"Television’s Ecological Imprint. Serial Narratives and Environmental Awareness".

An important role in the expansion of ecocriticism outside the original literary sphere has certainly been played by attention to cinema and audiovisuals in general. We can therefore speak of an ecocriticism of audiovisuals in general, thus including fiction films, documentaries (non-fiction films), animation, and TV series. In the past two decades, there has been increased attention to “enviromentally engaged” audiovisual materials, understood, as Villoquet- Maricondi (2010: xi) puts it, “as a powerfully tool for knowledge dissemination, consciousness-raising, public debate, and many hope, political action.” This approach underscores the function of audiovisuals vis-à-vis the audience, which can range from genuine “engagement,” a call for active political engagement, or it can influence the simple opening of a discussion on environmental issues, invite the viewer to participate in a broader socio-cultural debate, to simple and generic awareness of the problems of the Anthropocene.