Women writing nature : a feminist view / edited by Barbara J. Cook.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Cook, Barbara J.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--Women authors--History and criticism.

American literature.

Natural history literature.

Ecofeminism in literature.

Philosophy of nature in literature.

Feminism and literature.

Feminist criticism.

Ecocriticism.

American literature--Women authors.

Physical Description:

viii, 144 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, MD : Lexington Books, [2008]

Summary:

Since Rachel Carson's Silent Spring was published in 1962, the number of texts about the natural world written by women has grown exponentially. The essays in Women Writing Nature: A Feminist View argue that women writing in the twentieth century are utilizing the historical connection of women and the natural world in diverse ways. For centuries women have been associated with nature, but many feminists have sought to distance themselves from the natural world because of dominant cultural representations that reflect women as controlled by powerful natural forces and confined to domestic spaces. However, in the spirit of Rachel Carson, some writers have begun to invoke nature for feminist purposes or have used nature as an agent of resistance.

This collection considers women's writings about the natural world in light of recent and current feminist and ecofeminist theory and finds a variety of approaches and perspectives, both by the scholars and by the authors discussed, culminating with the voices of two women, activist and scientist Joan E. Maloof and Irish poet Rosemarie Rowley, who both write about the natural world from a feminist perspective.

Contents:

Introduction: nature writing from the feminine / Barbara J. Cook

Modernist women, snake stories, and the indigenous Southwest: an ecofeminist politics of creation and affirmation / Alex Hunt

Littoral women writing from the margins / Susan A.C. Rosen

Multifaceted dialogues: toward an environmental ethic of care / Barbara J. Cook

Wild women: literary explorations of American landscapes / Sarah E. McFarland

Louise Gluck, feminism and nature in Firstborn's "The egg" / mary kate Azcuy

Ecofeminism, motherhood, and the post-apocalyptic Utopia in Parable of the sower, Parable of the talents, and Into the forest / Heidi Hutner

Natural resistance: Margaret Atwood as ecofeminist of apocalyptic visionary / H. Louise Davis

Touching the Earth: Gloria Anzaldúa and the tenets of ecofeminism / Allison Steele. Voices from the field. Teaching the trees: how to be a female nature writer / Joan E. Maloof ; Confessions of an ecofeminist / Rosemarie Rowley.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [131]-137) and index.

ISBN:

9780739119129

0739119125

9780739119136

0739119133

OCLC:

173299205