Synopses & Reviews
Bioregionalism is an innovative way of thinking about place and planet from an ecological perspective. Although bioregional ideas occur regularly in ecocritical writing, until now no systematic effort has been made to outline the principles of bioregional literary criticism and to use it as a way to read, write, understand, and teach literature.
The twenty-four original essays here are written by an outstanding selection of international scholars. The range of bioregions covered is global and includes such diverse places as British Columbiaandrsquo;s Meldrum Creek and Italyandrsquo;s Po River Valley, the Arctic and the Outback. There are even forays into cyberspace and outer space. In their comprehensive introduction, the editors map the terrain of the bioregional movement, including its history and potential to inspire and invigorate place-based and environmental literary criticism.
Responding to bioregional tenets, this volume is divided into four sections. The essays in the andldquo;Reinhabitingandrdquo; section narrate experiments in living-in-place and restoring damaged environments. The andldquo;Rereadingandrdquo; essays practice bioregional literary criticism, both by examining texts with strong ties to bioregional paradigms and by opening other, less-obvious texts to bioregional analysis. In andldquo;Reimagining,andrdquo; the essays push bioregionalism to evolveandmdash;by expanding its corpus of texts, coupling its perspectives with other approaches, or challenging its core constructs. Essays in the andldquo;Renewalandrdquo; section address bioregional pedagogy, beginning with local habitat studies and concluding with musings about the Internet.
In response to the environmental crisis, we must reimagine our relationship to the places we inhabit. This volume shows how literature and literary studies are fundamental tools to such a reimagining.
Review
andldquo;The bioregional perspective has been around for over forty years now. It has persistently and quietly examined and analyzed the ways modern people live in their landscapes. Combining ecological and geomorphological science with culture and politics, it lays the groundwork for better ways to be on earth. This welcome anthology of cultural papers brings together a range of well-imagined texts and puts the bioregional project front and center for humanists, educators, and scientists.andrdquo;andmdash;Gary Snyder, author of The Practice of the Wild
Review
andquot;This is a terrific book and a landmark contribution to our field. The essays are readable, intelligent, provocative, and grounded in the latest scholarship; they address timely and wide-ranging topics in judicious, illuminating, and sometimes unsettling ways. I predict that this will become an essential reference for both theory and practice.andquot;andmdash;John Tallmadge, author of The Cincinnati Arch: Learning from Nature in the City
Review
andquot;This lucid, engaging, and learned collection has its feet on the ground and both a magnifying glass and binoculars in its hands. A terrific and practical resource, full of intriguing ideas, literary examples, and appealing placesandmdash;this book will win converts to the bioregional way of thinking.andquot;andmdash;SueEllen Campbell, lead author of The Face of the Earth: Natural Landscapes, Science, and Culture
Review
andquot;Whether the essays in this astonishing anthology examine bioregionalism in the city or in postcolonial and international scenarios, in a genre such as science fiction or in social media on the Internet, they bring ways of thinking about the relationship of self, community, and place from the 1970s resolutely into the twenty-first century. One of the most refreshing and stimulating aspects of this essay collection is its inclusion of voices that are critical of or even antagonistic to the idea of bioregionalism as an organizing category of environmentalist thought, so that the book conveys a sense of lively intellectual controversy rather than dogmatic sermons. No one interested in the imagination of place from an environmental perspective will be able to ignore this fascinating and diverse collection.andquot;andmdash;Ursula K. Heise, author of Sense of Place and Sense of Planet: The Environmental Imagination of the Global
Review
andldquo;The Bioregional Imagination makes a valuable contribution to the Venn diagram field of ecocriticism, where literature, science, and yes, activism, can and should coexist.andrdquo;andmdash;Christopher Cokinos, Science Magazine
