The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Environment
The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Environment
The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Environment is an authoritative guide to the exciting new interdisciplinary field of environmental literary criticism. The collection traces the development of ecocriticism from its origins in European pastoral literature and offers fifteen rigorous but accessible essays on the present state of environmental literary scholarship. Contributions from leading experts in the field probe a range of issues, including the place of the human within nature, ecofeminism and gender, engagements with European philosophy and the biological sciences, critical animal studies, postcolonialism, posthumanism, and climate change. A chronology of key publications and bibliography provide ample resources for further reading, making The Cambridge Companion to Literature and the Environment an essential guide for students, teachers, and scholars working in this rapidly developing area of study.
- This is a rigorous yet accessible guide to the exciting interdisciplinary field of ecocriticism
- Authoritative essays display the range of theoretical and practical approaches to environmental literary scholarship
- Theoretical approaches range from environmental justice to climate change, posthumanism, animal studies, ecocinema, wilderness theory and biosemiotics
Reviews & endorsements
'… provides a wide-ranging overview of the first three decades of ecocriticism, gives both a thorough introduction of the field to the novice, as well as suggestions for those more familiar with the field on where ecocriticism is going next. Consequently, it is an important contribution to the development of the field, and a testimony to its growing importance as a mode of analysis.' Astrid Bracke, English Studies
'The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Climate is a wide-ranging and highly utilisable text providing many new avenues of enquiry for ecocritical scholars. A particular strength of the publication is that it includes essays which focus upon a wide range of cultural media, from the dramatic play to the digital and AI to film and social networks.' Jenny Harper, The British Society for Literature and Science
Product details
April 2014Paperback
9781107628960
286 pages
226 × 152 × 18 mm
0.39kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Introduction Louise Westling
- Part I. Foundations:
- 1. Pastoral, anti-pastoral, and post-pastoral Terry Gifford
- 2. The green otherworlds of early medieval literature Alfred Siewers
- 3. 'Mapping by words': the politics of land in Native American literature Shari Huhndorf
- Part II. Theories:
- 4. Ecocritical theory: romantic roots and impulses from twentieth-century European thinkers Axel Goodbody
- 5. Nature, post nature Timothy Clark
- 6. Violent affinities: sex, gender, and species in Cereus Blooms at Night Catriona Sandilands
- 7. The lure of the wilderness Leo Mellor
- Part III. Interdisciplinary Engagements:
- 8. 'Tongues I'll hang on every tree': biosemiotics and the Book of Nature Wendy Wheeler
- 9. Sauntering along the border: Thoreau, Nabhan, and food politics Janet Fiskio
- 10. Animal studies, literary animals, and Yann Martel's Life of Pi Sarah McFarland
- Part IV. Major Directions:
- 11. Environmental justice, cosmopolitics, and climate change Joni Adamson
- 12. Systems and secrecy: postcolonial ecocriticism and Ghosh's The Calcutta Chromosome Bonnie Roos and Alex Hunt
- 13. Environmental crises and East Asian literatures: uncertain presents and futures Karen Thornber
- 14. Confronting catastrophe: ecocriticism in a warming world Kate Rigby
- 15. Ecocinema and the wildlife film Stephen Rust.
