University of Northern British Columbia: Open Journal Systems
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Toward an Irreverent Ecocriticism
Get PDFI see an irreverent ecocriticism as being indebted to two major developments in and around the field: poststructuralist ecocriticism and queer ecology. Poststructuralist ecocriticism, as many readers no doubt know, can be traced to scholars such as William Cronon, Dana Phillips, and David Mazel. In his American Literary Environmentalism (2000), Mazel stresses that his work is not “about some myth of the environment, as if the environment were an ontologically stable, foundational identity we have a myth about. Rather, the environment is itself a myth, a ‘grand fable’ … a discursive construction, something whose ‘reality’ derives from the way we write, speak, and think about it” (xii). Similarly, the essays in Cronon’s 1996 collection Uncommon Ground take aim at simple, essentialist ideals of nature and wilderness; N. Katherine Hayles, for instance, argues that “the distinction between simulation and nature … is a crumbling dike, springing leaks everywhere we press upon it” (411). Some of this work may seem dated to those who engaged with poststructuralism much earlier. But, judging by the negative reactions of many ecocritics and environmentalists, it can also be viewed as quite the opposite: reactionary, overstated, heretical. Indeed, this work could be described as perverse for how it breaks with its forebears, which include not just “classic” ecocriticism but also first-wave or conservationist environmentalism
Natura Naturans and the Organic Ecocritic: Toward a Green Theory of Temporality
Get PDFIf ecocriticism has been a form of scholarship that is integrated with an activist practice, that activism has most often taken the form of rhetorical appeals to conservation and to valuation of a specific place (or “place” as such), a species, or even a privileged mode of representation such as the pastoral, the work of the bioregionally-grounded poet, or green themes in middlebrow novels (Garrard, 2005). Ecocriticism-as-advocacy assumes a particular view of time. An active present is taken as a means of forestalling an undesirable future, with little account for the past; the critic is in a race against time to explicate the water images in this or that poem, and heated debate concerns the limits of an appropriate canon for such an enterprise . Meanwhile, historically-informed and materialist approaches to ecocriticism, have been proposed, which look to the past as a field of determinations and limits on the present: the present as the given product, finished or not, of past causes . Both these approaches, and the Utopian mode—so promising in its ability to imagine a positive political program in addition to the earnest advocacy we already have of the conserve this and care for that type—are all predicated on two unspoken and contradictory a priori: time as a matrix of causality, and hence the objects of time as legible in space in the present, on one side; time as a transhistorical and transcendent Now of reflection and contemplation or another. The former, in that it supports a view of nature as a time-produced and time-bound formation vulnerable and impermanent in its complexity, is appropriate to an activist stance as something to defend; the latter predicates a certain kind of criticism, specifically a detached and aesthetically-oriented gaze. Both positions have merit. However, neither is wholly or solely adequate, and there remains between them a conceptual tension if not contradiction between the political and critical engagements characteristic of ecocriticism since the 1980s
Kindred Ethics: Leopold and Badiou, Ecocriticism and Theory
Get PDF“Kindred Ethics” discusses the similar objections expressed in Aldo Leopold’s “The Land Ethic” and Alain Badiou’s Ethics: An Essay on the Understanding of Evil. Both men oppose formulaic, procedural ethics that render thinking and consciousness unnecessary. Although the role of post-structuralist theory in ecocriticism has generated much contentious debate, the juxtaposition of these two texts—one a pillar of environmental writing and the other the work of a contemporary French theorist—demonstrates that environmental writing and theory share some common ground. Bearing the kinship of these texts in mind, this article also argues that the supposed rift between ecocriticism and theory is a fabrication: that is, both the urgent drive to “theorize ecocriticism” and the equally passionate desire to preserve its “untheorized” purity are founded upon myths that an examination of the history of the field overturns. In concluding, “Kindred Ethics” points out that in addition to being informed by post-structuralist theory from its very origins, ecocriticism should be understood as a theory in its own right—one that challenges anthropocentrism, scrutinizes setting, and utilizes narrative scholarship as an important form of archival research
Shifting Mandates and Climate Change Policy Capacity: The Canadian Infrastructure Case
Get PDFResponsive policy-making on climate change
issues requires both sophisticated policy analysis as well as
an institutional structure which allows problems to be dealt
with on a multi-level and multi-sectoral basis. Designing
such policies requires a high level of policy capability in
relevant government departments and agencies matching
changing organizational mandates in the area. This paper
examines Infrastructure Canada’s evolving mandate over the
past decade and assesses whether or not its resource allocation
has matched any shifts in government expectations for
the agency due arising from climate change challenges.
Provincial data are also examined in a similar light
Back on the Farm: The Trade-offs in Ecocritical Lives
Get PDFIn this reflective dialogue, the authors explore how the decisions they are making about where and how to live, teach, and write are reflected in the concerns of the field of ecocriticism, as well as in the agricultural fields of their rural home places. The apparent tension between lived ecocritical practice and productive ecocritical scholarship suggests that individuals must make a difficult trade-off, in which they give up one aspect of ecocriticism in order to gain the other. But the authors argue that by understanding individual trade-offs in more nuanced ways—as investments of energy within complex ecological and social relationships—it is possible to reflect on the assumptions that frame our choices and to envision new choices. Ecocriticism could offer a method for optimizing the systems people use to produce and share ideas. For example, ecocritical scholarship could take new forms, of which the authors’ conversation is one example. Since ecocriticism must strive for diversity as well as inclusivity in order to be relevant, the authors find that marginal voices will continue to matter to the task of imagining alternative methods for engaging in ecocritical theory and lived practice
Literature and Environment, the Long View: Thoughts from the Founders of ASLE
Get PDFThe Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE) is the primary professional organization of scholars, teachers, and writers who study the relationships among literature, culture, and the physical environment. At a recent
roundtable discussion at the Western American Literature Association's Annual Conference, "flash papers" from ASLE's founders offered a fascinating array of view points reflecting on ASLE's twenty year history. Papers look at wilderness, post naturalism, science fiction, pedagogy, publishing and climate change. It is our hope that the set of papers collected here will commemorate a historical moment and spark a continuing conversation on the future of the organization