Review
andldquo;The editors elegantly illustrate the wide variety of practices occurring in communities all over the world that are bioregional in nature, while providing a succinct and lucid history of how the bioregional philosophy and movement has evolved. . . . For anyone working in ecocriticism, environmental writing, or bioregional sustainability, it promises to be of much value, reaching classic status in the bioregional literature canon.andrdquo;andmdash;Corey Lewis, Terrain.org
Review
andquot;This anthology of well-crafted, thoughtful essays is a genuine pleasure to read and may become as much of a treasured and well-thumbed document as The Ecocriticism Reader.andquot;andmdash;Pamela Banting, ISLE
Review
andquot;The strength of this collection comes through the focus on the alliance of and#39;bioregional literature (and be extension, art) and criticismand#39; in encouraging and creating enriching and beneficial experiences of place. . . . It is a mark of success of The Bioregional Imagination that readers are compelled to reappraise and rethink their relationship with place: to understand that to think and act bioregionally is to do much more than endorse stylised images of regional localities (the and#39;heritageand#39; versions of local identity and place) and to subscribe obediently to and#39;greenand#39; values.andquot;andmdash;Stephen Harris, Australian Journal of Ecocriticism and Cultural Ecology
About the Author
Tom Lynch is an associate professor of English at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. His book Xerophilia: Ecocritical Explorations in Southwestern Literature won the Western Literature Associationandrsquo;s Thomas J. Lyon Award. Cheryll Glotfelty is a professor of English at the University of Nevada, Reno. She is a cofounder and past president of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE). Karla Armbruster, also an ASLE past president, is a professor of English at Webster University.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Tom Lynch, Cheryll Glotfelty, and Karla Armbruster
I. Reinhabiting
Big Picture, Local Place: A Conversation with David Robertson and Robert L. Thayer Jr.
Cheryll Glotfelty
Still under the Influence: The Bioregional Origins of the Hub City Writers Project
John Lane
Representing Chicago Wilderness
Rinda West
andquot;To Become Beavers of Sortsandquot;: Eric Collier's Memoir of Creative Ecology at Meldrum Creek
Norah Bowman-Broz
The Poetics of Water: Currents of Reclamation in the Columbia River Basin
Chad Wriglesworth
Restoring the Imagination of Place: Narrative Reinhabitation and the Po Valley
Serenella Iovino
andquot;This Is What Mattersandquot;: Reinhabitory Discourse and the andquot;Poetics of Responsibilityandquot; in the Work of Janisse Ray
Bart Welling
II. Rereading
Mapping Placelore: Tim Robinson's Ambulation and Articulation of Connemara as Bioregion
Christine Cusick
The Challenge of Writing Bioregionally: Performing the Bow River in Jon Whyte's Minisniwapta: Voices of the River
Harry Vandervlist
Figures of Life: Beverley Farmer's The Seal Woman as an Australian Bioregional Novel
Ruth Blair
Melancholy Botany: Charlotte Smith's Bioregional Poetic Imaginary
Heather Kerr
The Nature of Region: Russell Banks, New England, and New York
Kent C. Ryden
Critical Utopianism and Bioregional Ecocriticism
David Landis Barnhill
Critical Bioregionalist Method in Dune: A Position Paper
Daniel Gustav Anderson
III. Reimagining
andquot;Los campos extraandntilde;os de esta ciudadandquot;/andquot;The strange fields of this cityandquot;: Urban Bioregionalist Identity and Environmental Justice in Lorna Dee Cervantes's andquot;Freeway 280andquot;
Jill Gatlin
Bioregionalism, Postcolonial Literatures, and Ben Okri's The Famished Road
Erin James
Seasons and Nomads: Reflections on Bioregionalism in Australia
Libby Robin
Reading Climate Change and Work in the Circumpolar North
Pavel Cenkl
Douglas Livingstone's Poetry and the (Im)possibility of the Bioregion
Dan Wylie
andquot;Fully motile and AWAITING FURTHER INSTRUCTIONSandquot;: Thinking the Feral into Bioregionalism
Anne Milne
IV. Renewal
Out of the Field Guide: Teaching Habitat Studies
Laurie Ricou
Switching on Light Bulbs and Blowing Up Mountains: Ecoliteracy and Energy Consumption in General Education English Courses
Wes Berry
Teaching Bioregional Perceptionandmdash;at a Distance
Laird Christensen
Where You at 20.0
Kathryn Miles and Mitchell Thomashow
A Bioregional Booklist
Kyle Bladow
Contributors
Index