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Reading the Roots is an unprecedented anthology of outstanding early writings about American nature--a rich, influential, yet critically underappreciated body of work. Rather than begin with Henry David Thoreau, who is often identified as the progenitor of American nature writing, editor Michael P. Branch instead surveys the long tradition that prefigures and anticipates Thoreau and his literary descendants. The selections in Reading the Roots describe a diversity of landscapes, wildlife, and natural phenomena, and their authors represent many different nationalities, cultural affiliations, religious views, and ideological perspectives. The writings gathered here also range widely in terms o...
Can we fight, and win, against an ideology that has been established and practiced for decades? In Leaving Patriarchy Behind, Leticia recounts her father’s disappointment at the birth of each daughter: “After each birth, Papa would turn to Mama and ask, ‘Mama, es un niño?’ But, out of 18 babies, Mama only had four boys.” With some challenging years behind her, Leticia considers the culture that informed her parents’ principles, those she knew she could not accept as her own. She realized from childhood that she was not one to follow the disparate rules set for boys and girls. In these short vignettes, Leticia Aguilar recalls her life as a child in Mexico in the 1960s and as an a...
Decentered Playwriting investigates new and alternative strategies for dramatic writing that incorporate non-Western, Indigenous, and underrepresented storytelling techniques and traditions while deepening a creative practice that decenters hegemonic methods. A collection of short essays and exercises by leading teaching artists, playwrights, and academics in the fields of playwriting and dramaturgy, this book focuses on reimagining pedagogical techniques by introducing playwrights to new storytelling methods, traditions, and ways of studying, and teaching diverse narratological practices. This is a vital and invaluable book for anyone teaching or studying playwriting, dramatic structure, storytelling at advanced undergraduate and graduate levels, or as part of their own professional practice.
This updated edition of a month-long backcountry trip on the John Muir Trail is part memoir, part nature writing, and part travelogue.
What does it mean to live a good life in a time when the planet is overheating, the human population continues to steadily reach new peaks, oceans are turning more acidic, and fertile soils the world over are eroding at unprecedented rates? These and other simultaneous harms and threats demand creative responses at several levels of consideration and action. Written by an international team of contributors, this book examines in-depth the relationship between sustainability and the good life. Drawing on wealth of theories, from social practice theory to architecture and design theory, and disciplines, such as anthropology and environmental philosophy, this volume promotes participatory actio...
In Snow Fleas and Chickadees, Eve Quesnel invites readers to join her on strolls through the forest surrounding her neighborhood in the Sierra Nevada mountains near Lake Tahoe. The book serves as an extended field guide and natural history reference for residents of the region and those visiting and exploring the Sierra. Through her writing, the author shares personal narratives and information gleaned from experts in the field, including biologists, ornithologists, and foresters. Each of the book’s twenty-one essays begins with a detailed black-and-white drawing by illustrator Anne Chadwick that provides a backdrop for the vignettes that follow. Quesnel embraces the notion that to simply ...
Eco-Concepts: Critical Reflections in Emerging Ecocritical Theory and Ecological Thought offers an intellectual journey through the ever-evolving landscapes of environmental discourse. This thought-provoking volume brings together contributors from international scholarship to scrutinize and illuminate the contemporary trends reshaping our understanding of the natural environment. From the intricate interplay of rising ecocritical theories like restoration and empirical ecocriticism to the nuanced shifts in the reimagining of ecological concepts, this book unravels the complexities of our relationship with the natural sphere. This scholarly collection serves as a compass, guiding readers through the uncharted territories of environmental scholarship or revisiting existing study through fresh critical perspectives. Eco-Concepts strives to become an essential source of reference for academics, students, and individuals seeking an in-depth exploration of the innovative notions influencing the trajectory of discussions on ecology.
The Anthropocene, in which humankind has become a geological force, is a major scientific proposal; but it also means that the conceptions of the natural and social worlds on which sociology, political science, history, law, economics and philosophy rest are called into question. The Anthropocene and the Global Environmental Crisis captures some of the radical new thinking prompted by the arrival of the Anthropocene and opens up the social sciences and humanities to the profound meaning of the new geological epoch, the ‘Age of Humans’. Drawing on the expertise of world-recognised scholars and thought-provoking intellectuals, the book explores the challenges and difficult questions posed ...
Dwellings of Enchantment: Writing and Reenchanting the Earth offers ecocritical and ecopoetic readings that focus on multispecies dwellings of enchantment and reenchant our rapport with the more-than-human world. It sheds light on the marvelous entanglements between humans and other life forms coexisting with us–entanglements that, when fully perceived, call onto humans to shift perspectives on both the causes and solutions to current ecological crises. Working against the disenchantment of humans’ relationships with and perceptions of the world entailed by a modern ontology, this book illustrates the power of ecopoetics to attune humans to the vibrant matter both within and outside of us. Braiding indigenous with non-indigenous worldviews, this book tackles ecopoetics emerging from varying locations in the world. It underscores the postmodernist, remythologizing processes going on in many ecopoetic texts, via magical realist modes and mythopoeia.
This book argues that philosophy is as practical as plumbing and what we need right now is what philosophers can offer as philosophers to help us all, our species, and beyond, through this ecological emergency, this climate change, this anthropocene. This book is about the meaning and purpose of philosophy as a way of, a practice of, responding to the ecological emergency, which includes climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, habitat destruction, and all the associated impacts that fragment, and threaten to create collapse, among the systems that created and sustain us. There are the related economic and social impacts, the fragmentation of communities and political ideologies through...