Ecology and literatures in English : writing to save the planet / Françoise Besson.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Besson, Françoise, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

English literature--History and criticism.

English literature.

Ecology in literature.

Genre:

Libros electrónicos.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (550 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Newcastle upon Tyne, UK : Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019.

Summary:

In all latitudes, writers hold out a mirror, leading the reader to awareness by telling real or imaginary stories about people of good will who try to save what can be saved, and about animals showing humans the way to follow. Such tales argue that, in spite of all destructions and tragedies, if we are just aware of, and connected to, the real world around us, to the blade of grass at our feet and the star above our heads, there is hope in a reconciliation with the Earth. This may start with the emergence, or, rather, the return, of a nonverbal language, restoring the connection between human beings and the nonhuman world, through a form of communication beyond verbalization. Through a journey in Anglophone literature, with examples taken from Aboriginal, African, American, English, Canadian and Indian works, this book shows the role played by literature in the protection of the planet. It argues that literature reveals the fundamental idea that everything is connected and that it is only when most people are aware of this connection that the world will change. Exactly as a tree is connected with all the animal life in and around it, texts show that nothing should be separated. From Shakespeare's theatre to ecopoetics, from travel writing to detective novels, from children's books to novels, all literary genres show that literature responds to the violence destroying lands, men and nonhuman creatures, whose voices can be heard through texts.

Contents:

Foreword: The Butterfly, the Rhododendron and the Star

Introduction: Can Literature Save the Earth?

Part 1. Literary Genres as Environmental Action. The Theatre Serving Botany : Shakespeare's Gardens ; Romanticism as a Prelude to Ecology? ; Ecological Poetry and Ecopoetics ; Songs as Modern Time Popular Poems to Defend the Earth ; Detective Novels as an Ecological Warning

Part 2. Landscape Paintings Revealing Man's Relationship with the World. Maps of Biodiversity : Travel Writers' Perception of the Wilderness ; Writing the Colours of the World to Show the Beauty of Nature ; Comics as Ecological Allegory : Visual Imagination

Part 3. Imagination to Denounce Devastation. From Beech to Book and Vice Versa : Deforestation and Reforestation or the Weight of Texts ; Streams of Consciousness : The World's Water and Literary Warnings ; The Fantastic to Denounce the Devastation of Lands by the Exploitation of Resources ; Aboriginal Literature and the Way to Ecological Awareness

Part 4. Animals to Show Man the Way : Nature, Science and Imagination. Real and Imaginary Animals to Speak about Connections and Responsibility ; Children's Books to Educate Human Children through Animal and Nature Discovery ; Animals to Show Man the Way : The Animal Bond

Part 5. Literature as Resistance. Modern Theatre to Give Nature a Voice ; Native Languages as a Means of Resistance ; Literature to Answer the Violence to Lands and Men ; Literary Human Voices as the Translators of Nonhuman Voices.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on print version record.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-5275-2339-X

OCLC:

1183030180