Recomposing Ecopoetics
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“Global Sense of Place, A” (Massey), 177–79, 257n10
global warming. See climate change
gods, 65, 117; classical, 95, 204–5
Graham, Jorie, 122, 125, 130; and apocalyptic discourse, 101, 103, 105, 106, 127; on imagination, 24–25; and the pastoral, 121; Sea Change, 28, 98–99, 107–20, 134–35, 239
Great Acceleration, 4–5, 6, 50, 231; and socioeconomic inequality, 29, 208, 210, 259n6
grief, 98–99, 107, 123, 125, 219. See also emotions
Guha, Ramachandra, 258n5
guilt, 43, 46, 53, 79, 194. See also emotions
Haraway, Donna: on the Anthropocene, 7; on nonhuman animals, 138, 139, 140, 141, 253n37
Harvey, David, 178, 257n16
Hass, Robert, 175–76
Hawai‘i, 182, 186–91, 193
health: environmental, 200, 244; human, 88; inseparability of human and environmental, 231; of language, 74; and plastics, 3, 64, 66, 78, 82, 97; and risk society, 62; and toxicity, 203, 209, 223, 235, 239
Heidegger, Martin, 10, 177, 179, 182, 189
Heise, Ursula, 14–15; on environmental apocalypticism, 100–101, 103, 116; on place, 176–77, 179, 252n32, 256n6
history, 35–36, 180, 213, 235; and apocalyptic discourse, 125, 129–30; of colonization, 186, 187–91, 194; environmental, 31–32, 35; human versus natural, 35; Korean, 233; and the pastoral, 120; planetary, 31–32, 47; United States, 183, 204, 218, 220, 243
hope, 30, 105; literature of, 19; in poetry, 51–52
Hughes, Ted, 140
human exceptionalism, 28, 136
humanism, 35–36, 140, 217; anti-, 140, 216–17; post-, 140
human rights, 217, 235
humans: as animals, 124, 126; concepts of, 32, 162; insignificance of, 33, 247n2; and machines, 56–57; and intersubjectivity with nonhumans, 136–73; as species, 33, 35, 103, 247n8
Hume, Angela, 233, 260n35
humor, 99, 121–35
hunting, 53–54, 198, 235, 258n34
hyperobjects, 100, 250n24, 251n6
imagination, 25, 147; and apocalypse, 102, 111, 122, 127; of the human, 35, 36; multiscalar, 60; of nonhuman experience, 140–41, 142, 161–62; of pastoral beauty, 117–18; and place, 180, 205; plasticity of, 28
Indra’s net, 88, 91
industrialism, 9, 16, 79, 177
industrialization, 24, 137, 231, 232; costs of, 209; and risk society, 61
Industrial Revolution, 4, 5, 8, 27, 34, 50
insects, 148–68, 151, 152, 255n38; collection as specimens, 150, 152
interdisciplinarity, 8, 162
Internet, 76–77, 94, 250n20; in Dickinson’s poetry, 74; and emotional responses to climate change, 27, 39–43; images from, in poetry, 83, 91, 92; in Reilly’s poetry, 20, 23, 88, 123, 133. See also World Wide Web
irony, 127, 134, 219, 223, 225
ivory, of elephants, 172
ivory-billed woodpecker, 171
Jamieson, Dale, 46
Jarry, Alfred, 68
John of Patmos, 127, 129–31
Jones, Kim, 189
Jordan, Chris, 71
journalism, 101–2, 228, 230, 231, 232
Keats, John, 26, 30, 181
Key into the Language of America, A (Roger Williams), 92
Killingsworth, Jamie, 103–4
Kim, Myung Mi, 209, 210, 211; Penury, 29, 231–38, 240, 260n35
Kimmerer, Robin Wall, 157, 165, 173; on grammars of animacy, 28, 145–47, 255n26
“Kingfisher, The” (Oliver), 17–19
Kinsella, John, 47
Knickerbocker, Scott, 255n33
Korea, 209, 231–38
labor, 192, 221–31; forced 236
Lacks, Henrietta, 89–91
Langston, Nancy, 66, 249n11
