The nature essay : ecocritical explorations The Nature Essay: Ecocritical Explorations is the first extended study of a powerful literary form born out of the traditions of Enlightenment and Romanticism. It traces the varied stylistic paradigms of the nature essay down to the present day. Reading essays as platforms for ecological discourse the book analyses canonical and marginalised texts mainly from German English and American literature. Simone Schröder argues that the essays environmental impact is rooted in its negotiation of scientific poetic spiritual and ethical modes of perceiving nature. Together the chapters on these four aspects form a historical panorama of the nature essay as a genre that continues to flourish in our time of ecological crisis. Authors discussed include: Alexander von Humboldt Henry David Thoreau Virginia Woolf Robert Musil Ernst Jünger W.G. Sebald Kathleen Jamie and David Foster Wallace.