Literature as Cultural Ecology: Sustainable TextsDrawing on the latest debates in ecocritical theory and sustainability studies, Literature as Cultural Ecology: Sustainable Texts outlines a new approach to the reading of literary texts. Hubert Zapf considers the ways in which literature operates as a form of cultural ecology, using language, imagination and critique to challenge and transform cultural narratives of humanity's relationship to nature. In this way, the book demonstrates the important role that literature plays in creating a more sustainable way of life. Applying this approach to works by writers such as Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allan Poe, Herman Melville, William Faulkner, Toni Morrison, Zakes Mda, and Amitav Ghosh, Literature as Cultural Ecology is an essential contribution to the contemporary environmental humanities. |
Contents
Ecocriticism and Cultural Ecology | 37 |
Literature as Cultural Ecology | 75 |
Transdisciplinary Contexts of a Cultural Ecology of Literature | 123 |
| 269 | |
| 295 | |
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Common terms and phrases
aesthetic African American agency anthropocentric artistic Bartleby beach becomes biosemiotic boundaries chaos civilizational climate change communication complex concept connectivity contemporary context critical theory cultural discourses cultural ecology cultural evolution cultural-ecological culture and nature culture-nature developments dimension domains dynamics ecocentric ecocritical ecocriticism ecocultural ecological force ecological thought ecology of literature ecopoiesis ecosemiotic ecosystems elemental emergence energy environment environmental epistemology ethics evolutionary example experience explored fictional form of cultural function global human and nonhuman human culture Hungry Tide imaginative literature imaginative texts individual interaction interconnections knowledge language literary creativity literary texts living material medium memory metaphor mind Moby-Dick modern narrator nonhuman nature novel Oryx and Crake perspective Poe’s poem poetic political postcolonial postmodern potential processes productivity radical reconnecting Red Death relation relationship represents Scarlet Letter self-reflexive semiosis semiotic sense significance social society song story sustainability symbolic Tayo textual traditional transformative trauma trauma narratives whale