language, 11, 30, 51–52, 155; as bioform, 150–52, 151, 152; crossing borders, 194, 197; English, 146, 150, 162, 185–86, 191; experimentation with, 26, 52, 59–60, 147, 231–38; French, 162, 185–86, 191; German, 191; human, 143–44, 149, 164, 168; Latin, 150; limitations of, 32, 138, 231–32; malleability of, 67; and materiality, 52, 125, 138, 148–52, 154, 158; Native American, 28, 92, 145–47; nonhuman, 136, 138–39, 141, 162, 164, 172–73; poetic, 10, 173; Portuguese, 191; Potawatomi, 145–47, 160, 162, 255n26; of science, 48, 62–63, 68, 92; Spanish, 191; and the status of nonhuman animals, 124, 127–28, 145, 155, 157, 158, 162; violence of, 256n40
Language writing, 11–12. See also poetry, Language
Leopold, Aldo, 257n16
Lepidoptera, 148–62, 151, 161, 255n36
lyric, 11–12, 143, 169–71; confessional, 187; free verse, 194; lyricism, 39, 47–48, 122; nature, 23, 246n15
Magritte, René, 226
Manning, Maurice, 2
Marshall, Kate, 2
Martínez-Alier, Juan, 258n5
Marx, Karl, 58, 59, 249n30
Marx, Leo, 119
Marxism, 257n16
Massey, Doreen, 29, 175, 257n16; on borders, 194; For Space, 179–80, 190, 196; “A Global Sense of Place,” 177–79, 257n10; on place, 195, 202; on space and power, 183, 188, 191, 203
McNeill, John R., 4
Meeks, Raymond, 194, 200, 201
Melville, Herman, 79–81, 87, 96, 251n30
mercury, 202–7, 209, 223, 235; poisoning, 202, 205
Mercury (god), 204–5
Mercury, Nevada, 204–6
Mercury (planet), 204–6
“Mercury Rising” (Osman), 29, 203–7
metamorphosis, 95, 155–56, 160
metaphor, 169, 195, 242; anthropomorphizing, 56; environmental apocalypse as, 28, 102; of interconnection, 88; and multiscalar imagination, 60; in poetry, 18, 23, 51, 54–55, 217; of plastic, 66, 68; tipping point as, 248n16
Mexico, 194, 196–97
microbiome, 6, 73
migration, 177, 181, 233
mining, 130–31, 200–202, 201, 208, 216; of coal, 50, 209, 210, 221–31, 226; disasters, 221–22, 223–24, 227–28, 230–31; of gold, 202, 206
mobility, 174–82, 185–86, 193–94, 203, 207
Moby-Dick (Melville), 79–81
modernity, 13, 176
Moe, Aaron, 254n1
Morton, Timothy: on the idea of nature, 14–15, 18; on “the mesh,” 24, 76, 250n24; on hyperobjects, 27, 100, 250n24, 251n6
moths. See Lepidoptera
Mullen, Harryette, 250n19
multispecies embeddedness, 121–35
muse, 63–65, 97
music, 99, 125–26, 169, 173, 235
myth, 205, 230, 235, 236
Nagel, Thomas, 140–41, 142, 144
narratives: in the Anthropocene, 7, 36, 245n4; apocalyptic, 100, 103, 104, 107, 252n32; of decline, 135; dream, 156; of globalization, 180; of mining disasters, 223–25, 227; multitrack, 37, 60; nondeclensionist environmental, 55; in poetry, 39–41, 48, 50, 121, 183, 256n40; of the racialization of space, 214
Native Americans, 92, 145–46, 181, 183
natural gas, 94, 222, 243–44
nature: as entwined with culture, 61, 89; and environmental justice, 29, 30, 209–10, 238; humanity as part of, 211–12, 215, 217, 221, 259n15; ideas of, 9, 13–14, 23, 79, 229–30; relationship with, 144–45; Romantic concepts of, 79–81, 122; as separate from culture, 13, 116, 210; as separate from urban experience, 19, 29, 210, 213, 220; timeless, 35; urban 181–82, 211–21
nature poetry, 9–19, 237, 245n5; African American, 259n15; critiques of, 20, 23, 26, 191. See also ecopoetics; ecopoetry
Network, The (Osman), 29, 203–7
Nevada Test Site, 204–5
New York (state), 27, 40, 45–46, 182
New York City, 243
Nixon, Rob: on the Anthropocene, 6–7, 29, 208, 210, 259n10; on slow violence, 41, 66
Nordhaus, Ted, 101, 105
nostalgia, 17, 121–22, 148, 196; evolutionary, 56; pastoral, 98, 115–16, 133, 206, 230, 236
Nowak, Mark, 209, 210, 211, 232, 259n10; Coal Mountain Elementary, 29, 221–31, 226, 236, 240
nuclear: age 4, 8; weap
ons, 203–4; war, 205
oceans, 65, 81, 221; acidification of, 137; plastic waste in, 81
oil, 6, 94, 114–15, 208. See also carbon; fossil fuels; petroleum
