Nature doesn't grow on trees: an analysis of environmental discourse

This thesis examines the issue of environmentalism through a study of the construction of the environment or the 'natural world' in contemporary society. It tackles the issue through a close analysis of a selection of material which engages with the environment in different ways. This material has been selected in order to identify methods of organisation and strategies of argument which are present across a range of texts and also to investigate the way in which environmentalism is entwined with other issues in society, such as science, feminism and consumerism. After exploring theories of discourse in the work of Raymond Williams, Claude Levi-Strauss, Roland Barthes and Judith Williamson, a framework of analysis is worked out. This is then used and modified in an examination of how representations of the environment feature in advertisements, eco-feminist texts and popular scientific discourse, and the way in which they become the focus of various discursive practices and techniques.