The Seasons

The seasons are one of the most prevalent means by which literary texts engage with and represent climate. This chapter explores the implications of the seasonal perspective of climate, and argues that literary texts have used the seasons as a domain for interrogating the interface between nature and culture. The first half of the chapter traces a history of literary representations of the seasonal cycle. This climate model of change-within-constancy has been interpreted variously as a source of reassuring stability or as evidence for nature’s hostility. The second half of the chapter focuses on individual seasons and the cultural associations that have accumulated around them. Particular seasons are associated with particular human activities, emotions, psychological states, and literary genres. Often the most interesting examples of seasons literature are those texts that interrogate these associations and ask whether nature or culture has shaped our responses to and expectations for each season.