Environment and Narrative in Vietnam brings together essays about Vietnam’s natural environments and environmental crises from the perspective of culture, with particular attention to narrative templates that have shaped perceptions and interactions with nature on the part of different communities. The essays in this volume explore theoretical problems in the assessment of ecological stewardship and attitudes toward nature across cultures. They focus on both majority (Kinh) and ethnic minority narratives about nature and seek to outline how different ideas of modernization, from the French colonial project to the Marxist understanding of nature on the part of the Communist government, have shaped perceptions, policies, and activism regarding the environment. The essays also highlight the tensions and confluences between nationalist nation-building projects and economic integration into global markets for environmental thinking over the last half-century, and they analyze how texts from literary fiction to contemporary news media represent different environmental cultures in Vietnam. Taken together, the essays in Environment and Narrative in Vietnam begin to fill a significant gap in the understanding of environmental cultures in Asia and in the Environmental Humanities. This is an open access book.

We are currently facing the sixth mass extinction of species in the history of life on Earth, biologists claim the first one caused by humans. Activists, filmmakers, writers, and artists are seeking to bring the crisis to the public's attention through stories and images that use the strategies of elegy, tragedy, epic, and even comedy. Imagining Extinction is the first book to examine the cultural frameworks shaping these narratives and images. Ursula K. Heise argues that understanding these stories and symbols is indispensable for any effective advocacy on behalf of endangered species. More than that, she shows how biodiversity conservation, even and especially in its scientific and legal dimensions, is shaped by cultural assumptions about what is valuable in nature and what is not. These assumptions are hardwired into even seemingly neutral tools such as biodiversity databases and laws for the protection of endangered species. Heise shows that the conflicts and convergences of biodiversity conservation with animal welfare advocacy, environmental justice, and discussions about the Anthropocene open up a new vision of multispecies justice. Ultimately, Imagining Extinction demonstrates that biodiversity, endangered species, and extinction are not only scientific questions but issues of histories, cultures, and values.

In Chronoschisms Ursula Heise explores the way developments in transportation, communication and information technology have led to the emergence of a different culture of time in Western societies. The radical transformation in our understanding and experience of time has also profoundly affected the structure of the novel. Heisse argues that postmodern novels are centrally concerned with the possibility of experiencing time in an age when temporal horizons have been drastically foreshortened. Drawing on theories of postmodernism and narratology, she shows how postmodern narratives break up the concept of plot into a spectrum of contradictory story lines. The coexistence of these competing experiences of time then allows new conceptions of history and posthistory to emerge, and opens up comparisons with recent scientific approaches to temporality. This wide-ranging study offers readings of postmodernist theory and fresh insight into the often vexed relationship between literature and science.

In Chronoschisms Ursula Heise explores the way developments in communication and information technology have led to the emergence of a new culture of time in Western societies. Drawing on theories of postmodernism and narratology, she shows how postmodern narratives break up the concept of plot into a spectrum of contradictory story lines that allow new conceptions of history and posthistory to emerge. This wide-ranging study offers new readings of postmodernist theory and fresh insight into the often vexing relationship between literature and science.

The world is growing smaller every day. In today's increasingly global culture, we all need to become familiar with other traditions, and literature provides an exciting and enjoyable mode of entry into the variety of the world's cultures. Exciting, but also challenging: works from distant times and places expose us to unfamiliar names, customs, beliefs, and literary forms. "The Longman Anthology "is designed to open up the horizons of world literature, placing major works within their cultural contexts and fostering connections and conversations between eras as well as regions. Engaging introductions, regional maps, pronunciation guides, and a wealth of illustrations inform and enrich the experience of reading the compelling works included here, opening out a fresh and diverse range of the world's great literature. In the second edition of "The Longman Anthology": Major works are included from around the world: Many are given in their entirety, from "The Epic of Gilgamesh" and Homer's "Odyssey" to Dante's "Inferno," Moliere's "Tartuffe," Chikamatsu's "Love Suicides at Amijima," and Achebe's "Things Fall Apart," We also include extensive selections from such great works as "The Aeneid," "The Tale of Genji," "The Thousand and One Nights, "and" Don Quixote," Perspectives sections group together works around major literary and cultural issues. These sections are now followed by Crosscurrents, which highlight additional connections for you to explore. Often presented as thought questions, these prompts could provide you with the essay topic for your next paper. New Translation units willhelp you to understand the key role of translation in the life of world literature. Passages in theoriginal language are accompanied by two or three translations that show how differently translators can choose to convey the original in expressive new ways. You will enjoy finding new meaning in the original work as you trace the ways literature evolves for generations of readers. An enhanced Companion Website gives you the opportunity to take practice quizzes, explore an interactive timeline, review literary terms, listen to an audio glossary that provides pronunciations of unfamiliar names, and listen to audio recordings of the passages given in our Translationsections. Through all these means, "The Longman Anthology" will support and enrich your experience as you explore the many worlds of world literature.