Table Of ContentEcology and
Literatures in English
Ecology and
Literatures in English
:
Writing to Save the Planet
By
Françoise Besson
Ecology and Literatures in English: Writing to Save the Planet
By Françoise Besson
This book first published 2019
Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Copyright © 2019 by Françoise Besson
All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without
the prior permission of the copyright owner.
ISBN (10): 1-5275-1804-3
ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-1804-9
To my parents and grandparents
who showed me the beauty of nature and the sense of connections between
the human and nonhuman worlds; who showed me the fragile strength of a
flower and the loving eyes of a dog or a cat; who made me listen to the
voices of the world; who guide me on the way to wonder, to awareness
and to fight.
To my teachers, pupils and students, to my colleagues and friends, who
guided me on the paths of the literary world; to my mountain and
ecocritical friends throughout the world, from France to Kent and from
the United States of America to Brazil, who illuminated my path; and to
all the authors — poets, botanists or shepherds —, from Southern France
to Canada and to Nigeria, from New Mexico to Montana, who showed me
the weight of words, the strength of imagination and the power of dreams.
To all our animal companions who, since the first day of my life, have
taught me the meaning of love and trust—healing presences even in their
physical absence. To all those trustful friends who are always sure that we
can save them and show us the way.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword ..................................................................................................... x
The Butterfly, the Rhododendron and the Star
Introduction .............................................................................................. xiv
Can Literature Save the Earth?
Part 1:
Literary Genres as Environmental Action
Chapter One ................................................................................................. 3
The Theatre Serving Botany: Shakespeare's Gardens
Chapter Two .............................................................................................. 14
Romanticism as a Prelude to Ecology?
Chapter Three ............................................................................................ 24
Ecological Poetry and Ecopoetics
Chapter Four .............................................................................................. 81
Songs as Modern Time Popular Poems to Defend the Earth
Chapter Five .............................................................................................. 88
Detective Novels as an Ecological Warning
Part 2:
Landscape Paintings Revealing Man's Relationship with the World
Chapter Six .............................................................................................. 114
Maps of Biodiversity: Travel Writers' Perception of the Wilderness
Chapter Seven .......................................................................................... 156
Writing the Colours of the World to Show the Beauty of Nature
Chapter Eight ........................................................................................... 169
Comics as Ecological Allegory: Visual Imagination
viii Table of Contents
Part 3:
Imagination to Denounce Devastation
Chapter Nine ............................................................................................ 188
From Beech to Book and Vice Versa:
Deforestation and Reforestation or the Weight of Texts
Chapter Ten ............................................................................................. 216
Streams of Consciousness: The World’s Water and Literary Warnings
Chapter Eleven ........................................................................................ 232
The Fantastic to Denounce the Devastation of Lands
by the Exploitation of Resources
Chapter Twelve ....................................................................................... 239
Aboriginal Literature and the Way to Ecological Awareness
Part 4:
Animals to Show Man the Way: Nature, Science and Imagination
Chapter Thirteen ...................................................................................... 256
Real and Imaginary Animals to Speak about Connections
and Responsibility
Chapter Fourteen ..................................................................................... 314
Children's Books to Educate Human Children
through Animal and Nature Discovery
Chapter Fifteen ........................................................................................ 365
Animals to Show Man the Way: The Animal Bond
Part 5:
Literature as Resistance
Chapter Sixteen ....................................................................................... 406
Modern Theatre to Give Nature a Voice
Chapter Seventeen ................................................................................... 421
Native Languages as a Means of Resistance
Ecology and Literatures in English: Writing to Save the Planet ix
Chapter Eighteen ..................................................................................... 430
Literature to Answer the Violence to Lands and Men
Conclusion ............................................................................................... 462
Literary Human Voices as the Translators of Nonhuman Voices
Select Bibliography ................................................................................. 467
Acknowledgements ................................................................................. 506
Index ........................................................................................................ 513
