EUR  â¬118.80EUR  â¬99.00 excl. VAT
Consolations of Nature
Human-Nature Connections in Modern and Contemporary Anglophone Literature
Series: - Nature, Culture and Literature, Volume: 20
Amidst the ongoing ecological crisis and other civilisational threats, this book adopts a tentatively optimistic and affirmative attitude to human-nature relations. The selection of early twentieth- and twenty-first century texts analysed by the contributors offers instances of the hopeful and restorative effects of human-nature encounters. Uniquely invoking the traditional concept of consolation, the authors demonstrate that the (re)turn to nature, which is typically a response to a personal or social challenge, takes different forms, ranging from nostalgia, escapism, anthropomorphic fantasies, transformative immersion in the wild coupled with environmental concerns, to personal testimonies, fictions about gardening, conservation, and environmental justice. From Conradâs nostalgic yearning for the natural harmony inherent to sailing, the Kibbo Kift movement as a post-World War I programme of physical and moral regeneration, to contemporary celebration of a feminist hydrocommons and Black American farmers seeking justice through cultivating land, the chapters explore various attempts at overcoming the human-nature dualism, which, ultimately, inspires a cautiously hopeful outlook.
Šárka BubÃková is Associate Professor at the Department of British and American Studies, University of Pardubice. She currently specializes in crime fiction and has co-authored The Place It Was Done: Location and Community in Contemporary American and British Crime Fiction (2023).
Bożena KucaÅa is Associate Professor at the Institute of English Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Her research focuses on contemporary British fiction. She is the author of Of What Is Passing: Present-Tense Narration in the Contemporary Historical Novel (2023).
Beata PiÄ tek is Associate Professor at the Institute of English Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Her main research interests range from cultural studies to British and Irish fiction. She is the author of History, Memory, Trauma in Contemporary British and Irish Fiction (2014).
Bożena KucaÅa is Associate Professor at the Institute of English Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. Her research focuses on contemporary British fiction. She is the author of Of What Is Passing: Present-Tense Narration in the Contemporary Historical Novel (2023).
Beata PiÄ tek is Associate Professor at the Institute of English Studies at the Jagiellonian University in Kraków. Her main research interests range from cultural studies to British and Irish fiction. She is the author of History, Memory, Trauma in Contemporary British and Irish Fiction (2014).
Notes on Contributors
Introduction: Consolations of Nature
âŠárka BubÃková, Bożena KucaÅa and Beata PiÄ tek
1 Consolatio naturae in Joseph Conradâs The Mirror of the Sea
âSylwia Janina Wojciechowska
2 Nature, Language and Silence in D. H. Lawrenceâs St Mawr
âNataÅ¡a TuÄev
3 Crossing the Rift: Interwar Intellectuals and Mass Escapism to Nature
âLadislav VÃt
4 Reclaiming Nature: John Hargraveâs Kibbo Kift and the Vision of Post-World War I Renewal
âIzabela CuryÅÅo-Klag
5 Beyond Dualism: HumanâNature Connections as Anthropomorphic Interaction in Contemporary Environmental Literature
âTereza DÄdinová
6 Soil Solace in New Nature Writing: Coming to Terms with Transience in Elizabeth-Jane Burnettâs The Grassling
âBożena KucaÅa
7 More Than Backpacks and Swims: British Nature Writing and the Consolatory Role of Nature
âOlga Roebuck
8 âMaking Things Rightâ: Fostering Relationships of Care in Narratives of Feminist Hydrocommons
âAleksandra KamiÅska
9 Gardening Forking Paths: the Figure of the Rambunctious Garden and Relational Ethics of Attentiveness and Care
âAnton Belenetskyi
10 âRelearning the Lessons of Land Reverenceâ: Land Stewardship as Environmental Justice in the Writings of Leah Penniman and Natalie Baszile
âJan BeneÅ¡
11 Crimes, Wolves and Consolation: National Parks in Contemporary Crime Fiction
âŠárka BubÃková
Index
Introduction: Consolations of Nature
âŠárka BubÃková, Bożena KucaÅa and Beata PiÄ tek
part 1: (Re)Connecting with Nature as a Response to Modernity
1 Consolatio naturae in Joseph Conradâs The Mirror of the Sea
âSylwia Janina Wojciechowska
2 Nature, Language and Silence in D. H. Lawrenceâs St Mawr
âNataÅ¡a TuÄev
3 Crossing the Rift: Interwar Intellectuals and Mass Escapism to Nature
âLadislav VÃt
4 Reclaiming Nature: John Hargraveâs Kibbo Kift and the Vision of Post-World War I Renewal
âIzabela CuryÅÅo-Klag
5 Beyond Dualism: HumanâNature Connections as Anthropomorphic Interaction in Contemporary Environmental Literature
âTereza DÄdinová
part 2: Elemental Entanglements as a Source of Personal Consolation
6 Soil Solace in New Nature Writing: Coming to Terms with Transience in Elizabeth-Jane Burnettâs The Grassling
âBożena KucaÅa
7 More Than Backpacks and Swims: British Nature Writing and the Consolatory Role of Nature
âOlga Roebuck
8 âMaking Things Rightâ: Fostering Relationships of Care in Narratives of Feminist Hydrocommons
âAleksandra KamiÅska
part 3: Cultivating Nature as a Way of Fostering Communal Justice and Redress
9 Gardening Forking Paths: the Figure of the Rambunctious Garden and Relational Ethics of Attentiveness and Care
âAnton Belenetskyi
10 âRelearning the Lessons of Land Reverenceâ: Land Stewardship as Environmental Justice in the Writings of Leah Penniman and Natalie Baszile
âJan BeneÅ¡
11 Crimes, Wolves and Consolation: National Parks in Contemporary Crime Fiction
âŠárka BubÃková
Index
The book will be of relevance to academia: universities, academic libraries, specialists, under- and post-graduate students.
Subject areas: ecocriticism, environmental humanities, nature in British and American literature of the early 20th and 21st centuries, new nature writing
Subject areas: ecocriticism, environmental humanities, nature in British and American literature of the early 20th and 21st centuries, new nature writing