Local Natures, Global Resposibilities: Ecocritical Perspectives on the New English Literatures.

389 Pages·2010·2.567 MB·English

by  Laurenz Volkmann, Nancy Grimm, Ines Detmers

Local Natures,
Global Responsibilities
C ro ss
Readings in the Post / Colonial
ultures
Literatures in English
121
ASNEL Papers 15
Series Editors
Gordon Collier †Hena Maes–Jelinek Geoffrey Davis
(Giessen) (Liège) (Aachen)
ASNEL Papers appear under the auspices of the
Gesellschaft für die Neuen Englischsprachigen Literaturen e.V. (GNEL)
Association for the Study of the New Literatures in English (ASNEL)
Mark Stein, President
(English Department, University of Münster)
Formatting, layout and final editing: Gordon Collier
Local Natures,
Global Responsibilities
Ecocritical Perspectives on
the New English Literatures
ASNEL Papers 15
Edited by
Laurenz Volkmann, Nancy Grimm,
Ines Detmers, and Katrin Thomson
Amsterdam - New York, NY 2010
Cover image: Gordon Collier
Cover motif: Dana Sprunk
Cover design: Pier Post
The paper on which this book is printed meets the requirements of
“ISO 9706:1994, Information and documentation - Paper for
documents - Requirements for permanence”.
ISBN: 978-90-420-2812-8
E-Book ISBN: 978-90-420-2813-5
© Editions Rodopi B.V., Amsterdam – New York, NY 2010
Printed in The Netherlands
Contents
(cid:93) —————————————————

Acknowledgements ix
Local Natures, Global Responsibilities: An Introduction xi

(RE)FRAMING ECOCRITICISM(S):
TOPICS, THEORIES AND TRANSNATIONAL TENDENCIES
Dialogism as a Solution for the Present
Obstacles to an Ecological Culture
VERNON GRAS 1
Green Fields: Ecocriticism in South Africa
DEREK BARKER 11
Ecocriticism and a Non-Anthropocentric Humanism:
Reflections on Local Natures and Global Responsibilities
SERENELLA IOVINO 29
Utopian Ecology: Technology and Social Organization
in Relation to Nature and Freedom
ALEX SHISHIN 55

EMPLOTMENTS OF AND COMPLOTS
AGAINST THE ECOSYSTEM
Emplotting an Ecosystem: Amitav Gosh’s The Hungry
Tide and the Question of Form in Ecocriticism
JENS MARTIN GURR 69
Refugees, Settlers and Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide
NISHI PULUGURTHA 81
Sea of Transformation: Re-Writing
Australianness in the Light of Whaling
SISSY HELFF 91
Tracking the Tassie Tiger: Extinction and Ethics
in Julia Leigh’s The Hunter
KYLIE CRANE 105
Asset or Home? Ecopolitical Ethics in Patricia Grace’s Potiki
CLAUDIA DUPPÉ 121
Imaginary Restraints: Michael Crummey’s River Thieves
and the Beothuk of Newfoundland
ANKE UEBEL 137

(DE)COLONIZED NATURE(S)
The Human and the Non-Human World in Zakes Mda’s
The Heart of Redness and The Whale Caller
ASTRID FELDBRÜGGE 151
“Castaways in the Very Heart of the City”:
Island and Metropolis in J.M. Coetzee’s Foe
MARION FRIES–DIECKMANN 167
When Trees Become Kings:
Nature as a Decolonizing Force in
Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
MICHAEL MAYER 179
Towards a Postcolonial Environment? Nature, ‘Native’,
and Nation in Scottish Representations of the Oil Industry
SILKE STROH 189

(RE)FRAMING ECOLOGICAL DISASTERS
The Medium is ... the Monster? Global Aftermathematics
in Canadian Articulations of Frankenstein
MARK A. MCCUTCHEON 205
Reading as an Animal: Ecocriticism and Darwinism
in Margaret Atwood and Ian McEwan
GREG GARRARD 223
Faustian Dreams and Apocalypse in
Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake
GIUSEPPINA BOTTA 243
Science as Deconstruction of Natural Identity:
Arthur Conan Doyle’s “When the World Screamed”
and Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake
INGRID–CHARLOTTE WOLTER 257
Ecocatastrophes in Recent American
(Non-)Fictional Texts and Films
NILS ZUMBANSEN & MARCEL FROMME 273
Framing Disaster: Images of Nature, Media, and
Representational Strategies in Hollywood Disaster Movies
NICOLE SCHRÖDER 289

(RE)NEGOTIATING ETH(N)IC SPACES
F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “The Ice Palace”:
Climate, Culture, and Stereotypes
SAWAKO TANIYAMA 307
Sex and the City?: Ecofeminism and the Urban Experience
in Angela Carter, Anne Enright and Bernardine Evaristo
SUSANNE GRUSS 321
Travel as Transgression: Claude McKay’s Banana Bottom,
J.M. Coetzee’s Life and Times of Michael K, and Hanif
Kureishi’s The Black Album
FLORIAN NIEDLICH 337
Global Minds and Local Mentalities: ‘Topographies of Terror’
in Salman Rushdie’s Fury and Shalimar the Clown
INES DETMERS 351

Notes on Contributors 365

Acknowledgements
(cid:93) —————————————————

The editors would like to express their gratitude to all contributors for
patiently bearing with us during the editorial process. We would also like to
thank all the reviewers for their kind cooperation. Additionally, we would like
to thank Katharina Sebastian and Erik Schmidt for their assistance during the
editorial process, and Gordon Collier, who provided invaluable help with
preparing the camera-ready manuscript.