Mendes and Vieira have collected 12 essays on Portuguese authors and the presence and influence of environmental features in their works. Ranging from medieval lyrical poetry to 19th- and 20-century authors, the collection includes essays on Júlio Dinis (1839–71), Eça de Queirós (1845–1900), Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935), Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen (1919–2004), and José Saramago (1922–2010). Two essays extend to hunting in colonial Africa and 16th-century descriptions of Brazil by Caminha and Gandavo. As the introduction notes, environmental research is still in its initial stages, lacking clear distinctions between images of nature, features of geographical location such as the sea, or images of animals, plants, and landscape in literature. A central question is whether nature, as common literary theme and context, can have an enhanced meaning when recast as environment.



Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Choice Reviews

An invitation to read anew many of the works that make up the canon of Portuguese literature, Portuguese Literature and the Environment represents the first concerted attempt to call attention to the ways in which literary representations create as much as are created by the natural environment in the horizon of which they emerge. Framed by brilliant philosophical and historical overviews of the state of the matter in present day Portugal, the ecocriticism that follows urges the question of how the local environment might have had global impact across the ages.

Ana Paula Ferreira, University of Minnesota

A tour de force, this volume brings together reflections that span centuries and a marvelous range of materials. The critical approaches are as rich and varied as the literatures and environments that they engage. This is a timely and often brilliant book, and it should appeal to readers far and wide.

Bruno Carvalho, Harvard University