Overview

In the New Literatures in English, nature has long been a paramount issue: the environmental devastation caused by colonialism has left its legacy, with particularly disastrous consequences for the most vulnerable parts of the world. At the same time, social and cultural transformations have altered representations of nature in postcolonial cultures and literatures. It is this shift of emphasis towards the ecological that is addressed by this volume. A fast-expanding field, ecocriticism covers a wide range of theories and areas of interest, particularly the relationship between literature and other 'texts' and the environment. Rather than adopting a rigid agenda, the interpretations presented involve ecocritical perspectives that can be applied most fruitfully to literary and non-literary texts. Some are more general, 'holistic' approaches: literature and other cultural forms are a 'living organism', part of an intellectual ecosystem, implemented and sustained by the interactions between the natural world, both human and non-human, and its cultural representations. 'Nature' itself is a new interpretative category in line with other paradigms such as race, class, gender, and identity. A wide range of genres are covered, from novels or films in which nature features as the main topic or 'protagonist' to those with an ecocritical agenda, as in dystopian literature. Other concerns are: nature as a cultural construct; 'gendered' natures; and the city/country dichotomy. The texts treated challenge traditional Western dualisms (human/animal, man/nature, woman/man). While such global phenomena as media ('old' or 'new'), tourism, and catastrophes permeate many of these texts, there is also a dual focus on nature as the inexplicable, elusive 'Other' and the need for human agency and global responsibility.

Full Product Details

Author:   Laurenz Volkmann ,  Nancy Grimm ,  Ines Detmers ,  Katrin Thomson
Publisher:   Brill
Imprint:   Editions Rodopi B.V.
Volume:   121/15
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 2.50cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.753kg
ISBN:  

9789042028128

ISBN 10:   9042028122
Pages:   370
Publication Date:   01 January 2010
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements Local Natures, Global Responsibilities: An Introduction (Re)Framing Ecocriticism(s): Topics, Theories and Transnational Tendencies Vernon Gras: Dialogism as a Solution for the Present Obstacles to an Ecological Culture Derek Barker: Green Fields: Ecocriticism in South Africa Serenella Iovino: Ecocriticism and a Non-Anthropocentric Humanism: Reflections on Local Natures and Global Responsibilities Alex Shishin: Utopian Ecology: Technology and Social Organization in Relation to Nature and Freedom Emplotments of and Complots Against the Ecosystem Jens Martin Gurr: Emplotting an Ecosystem: Amitav Gosh's The Hungry Tide and the Question of Form in Ecocriticism Nishi Pulugurtha: Refugees, Settlers and Amitav Ghosh's The Hungry Tide Sissy Helff: Sea of Transformation: Re-Writing Australianness in the Light of Whaling Kylie Crane: Tracking the Tassie Tiger: Extinction and Ethics in Julia Leigh's The Hunter Claudia Duppe: Asset or Home? Ecopolitical Ethics in Patricia Grace's Potiki Anke Uebel: Imaginary Restraints: Michael Crummey's River Thieves and the Beothuk of Newfoundland (De)Colonized Nature(s) Astrid Feldbrugge: The Human and the Non-Human World in Zakes Mda's The Heart of Redness and The Whale Caller Marion Fries-Dieckmann: Castaways in the Very Heart of the City : Island and Metropolis in J.M. Coetzee's Foe Michael Mayer: When Trees Become Kings: Nature as a Decolonizing Force in Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness Silke Stroh: Towards a Postcolonial Environment? Nature, `Native', and Nation in Scottish Representations of the Oil Industry (Re)Framing Ecological Disasters Mark A. McCutcheon: The Medium is ... the Monster? Global Aftermathematics in Canadian Articulations of Frankenstein Greg Garrard: Reading as an Animal: Ecocriticism and Darwinism in Margaret Atwood and Ian McEwan Giuseppina Botta: Faustian Dreams and Apocalypse in Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake Ingrid-Charlotte Wolter: Science as Deconstruction of Natural Identity: Arthur Conan Doyle's When the World Screamed and Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake Nils Zumbansen and Marcel Fromme: Ecocatastrophes in Recent American (Non-)Fictional Texts and Films Nicole Schroder: Framing Disaster: Images of Nature, Media, and Representational Strategies in Hollywood Disaster Movies (Re)Negotiating Eth(n)ic Spaces Sawako Taniyama: F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Ice Palace : Climate, Culture, and Stereotypes Susanne Gruss: Sex and the City?: Ecofeminism and the Urban Experience in Angela Carter, Anne Enright and Bernardine Evaristo Florian Niedlich: Travel as Transgression: Claude McKay's Banana Bottom, J.M. Coetzee's Life and Times of Michael K, and Hanif Kureishi's The Black Album Ines Detmers: Global Minds and Local Mentalities: `Topographies of Terror' in Salman Rushdie's Fury and Shalimar the Clown Notes on Contributors

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