In 1952, Faulkner noted the exceptional nature of the South when he
characterized it as "the only really authentic region in the United
States, because a deep indestructible bond still exists between man and
his environment."
The essays collected in Faulkner and the Ecology of the South explore
Faulkner's environmental imagination, seeking what Ann Fisher-Wirth
calls the "ecological counter-melody" of his texts. "Ecology" was not a
term in common use outside the sciences in Faulkner's time. However, the
word "environment" seems to have held deep abiding meaning for Faulkner.
Often he repeated his abiding interest in "man in conflict with himself,
with his follow man, or with his time and place, his environment."
Eco-criticism has led to a renewed interest among literary scholars for
what in this volume Cecelia Tichi calls, "humanness with congeries of
habitats and environments." Philip Weinstein draws on Pierre Bourdieu's
notion of habitus. Eric Gary Anderson argues that F