The green depression : American ecoliterature in the 1930s and 1940s / Matthew M. Lambert.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Lambert, Matthew M., author.

Contributor:

Beverly Bennett Rutstein CW'50 Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ecocriticism.

Ecocriticism in literature.

Ecology in literature.

Environmental justice in literature.

Nature in literature.

Physical Description:

pages cm

Place of Publication:

Jackson : University Press of Mississippi, 2020.

Summary:

"Dust storms. Flooding. The fear of nuclear fallout. While literary critics associate authors of the 1930s and '40s with leftist political and economic thought, they often ignore concern in the period's literary and cultural works with major environmental crises. To fill this gap in scholarship, author Matthew M. Lambert argues that depression-era authors contributed to the development of modern environmentalist thought in a variety of ways. Writers of the time provided a better understanding of the devastating effects that humans can have on the environment. They also depicted the ecological and cultural value of nonhuman nature, including animal "predators" and "pests." Finally, they laid the groundwork for "environmental justice" by focusing on the social effects of environmental exploitation. To show the reach of environmentalist thought during the period, the first three chapters of The Green Depression: American Ecoliterature in the 1930s and 1940s focus on different geographical landscapes, including the wild, rural, and urban. The fourth and final chapter shifts to debates over the social and environmental effects of technology during the period. In identifying modern environmental ideas and concerns in American literary and cultural works of the 1930s and '40s, The Green Depression highlights the importance of depression-era literature in understanding the development of environmentalist thought over the twentieth century. This book also builds upon a growing body of scholarship in ecocriticism that describes the unique contributions African American and other nonwhite authors have made to the environmental justice movement and to our understanding of the natural world"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: The last frontier

Chapter 2: Back to the land

Chapter 3: The postpastoral city

Chapter 4: Futuramas and atom bombs

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Beverly Bennett Rutstein CW'50 Fund.

Other Format:

Online version: Lambert, Matthew M., The green depression

ISBN:

9781496830418

9781496830401

1496830407

1496830415

OCLC:

1154101645

Publisher Number:

99985295957