'Professor Feder makes a fresh, distinctive, consistently illuminating contribution to ecocriticism by reading a strikingly variegated array of borderline examples of Bildungsroman from the 1700s to the present against the grain of that genre's implicit claim to tell stories of uniquely human origin and growth.' Lawrence Buell, Harvard University, USA ' ... an important call to expand political relevance to include the nonhuman (especially other animals) in meaningful recognition of the deep, interconnecting continuity of life. By demonstrating the Bildungsroman's failure to maintain the illusion of human cultural superiority, Feder's book contests the humanist ideology of culture and makes room for a multispecies multiculturalism.' Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and the Environment 'Ecocriticism and the Idea of Culture ... is certainly [a text] that all those interested in the interlocking areas of ecocriticism, the narrative form and feminism will find rewarding, provocative and challenging in equal measure.' Green Letters