ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the value of discourse studies to ecocritical readings. Discourse studies can take a high-level, macro approach to literary texts by attending to broad metanarratives and ideologies, or it can take, as this chapter argues, a micro approach, which involves close analysis of lexical choices and their sequencing (i.e., lexicogrammar). The chapter is informed by the fields of critical discourse analysis, rhetoric, sociolinguistics, and systemic functional linguistics. These fields are seldom used in the analysis of literary texts; generally they are applied to overtly rhetorical texts. The chapter nevertheless makes the case for discourse studies approaches to literary texts, especially to those with implicit suasive dimensions (such as those often of interest to ecocritics and environmental humanists). The chapter reviews key concepts such as modality, transitivity, theme and rheme. These concepts are illustrated in the context of ecoliterate poetry and prose texts.
