Patrick Zambianchi

My dissertation, tentatively titled "From Romantic Aesthetics to Environmental Ethics: Rethinking the Role of Natural Aesthetics in Ecocritical Discourse," questions the growing tendency in ecocritical debates to regard the Romantic concept of nature as an obstacle for the underpinning of a modern system of environmental ethics due to its metaphysical orientation. Focusing on selected works by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Immanuel Kant and William Wordsworth, this project examines the interconnections between early nineteenth-century ideas of nature, aesthetics and ethics, and explores the underlying ecological implications of the Romantic concept of nature.