French Écocritique Reading French Theory and Fiction Ecologically

About this book

French Écocritique is the first book-length study of the culturally specific ways in which contemporary French literature and theory raise questions about nature and environment. Stephanie Posthumus's ground-breaking work brings together thinkers such as Guattari, Latour, and Serres with recent ecocritical theories to complicate what might otherwise become a reductive notion of "French ecocriticism". Working across contemporary philosophy and literature, French Écocritique defines the concept of the ecological as an attentiveness to specific nature-culture contexts and to a text's many interdiscursive connections. Posthumus identifies four key concepts, ecological subjectivity, ecological dwelling, ecological politics, and ecological ends, for changing how we think about human-nature relations. French Écocritique highlights the importance of moving beyond canonical ecocritical texts and examining a diversity of cultural and literary traditions for new ways of imagining the environment.

Contents

Introduction - Ecological Readings

Chapter One - Ecological Subjectivity: Guattari and Darrieussecq
Chapter Two - Ecological Dwelling: Serres and Lafon
Chapter Three - Ecological Politics: Latour and Rufin
Chapter Four - Ecological Ends: Schaeffer and Houellebecq

Conclusion - Further Ecological Readings
Bibliography

Customer Reviews

Biography

Stephanie Posthumus is an assistant professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at McGill University.