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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.
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
Stephanie Posthumus is an assistant professor in the Department of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures at McGill University.
"The breadth and depth of Posthumus's scholarship are impressive. In four meticulously organized chapters on French writers of fiction and theory, she addresses the concepts of subjectivity, dwelling, politics, and imaginings, while weaving a comparison between Anglo-American ecocriticism and a nascent French écocritique."
– Jonathan Krell, Department of Romance Languages, University of Georgia
"French Écocritique offers an excellent – and splendidly readable – presentation of these important materials and debates."
– Martin Crowley, Department of French, University of Cambridge
