Feminist Ecocriticism: Environment, Women, and LiteratureDouglas A. Vakoch Feminist Ecocriticism examines the interplay of women and nature as seen through literary theory and criticism, drawing on insights from such diverse fields as chaos theory and psychoanalysis, while examining genres ranging from nineteenth-century sentimental literature to contemporary science fiction. The book explores the central claim of ecofeminism--that there is a connection between environmental degradation and the subordination of women--with the goal of identifying and fostering liberatory alternatives. Feminist Ecocriticism analyzes the work of such diverse women writers as Rachel Carson, Barbara Kingsolver, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Mary Shelley. By including chapters from a comparable number of women and men, this book dispels the notion that ecofeminism is relevant to and used by only female scholars. After uncovering the oppressive dichotomies of male/female and nature/culture that underlie contemporary environmental problems, Feminist Ecocriticism focuses specifically on emancipatory strategies employed by ecofeminist literary critics as antidotes, asking what our lives might be like as those strategies become increasingly successful in overcoming oppression. Thus, ecofeminism is not limited to the critique of literature, but also helps identify and articulate liberatory ideals that can be actualized in the real world, in the process transforming everyday life. Providing an alternative to rugged individualism, for example, ecofeminist literature promotes a more fulfilling sense of interrelationship with both community and the land. In the process of exploring literature from ecofeminist perspectives, the book reveals strategies of emancipation that have already begun to give rise to more hopeful ecological narratives. Feminist Ecocriticism provides a novel integration of two important strands of contemporary literary criticism that have often failed to make contact: feminist criticism and ecocriticism. The openness of both feminist criticism and ecocriticism to multiple, even incompatible perspectives, without the insistence on unitary definitions of their fields, has given rise to a new hybrid discipline: feminist ecocriticism. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
1 Ecofeminist Theories of Liberation in the Science Fiction of Sally Miller Gearhart Ursula K Le Guin and Joan Slonczewski | 13 |
2 Barbara Kingsolvers Animal Dreams | 39 |
3 Reintegrating Human and Nature | 65 |
4 Shifting Subjects and Marginal Worlds | 77 |
5 Decadent Desire | 93 |
Other editions - View all
Feminist Ecocriticism: Environment, Women, and Literature Douglas A. Vakoch No preview available - 2014 |
Common terms and phrases
Adrian aesthetic Animal Dreams argues Bacon Barbara Kingsolver Benjamin Biehl border bourgeois Codi Codi's complex concept Condor connection critique cultural ecofeminism cultural ecofeminist Decadent deep ecology difference domination Door Into Ocean dualism ecocriticism ecological emotional environment environmental Esseintes essentialist ethics experience female feminine feminism feminist feminist literary criticism Gearhart gender Grace Guin Guin’s harmony hierarchy Hill Women humans and nature Huysmans J. K. Huysmans Kesh Kingsolver 1990a Kingsolver 2000 Kingsolver's Kolodny land landscape LaRocque literary criticism literature living male Mary Shelley masculine metaphor mother narrative natural world nonhuman nature novel oppression patriarchal perspective Plumwood political potential Prodigal Summer Rachel Carson radical Raymond readers relation relationships reveals rhetoric science fiction sea books seeks sense sentimental sentimental literature sexual Sharers Shelley Shora Silent Spring Slonczewski 1986 social society spiritual suggests theory tion traditional University Valan values Verney Wanderground Warren Western myth woman women and nature writing