Imaginative Ecologies: Inspiring Change through the Humanities highlights the role literature and visual arts play in fostering sustainability. It weaves together contributions by international scholars, practitioners and environmental activists whose insights are brought together to illustrate how creative imaginations can inspire change. One of the most outstanding characteristic of this volume is its interdisciplinarity and its varied methods of inquiry. The field of environmental humanities is discussed together with ideas such as the role of the public intellectual and el buen vivir. Examples of ecofiction from the UK, the US and Spain are analysed while artistic practices aimed at raising awareness of the effects of the Anthropocene are presented as imaginative ways of reacting against climate change and rampant capitalism.
Diana Villanueva-Romero is a Lecturer in the English Department of the Universidad de Extremadura (Spain) and a member of the research groups âLenguas y culturas en la Europa moderna: discurso e identidadâ (CILEM; Universidad de Extremadura) and âGrupo de investigación en ecocrÃticaâ (GIECO; Franklin Institute, Universidad de Alcalá).
Lorraine Kerslake is a Lecturer in the English Department of the University of Alicante (Spain) and a member of GIECO. She is also a member of the Research Institute for Gender Studies at Alicante University and author of The Voice of Nature in Ted Hughesâs Writing for Children (2018).
Carmen Flys-Junquera has recently retired as Senior Lecturer of American Literature and Ecocriticism from the University of Alcalá, Madrid, Spain. She was the founder and now member of the GIECO ecocritical research group and head researcher of the funded grant underlying this publication. She founded and continues as Editor in Chief of Ecozon@. European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment.
List of Figures
Introduction: Imaginative Ecologies: Inspiring Change through the Humanities
âDiana Villanueva-Romero, Lorraine Kerslake and Carmen Flys-Junquera
PART 1: Humanists in Conversation
1 Environmental Humanities and the Public Intellectual
âScott Slovic
2 Humanities in Transition in the European Context
âInterview with Christof Mauch
âDiana Villanueva-Romero
3 âEl Buen Vivirâ is Harmony with the Earth
âInterview with Rafael Chanchari Pizuri
âJuan Carlos Galeano
PART 2: Interpreting Eco-Visions
4 Environmental Imagination and Wonder in Beatrix Potter
âLorraine Kerslake
5 Foregrounding Ecosystems: Thinking with the Work of Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison
âChris Fremantle and Anne Douglas
6 New Worlds Beyond Reality: Imagined Futures in Laura Gallegoâs
âLas hijas de Tara
âIrene Sanz-Alonso
7 Simon Ortizâs Narrative and Joy Harjoâs Poems: Towards Regenerative Societies and New Worlds
âImelda MartÃn-Junquera
8 When Mater Takes a Position
âPost-Anthropocentric Landscapes in Contemporary Art
âBárbara Fluxá Ãlvarez-Miranda
PART 3: Inspiring Change
9 Sense of Place as an Enhancer of Empathy and Ecological Consciousness in the Baix Llobregat
âCarma Casulá
10 Building Stories to Change the World: Interview with Starhawk
âCarmen Flys-Junquera and Beatriz Lindo-Mañas
11 Eco-Interactions: Art and Community
âElena Sánchez-VizcaÃno and LucÃa Loren Atienza
Environmental humanities and environmental studies scholars, students and research institutions; literary and fine arts scholars and creators, in addition to wider audiences in the artistic and activist communities. Graduate level courses in EH.