ScholarWorks@숙명여자대학교

초록

This paper is designed to examine Gilbert White’s The Natural History of Selborne(hereafter NHS), which has been evaluated as one of the primary texts of natural sciences and quoted as one of the exemplary ecological texts in the 18th century. The emerging ecocritical studies of literature in the 18th and 19th century seem to overlook the critical examination of the texts of natural sciences, which have been used to support the ecological aspects of the literary texts. The ecological understanding of nature prefigures in NHS. As White articulates in “Advertisement” of NHS, he emphasizes that NHS, though parochial, is the result of his own observation and argues his aim is to lead the attention of the readers to the beautiful wonders of nature. With the scientific and poetic eyes in observing nature, NHS rectifies not only the errors in scientific observation of nature in science texts, but also the ecologically incorrect observation of nature in literary texts. However his imperialistic impulse in observing the nesting habits of the cuckoo, and his emphasis on the economic values of trees in global commerce, among others, suggests NHS is not the ecological texts immune to the socio-political contexts of the 18th century.

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