Synopses & Reviews
Does Thoreau belong to the past or to the future? Instead of canonizing him as a celebrant of andldquo;pureandrdquo; nature apart from the corruption of civilization, the essays in
Thoreauvian Modernities reveal edgier facets of his workandmdash;how Thoreau is able to unsettle as well as inspire and how he is able to focus on both the timeless and the timely. Contributors from the United States and Europe explore Thoreauandrsquo;s modernity and give a much-needed reassessment of his work in a global context.
The first of three sections, andldquo;Thoreau and (Non)Modernity,andrdquo; views Thoreau as a social thinker who set himself against the andldquo;modernandrdquo; currents of his day even while contributing to the emergence of a new era. By questioning the place of humans in the social, economic, natural, and metaphysical order, he ushered in a rethinking of humanityandrsquo;s role in the natural world that nurtured the environmental movement. The second section, andldquo;Thoreau and Philosophy,andrdquo; examines Thoreauandrsquo;s writings in light of the philosophy of his time as well as current philosophical debates. Section three, andldquo;Thoreau, Language, and the Wild,andrdquo; centers on his relationship to wild nature in its philosophical, scientific, linguistic, and literary dimensions. Together, these sixteen essays reveal Thoreauandrsquo;s relevance to a number of fields, including science, philosophy, aesthetics, environmental ethics, political science, and animal studies.
Thoreauvian Modernities posits that it is the germinating power of Thoreauandrsquo;s thoughtandmdash;the challenge it poses to our own thinking and its capacity to address pressing issues in a new wayandmdash;that defines his enduring relevance and his modernity.
Contributors: Kristen Case, Randall Conrad, David Dowling, Michel Granger, Michel Imbert, Michael Jonik, Christian Maul, Bruno Monfort, Henrik Otterberg, Tom Pughe, David M. Robinson, William Rossi, Dieter Schulz, Franandccedil;ois Specq, Joseph Urbas, Laura Dassow Walls.
Review
andldquo;Given the worldwide impact of Thoreauandrsquo;s Walden and 'Civil Disobedience,' itandrsquo;s hard to believe that there has never been a bona fide gathering of international perspectives on his work and significance. Thoreauvian Modernities handsomely supplies this need, almost on the eve of the bicentennial of his birth.andrdquo;andmdash;Lawrence Buell, Harvard University
Review
andldquo;Thoreauvian Modernities offers a provocative variety of essays about Thoreauandrsquo;s relevance to modernity both in his own day and ours. It also contains a groundbreaking transcontinental exchange of critical perspectives between European and American scholars. Although European postmodern theory and American ecocritical concerns often seem opposed to each other, this volume shows that the two can cross-fertilize rather than contradict each other, and the quality of the essays throughout the volume is consistently excellent.andquot;andmdash;Richard J. Schneider, editor of Thoreauandrsquo;s Sense of Place: Essays in American Environmental Writing
Review
andldquo;What a wonderful idea, to bring together top scholars from both sides of the Atlantic to consider how Thoreau spoke to his own time and how he speaks to ours! Thoreau turns out to be an endlessly fruitful source for new ideas and insights regarding modernity. American readers may find the Europeansandrsquo; reflections on this quintessentially American writer particularly interestingandmdash;although the Americansandrsquo; essays also provide many valuable new insights. I highly recommend Thoreauvian Modernities.andquot;andmdash;Philip Cafaro, author of Thoreau's Living Ethics: Walden and the Pursuit of Virtue
Review
andldquo;Thoreauvian Modernities is a fitting tribute to the American philosopher who was, in so many ways, ahead of his time. As an environmentalist, social progressive, postmodern literary stylist, theorist of embodied knowledge, and opponent of the fact-value distinction, Henry David Thoreau was a thinker whose audience had not yet arrived. Yet his voice is also untimely because it is deeply suspicious of novelty and fashion, inspired by ancient wisdom traditions, and decidedly ambivalent about modern technology and culture. This interdisciplinary collection of essays analyzes Thoreauandrsquo;s contested legacy, exploring various aspects of his incredibly rich writings and bringing to light many valuable insights. It will enable readers to understand better the intricacies of Thoreauandrsquo;s work and the ways in which it refuses to conform to any of our standard assumptions about intellectual history.andrdquo;andmdash;Rick Anthony Furtak, coeditor of Thoreau's Importance for Philosophy
Review
andldquo;Until fairly recently, Thoreau has too often served as a poster child of a nature devoid of culture and not, as he emerges here, as an analyst of the enmeshedness of human and nonhuman materiality. Thoreauvian Modernities indeed attests to a sort of renaissance in Thoreau scholarship, one that promises to put this andlsquo;American iconandrsquo; back at the fore of material/ecocritical studies.andrdquo; andmdash;Rochelle L. Johnson, ISLE
Review
andldquo;. . . . The themes of this collection are cheeringly unexpected. This is not just the andlsquo;modernandrsquo; Thoreau of the environment or political action. It is a Thoreau of modernities across time and space: a timely untimely Thoreau. At the volumeandrsquo;s close, we are left provoked once more by a Thoreau whose writing can change the way we see our modernity just as he had hoped to change the way people saw his own modern moment.andrdquo;andmdash;David Greenham, Emerson Society Papers
About the Author
Franandccedil;ois Specq is a professor of American literature and culture at the Ecole Normale Supandeacute;rieure de Lyon-Universitandeacute; de Lyon/CNRS. Laura Dassow Walls is William P. and Hazel B. White Professor of English at the University of Notre Dame. Michel Granger is a professor of American literature and culture at the Universitandeacute; de Lyon/CNRS.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
List of Abbreviations xiii
Introduction: The Manifold Modernity of Henry D. Thoreau 1
Franandccedil;ois Specq and Laura Dassow Walls
Part One: Thoreau and (Non)Modernity
Walking West, Gazing East: Planetarity on the Shores of Cape Cod 21
Laura Dassow Walls
Antimodern Thoreau 43
Michel Granger
Thoreauandrsquo;s Multiple Modernities 56
William Rossi
Thoreau, Modernity, and Natureandrsquo;s Seasons 69
David M. Robinson
An Infinite Road to the Golden