Ecofeminist Literary Criticism: Theory, Interpretation, Pedagogy (Environment Human Condition) [Hardcover]

Greta Gaard (Editor), Patrick D Murphy (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Environment Human Condition | Publication Date: August 1, 1998

Ecofeminist Literary Criticism is the first collection of its kind: a diverse anthology that explores both how ecofeminism can enrich literary criticism and how literary criticism can contribute to ecofeminist theory and activism.

Ecofeminism is a practical movement for social change that discerns interconnections among all forms of oppression: the exploitation of nature, the oppression of women, class exploitation, racism, colonialism. Against binary divisions such as self/other, culture/nature, man/woman, humans/animals, and white/non-white, ecofeminist theory asserts that human identity is shaped by more fluid relationships and by an acknowledgment of both connection and difference.

Once considered the province of philosophy and women's studies, ecofeminism in recent years has been incorporated into a broader spectrum of academic discourse. Ecofeminist Literary Criticism assembles some of the most insightful advocates of this perspective to illuminate ecofeminism as a valuable component of literary criticism.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An outstanding contribution to the developing field of ecofeminism. It will be as useful to those who have been looking for a good text on which to base a course in ecofeminist literary criticism as it will be to those who wonder what the field is all about. Taken together, these essays suggest the range of connections and possibilities implicit in ecofeminist literary criticism -- connections, for example, between spirituality and science, ecology and literature, or environmental activism and literary theory." Carol H. Cantrell, professor of English, Colorado State University --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: University of Illinois Press (August 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0252023730
• ISBN-13: 978-0252023736
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,479,833 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ecological crossroads: a must for bus stops or mountain huts, January 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Ecofeminist Literary Criticism: Theory, Interpretation, Pedagogy (Environment Human Condition) (Paperback)

If you need a new way of reading more than you need a new book, buy Ecofeminist Literary Criticism. The mailman handed me my copy as I was leaving town for the Adirondack High Peaks. I took a field guide out of my backpack and slipped this treasure in instead. There would be no book like it on the "library" shelves at the Johns Brook Lodge. None of the ADKers (Adirondack Mountain Club members), none of the staff interns (ecology students from Cornell University), none of the eco-tourists (who shopped for nature writing at The Mountaineer) would have donated reading as revolutionary as this. This is a book of trailblazers.

In Ecofeminist Literary Criticism, Greta Gaard and Patrick D. Murphy feature essays by young academics who have examined recent literary works by Octavia Butler, Linda Hogan, Ana Castillo, Ursula LeQuin, Pat Mora, Sally Tisdale, Nora Naranjo-Morse (and many more). I knew that none of these women's works were on the lodge shelves next to well-worn nature writers. But, I also knew hikers gathering at the lodge would be hungry for the ideas these women (and their scholars) offer.

Dinner conversations revealed as much. The former forest technician now factory worker (union steward), no doubt had read little Chicana fiction, but our discussions of labor politics and environmental injustice were in tune with Kamala Platt's "Ecocritical Chicana Literature: Ana Castillo's 'Virtual Realism.'" His wife, school psychologist on her first backpacking trip, found a perfect guide in Greta Gaard's "Hiking without a Map: Reflections on Teaching Ecofeminist Literary Criticism." For the mother and daughter reading a Kingslover novel aloud, there is Karla Armbruster's "'Buffalo Gals, Won't You Come Out Tonight': A Call for Boundary-Crossing in Ecofeminist Literary Criticism" or Stacy Alaimo's "'Skin Dreaming': The Bodily Transgressions for Fielding Burke, Octavia Butler, and Linda Hogan" -- either essay would invite the women to reread the novel in hand as well as their lives on and off trail. For the cook studying primate cognition, I suggest Deborah Slicer's "Toward an Ecofeminist Standpoint Theory: Bodies as Grounds." Those eager to ask difficult questions about the interaction of human and non-human will devour this book, applying its lessons to other texts and contexts.

Hikers at Johns Brook Lodge, although often maligned as narrow-minded eco-tourists who see ecology as a Big Outside to be mapped and traversed, are ready for the scholars and activists featured in Ecofeminist Literary Criticism. This book, intended to transform English Studies in universities, needs to be read at bus stops and mountain huts. Plan on leaving a copy at the crossroads.

Lori J. Anderson

P.S. I am a poet, one of the women speaking in Patrick D. Murphy's essay, "'The Women are Speaking': Contemporary Literature as Theoretical Critique." As Gaard and Murphy assert, feminists tend to ignore the ecology in literary works. Critics often praise sexual politics or language experiments in my collection but downplay my ecological concerns. Patrick D. Murphy places my work in the context of contemporary ecofeminism: for that, I am indebted to him. He offers by far the best reading of my often misunderstood title, Cultivating Excess. He teaches me new ways of articulating my own goals. Ecofeminist Literary Criticism will be essential in forming my new work.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Contribution to literary criticism of ecofeminist literature & movement, July 13, 2007

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Patricia Collins "Carnegie Mellon Assistant P... (Sunnyvale, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ecofeminist Literary Criticism: Theory, Interpretation, Pedagogy (Environment Human Condition) (Paperback)

This collection of papers on ecofeminism follows the authors' intention to present a representative sampling of diverse approaches to discussing ecofeminism. Gaard is well regarded as a leading voice on the topic and her writing reflects the professionalism of analytic techniques applied to ecofeminist literature. A surprise in the collection was Cathleen and Colleen McGuire's description of the issues in coordinating a women's reading group on ecofeminist topics ("Grass-Roots Ecofeminism: Activating Utopia"), which they called EVE (Ecofeminist Visions Emerging). While this paper focuses on their efforts with a reading group, it does cover two works of ecofeminist utopian literature, Piercy's _Woman on the Edge of Time_ and Starhawk's _The Fifth Sacred Thing_. As part of this collection, I would have found it more satisfying to read greater depth in their thinking about these works. Their point (in part) was that one does not need to follow the orthodoxy of literary criticism to have something valid to contribute to the dialogue. Fair enough.