‘Fascinating, detailed, and rigorous historical work, Nardizzi’s term “eco-materialism” promises to be a useful and necessary tool for advancing thought in eco-criticism, object oriented environs studies, and early modern historical and literary studies.’
Mark Kaethler, Sixteenth Century Journal vol 65:02:2014
‘Intriguing and innovative book… This is inventive work that draws on ecocriticism, object studies, and theatre history in the service of original readings of plays by Shakespeare, Thomas Kyd, and Robert Greens.’
Julia Reinhard Lupton, Studies in English Literature vol 54:02:2014
‘Both factually grounded and ambitiously speculative, with solid roots in established scholarship but offering new branches, Wooden Os proves itself a worthy contribution to ongoing efforts to recover the environmental history of early modern England through readings of literature.’
Robert N. Watson, Renaissance Quarterly vol 68:01:2015
‘The first thing to strike the reader of this book is its awkwardly puzzling title, then the genuine pleasure, the intellectual curiosity and the precise reasoning and style with which it has been written and researched. Completely original in its outcome, this study is well rooted in recent and less recent scholarship about the English Renaissance and Shakespeare.’
Caterina Salabè, Memoria di Shakespeare: A Journal of Shakespeare Studies 2015
‘Fascinating book… Wooden Os offers important insights into an unexplored topic, with some good literary analysis along the way. At his best, we might say, Nardizzi helps us to see both the woods and the trees.’
Andrew Murphy, English Studies in Canada vol 41:03:2015
"Wooden Os adds to the long-engrained critical history of early modern drama by magnifying the physical substance that most studies overlook: the woody matter of the stage itself. Investigating the ‘cultural pervasiveness of the material link between theatres and woodlands’ Nardizzi deftly employs an ecocritical methodology that examines (and frequently challenges) implied divisions between nature (trees) and culture (wood products)."
Lowell Duckert, Theatre Journal, Vol. 66:03:2014
"Wooden Os is extremely impressive in many ways. Vin Nardizzi situates Renaissance drama in terms of an ‘eco-material’ history of the playhouse that takes us not only from woodland to theatre, but from England to Germany, Virginia, and elsewhere. Engaging, well-written, and well-researched, Wooden Os is imaginative, insightful, and a fresh contribution to the field of early modern ecocriticism."
Garrett Sullivan, Department of English, The Pennsylvania State University
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