Consolations of Nature : Human-Nature Connections in Modern and Contemporary Anglophone Literature / edited by Šárka Bubíková, Bożena Kucała and Beata Piątek.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Bubíková, Šárka, editor.

Kucała, Bożena, editor.

Piątek, B. (Beata), editor.

Series:

Literature and Cultural Studies E-Books Online, Collection 2026.

Nature, Culture and Literature ; 20.

Literature and Cultural Studies E-Books Online, Collection 2026

Nature, Culture and Literature ; 20

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Civilization--History.

Civilization.

Cultural Studies.

English & Anglophone.

Literary Relations.

Literature and Cultural Studies.

Social sciences.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (239 pages)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Human-Nature Connections in Modern and Contemporary Anglophone Literature

Place of Publication:

Leiden ; Boston : Brill, 2026.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Amidst the ongoing ecological crisis and other civilisational threats, this book adopts a tentatively optimistic and affirmative attitude to human-nature relations. The selection of early twentieth- and twenty-first century texts analysed by the contributors offers instances of the hopeful and restorative effects of human-nature encounters. Uniquely invoking the traditional concept of consolation, the authors demonstrate that the (re)turn to nature, which is typically a response to a personal or social challenge, takes different forms, ranging from nostalgia, escapism, anthropomorphic fantasies, transformative immersion in the wild coupled with environmental concerns, to personal testimonies, fictions about gardening, conservation, and environmental justice. From Conrad’s nostalgic yearning for the natural harmony inherent to sailing, the Kibbo Kift movement as a post-World War I programme of physical and moral regeneration, to contemporary celebration of a feminist hydrocommons and Black American farmers seeking justice through cultivating land, the chapters explore various attempts at overcoming the human-nature dualism, which, ultimately, inspires a cautiously hopeful outlook.

Contents:

Front Cover

Half Title

Series Page

Title Page

Copyrights Informations

Contents

Notes on Contributors

Introduction: Consolations of Nature

Bibliography

Part 1: (Re)Connecting with Nature as a Response to Modernity

1 Consolatio naturae in Joseph Conrad's The Mirror of the Sea

2 Nature, Language and Silence in D. H. Lawrence's St Mawr

1 Introduction

2 The Aura of Silence and the Speech of Nature

3 Interspecies Metaphors and Literary Synaesthesia

4 Conclusion

3 Crossing the Rift: Interwar Intellectuals and Mass Escapism to Nature

4 Reclaiming Nature: John Hargrave's Kibbo Kift and the Vision of Post-World War I Renewal

5 Beyond Dualism: Human-Nature Connections as Anthropomorphic

2 Challenging Dualism

3 Anthropomorphism of Nature and Mesh-Consciousness

4 No Nature, Only Culture

5 Of Trees and Man

6 Hills in Her Bones, Soul of the Land in Her Head

7 Conclusion

Part 2: Elemental Entanglements as a Source of Personal Consolation

6 Soil Solace in New Nature Writing: Coming to Terms

1 New Nature Writing as a New Convention

2 Soil Solace − an Authorial Mark on Nature Writing

7 More Than Backpacks and Swims: British Nature Writing and the Consolatory Role of Nature

1 Escape without Escapism

2 Immersion and Embeddedness

3 Transcendental Reconnection

8 "Making Things Right": Fostering Relationships of Care in Narratives of Feminist Hydrocommons

1 Introduction: Finding Consolation through Care

2 Watery (Re)Connections

3 Making a Good Home Together: Braiding Sweetgrass

4 Renewal through Water: "Tikkun Olam"

5 Conclusion: Watery Narratives of Care

Bibliography.

Part 3: Cultivating Nature as a Way of Fostering Communal Justice and Redress

9 Gardening Forking Paths: the Figure of the Rambunctious Garden

1 Introduction: Whither Now for Nature?

2 The Self-Conscious Anthropocene: the End of Nature as We Know It

3 Rambunctious Gardening: a Relational Ethics of Attentiveness and Care

4 "bloom how you must i say": David Searcy's Ordinary Horror and Camille T. Dungy's Soil

5 "The land a kind of distributed feeling": Robin Wall Kimmerer's Braiding Sweetgrass and Mei-mei Berssenbrugge's Hello, the Roses

6 In Lieu of a Conclusion: Consolations of Uncertainty

10 "Relearning the Lessons of Land Reverence": Land Stewardship as Environmental Justice

1 Dispossession, Black Agrarianism and Land Stewardship

2 Leah Penniman: Teaching Black Land Stewardship and Agrarianism

3 Queen Sugar: Learning Black Land Stewardship and Agrarianism

4 The Modern Black Farmer and Steward

11 Crimes, Wolves and Consolation: National Parks in Contemporary Crime Fiction

2 The Genre, Nature and Consolation

3 National Parks as a Setting

4 Predators and Violence

5 Conclusion

Index

Back Cover.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

90-04-74411-8

9789004744110

OCLC:

1561174014

Publisher Number:

10.1163/9789004744110 DOI