The term ‘ecocriticism’ was first used by ______ in his 1978 essay, titled “Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism”.

Correct option is B

The correct answer is William Rueckert
Introduction: Ecocriticism is the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment. While the field coalesced as a named discipline in the 1990s, its foundational terminology was coined much earlier.
Information Booster:
· The term "ecocriticism" was indeed first coined by William Rueckert in his 1978 essay "Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism."
· In this essay, Rueckert proposed applying ecological concepts and principles to the reading of literature, suggesting that poems could function like stored energy (a "green cell") within the human cultural ecosystem.
· His work planted the seed for the field, even though it took over a decade for the term to gain widespread academic traction.
Additional Knowledge:
· Cheryll Glotfelty, along with Harold Fromm, edited the field-defining anthology The Ecocriticism Reader (1996) and is credited with popularizing and institutionalizing the term in the 1990s.
· Scott Slovic is a leading ecocritic and was a founding editor of the key journal ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment.
· Harold Fromm was a co-editor of The Ecocriticism Reader and an important early voice, but he did not coin the term.