Theories of Appetite: Eating Romanticism (London and New York: Palgrave, 2004), 1—17.

"Let Them Eat Romanticism: Materialism and the Study of Food and Eating," in Timothy Morton, ed., Cultures of Taste / Theories of Appetite: Eating Romanticism (London and New York: Palgrave, 2004), 257—76.

"Mary Shelley as Cultural Critic," in Esther Schor, ed., The Cambridge Companion to Mary Shelley (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 259—73.

Email: tbmorton@ucdavis.edu