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Ecoambiguity, Community, and Development takes stock of cultural
and environmental contexts in many different regions of the world
by exploring literature and film. Artists and scholars working in
the social ecology, environmental justice, and postcolonial arenas
have long recognized that as soon as we tug on a thread of
"ecodegradation," we generally find it linked to some form of
cultural oppression. The reverse is also often true. In the spirit
of postcolonial ecocriticism, the studies collected by Scott
Slovic, R. Swarnalatha, and Vidya Sarveswaran emphasize the
impossibility of disentangling environmental and cultural problems.
While not all the authors explicitly invoke Karen Thornber's term
"ecoambiguity" or the concepts and terminology of postcolonial
ecocriticism, their articles frequently bring to light various
ironies. For example, the fact that Ukrainian environmental
experience in the twenty-first century is defined by one of the
world's most infamous industrial disasters, the Chernobyl nuclear
accident of 1986, yet Ukrainian culture, like many throughout the
world, actually cherishes a profound, even animistic, attachment to
the wonders of nature. The repetition of this and other paradoxes
in human cultural responses to the more-than-human world reinforces
our sense of the congruities and idiosyncrasies of human culture.
Every human culture, regardless of its condition of economic and
industrial development, has produced its own version of
"environmental literature and art"-but the nuances of this work
reflect that culture's precise social and geophysical
circumstances. In various ways, these stories of community and
development from across the planet converge and diverge, as told
and explained by distinguished scholars, many of whom come from the
cultures represented in these articles.
This collection of ecocritical essays is focused on the work of
Japan's foremost writer on environment and culture, Ishimure
Michiko. Ishimure is known for her pioneering trilogy that exposed
the Minamata Disease incident and the nature of modern industrial
pollution. She is also regarded by many critics as Japan's most
original and important literary writer. Ishimure has written over
50 volumes in a wide range of genres, including novels, Noh drama,
poetry, children's stories, essays, and mixed-genre writing. This
collection brings together the work of scholars from Japan, the
U.S., and Canada who are authorities on Ishimure's writing.
Contributors discuss Ishimure's writing in the context of the
latest issues in ecocritical theory, arguing for an expanded,
more-than-Western understanding of literature, theory, and
environmental responsibility. It will help to relate various
environmental, cultural, and ecocritical issues, ranging from the
events at Minamata to those at Fukushima, and consider how they
point to future developments.
Ecoambiguity, Community, and Development takes stock of cultural
and environmental contexts in many different regions of the world
by exploring literature and film. Artists and scholars working in
the social ecology, environmental justice, and postcolonial arenas
have long recognized that as soon as we tug on a thread of
"ecodegradation," we generally find it linked to some form of
cultural oppression. The reverse is also often true. In the spirit
of postcolonial ecocriticism, the studies collected by Scott
Slovic, R. Swarnalatha, and Vidya Sarveswaran emphasize the
impossibility of disentangling environmental and cultural problems.
While not all the authors explicitly invoke Karen Thornber's term
"ecoambiguity" or the concepts and terminology of postcolonial
ecocriticism, their articles frequently bring to light various
ironies. For example, the fact that Ukrainian environmental
experience in the twenty-first century is defined by one of the
world's most infamous industrial disasters, the Chernobyl nuclear
accident of 1986, yet Ukrainian culture, like many throughout the
world, actually cherishes a profound, even animistic, attachment to
the wonders of nature. The repetition of this and other paradoxes
in human cultural responses to the more-than-human world reinforces
our sense of the congruities and idiosyncrasies of human culture.
Every human culture, regardless of its condition of economic and
industrial development, has produced its own version of
"environmental literature and art"-but the nuances of this work
reflect that culture's precise social and geophysical
circumstances. In various ways, these stories of community and
development from across the planet converge and diverge, as told
and explained by distinguished scholars, many of whom come from the
cultures represented in these articles.
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