Literature and Environment

10.36063/asle ◽  
2020 ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-54
Author(s):  
Karthikeyan P

The novel speaks about the efforts taken by Piyali Roy, an Indian American biologist to make a study on marine mammals, especially on Irrawaddy dolphins.The novel is set in Sundarbans. Piya arrives at Sundarbans which is considered by her as a suitable place for carrying out her study. She lands on an island in Sunderbans and gets acquainted with an inhabitant of that place named Fokir. He remains to be a guide for her and instructs her about the marine habitats. Fokir being a resident of that place, he knows about the tides occurrence in the seas and the perils. Though he knows these, to the dismay of the readers, Fokir dies when a storm breaks out followed by heavy rain and powerful and devouring tides. As ideas given by Fokir could be the sources for decades of ‘research’,with the sponsorship of Nilima and involvement of local fisherman, Piya starts an institution in the memory of Fokir. The novel deals with the dislocation of people due to tide. Tide causes great havoc to the life and property of the inhabitants of the islands in Sunderbans. The poor people who have become victims of natural catastrophe suffer from hunger. I would like to bring out the human environmental relationship in the novel. Human beings depend on nature and environment. Eco Criticism on this novel helps to evaluate this literary text in the literature and environment perspective.


Author(s):  
Diana Villanueva-Romero

This is an interview with Prof. Scott Slovic conducted in Reno, Nevada, in 2006. It deals with the origins of ecocriticism, its institutionalization and expansion in the world.ResumenEntrevista con el Dr. Scott Slovic realizada en Reno, Nevada en 2006. Trata de los origenes de la ecocritica, su institucionalizacion y expansion en el mundo.


Green Letters ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-326
Author(s):  
Laurence Coupe

PMLA ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 127 (4) ◽  
pp. 1017-1018
Author(s):  
Michelle Balaev

I appreciate Harold Fromm's emphasis on the diverse approaches found in the ecocritical field and on the relevance of ecocriticism to the goals and activities of the MLA because this was the future envisioned by the early scholars. Ecocriticism is an expansive, interdisciplinary field of study that arose from a shared desire for a new literary theory and practice. This shared interest has made ecocriticism a robust field that continues to grow, as seen in the newest ecocriticism program in the United States: the literature-and-environment program that started in the fall of 2012 in the English department at the University of Idaho, spearheaded by Scott Slovic, Jennifer Ladino, Erin James, Janis Johnson, and Jodie Nicotra. The field is also becoming rooted as an academic discipline around the world, in countries such as China, India, Brazil, and Australia, to name only a few.


Author(s):  
Julia Kuznetski (née Tofantšuk) ◽  
Stacy Alaimo

      The interview was mainly conducted at Tallinn University in January 2019, when Stacy Alaimo visited the Graduate Winter School “The Humanities and Posthumanities: New Ways of Being Human” and gave a plenary lecture titled “Onto-epistemologies for the Anthropocene, or Who will be the Subject of the Posthumanities?”, and completed in spring 2020, to address immediately unfolding issues.          Alaimo is an internationally recognized scholar of American literature, ecocultural theory, environmental humanities, science studies, gender theory, and new materialism. She is the author of three monographs on environmental theory and ecocultural studies: Undomesticated Ground: Recasting Nature as Feminist Space (Cornell University Press, 2000); Bodily Natures: Science, Environment, and the Material Self (Indiana University Press, 2010); and Exposed: Environmental Politics and Pleasures in Posthuman Times (University of Minnesota Press, 2016).  Alaimo has edited and co-edited essay collections, including Science Studies and the Blue Humanities (essay cluster for SLSA journal, Configurations. Fall 2019); Matter (MacMillan Interdisciplinary Handbooks, 2017); Material Feminisms (with Susan Hekman, Indiana University Press, 2008), and is the author of a significant number of essays and book chapters. She co-edits a book series, “Elements,” at Duke University Press. Her current work focuses on oceans and marine life: she is currently finishing a book tentatively titled, Composing Blue Ecologies: Science, Aesthetics, and the Creatures of the Abyss. Alaimo served as co-President of ASLE (The Association for the Study of Literature and Environment), and created and directed the cross-disciplinary minor in Environmental and Sustainability Studies at the University of Texas and Arlington. She joined the faculty of the University of Oregon in 2019, where she is Professor of English and core faculty member in environmental studies.       The interview addresses the evolution of her views as represented in Undomesticated Ground (2000), as well as the connections and tensions of feminism and environmentalism; it moves on to Bodily Natures (2010), in which she develops her seminal concept of transcorporeality; and looks into her ongoing interest in the deep sea and its representation in culture, the focus of her current book project, Composing Blue Ecologies.      The interview discusses the importance of transcorporeality in the Anthropocene, as an alternative to “self-aggrandizing” accounts “in which some transhistorical ‘Man’ acts upon the inert, external matter of the world.” Examples from both science and culture illustrate the concepts discussed, reaching out into important political concerns of the day, such as climate refugees, sustainability as a labour and power issue, divisive dichotomies and understanding difference. The theme of water as an example of transcorporeality and a burning ecological issue is taken up, touching upon the current vulnerability of the Baltic Sea and elaborating on the material and ideas developed in the new book that Stacy Alaimo is working on. The final part of the interview addresses the environmental implications of the COVID-19 crisis.


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