Oliver, Mary, 9, 23, 35, 247n32; “The Kingfisher,” 17–19
Olson, Charles, 23–24
“Open, The” (Roberson), 214–19
Osman, Jena, 174–75, 240; “Mercury Rising,” 29, 203–7
Oulipo, 68
Palmer, Jacqueline, 103–4
parataxis, 23, 241
pastoral, 29, 133, 240, 260n29; aesthetic pleasures of, 99, 117–120, 236; American, 116, 119; and apocalyptic discourse, 98, 99, 115–16, 203, 252n32; critique of, 121–22; and environmental justice, 226, 228, 236–38; escapism of, 118; nostalgia, 98, 115–16, 133, 206, 230, 236; temporality of, 107–20; urban, 211, 212, 215, 217
pataphysics, 67–68, 75, 97, 250n19
patriarchy, 91, 153, 253n47
“Peace of Wild Things, The” (Berry), 16–17, 18
PennSound, 154, 255n38
Penury (Kim), 29, 231–38, 240, 260n35
performance, 143–44, 154, 170, 255n38
petroleum, 65, 86; culture, 69. See also carbon; fossil fuels; oil
photography: in Gander’s poetry, 193, 194, 198–200, 199, 201, 258n34; in Nowak’s poetry, 222, 224, 226–28, 226, 260n29
place, sense of, 174–207, 256–57n6; dynamic, 192; global, 179, 180, 193, 198; progressive, 178–79, 257n10; translocal, 175–82, 240. See also places; space
places, 28–29, 40, 45, 168, 174–207; “foreign,” 180, 193–203; global, 203; planetary and interplanetary, 203–7; mobile, 193, 195, 207; as networks, 178–79, 180; rural, 174, 176–77, 217, 225, 236–37, 258n5; translocal, 174, 240; urban, 213, 217; wild, 174, 176, 258n5. See also place, sense of; space; urban
planets, 203–207, 258n38
plants: animacy of, 146; in art, 82; experience of, 155; global movement of, 186, 188, 190, 191
plasticity, 28, 67, 78–79, 89, 91, 239; cultural, 75; infinite, 94, 95
plastics, 27–28, 61–97, 100, 239, 249n10; and art, 77–79, 82–88; benefits of, 66–67, 94; and climate change, 66; as democratizing, 76–77; and health, 66; as metaphor for culture, 67, 75; and marine animals, 70–71; as waste, 63–65, 66, 78, 80, 249n9
Plastics Foodservice Packaging Group, 77–78, 250n27
pleasure, 44, 84, 98–135, 159, 239; and embodied embeddedness in ecosystems, 99, 106, 134–35; of the pastoral, 99, 117–19, 121; sensory, 99–100, 106, 112–15, 120, 125, 153
Plumwood, Val, 28, 144–45, 148
poetics, 11–12; and animals, 136–73, 254n1; avant-garde, 52; collage, 20, 23, 76–77, 82, 91; conceptual, 203; documentary, 203, 205, 206, 221–31; experimental, 67–68, 145, 147; of interconnection, 61–97; mainstream, 12; open field, 219; projectivist, 23–24, 219; social, 230; urban, 211; zoo-, 254n1
poetry: agency of, 51–52, 99; conceptual, 69, 75, 203; concrete, 150; documentary, 193–203, 205, 206, 221–31; eco-apocalyptic, 98–135; and embodiment, 125; as energy, 51; environmental justice, 29, 208–38; experimentalist, 147, 232, 255n33; interspecies communication in, 136–73; Language, 11; love, 163–64; mainstream, 11; millennial, 259n6; political, 259n15; proceduralist, 69, 169; projectivist, 150; remix, 221; and the sciences, 32, 39, 92; and the senses, 106, 154; sound, 255n38; urban, 211; visual arrangement of text in, 150–53, 151, 152, 155, 219. See also Black Mountain poets; ecopoetics; ecopoetry; nature poetry; poetics
polar bears, 83–84, 87, 95
pollution, 137, 200–207, 209, 240; from coal, 223; mercury, 206, 223; and national borders, 72, 206; from plastics, 27–28, 61–97; water, 117, 130–31, 223, 225, 235. See also toxicity
Polymers, The (Dickinson), 27–28, 61, 66–76, 95, 97
population: human, 24, 33, 137
postcolonialism, 15
posthumanism. See under humanism poststructuralism, 11, 147
poverty, 192, 215–16, 228, 232
privilege, 119, 133, 184, 196, 202
progress, 89, 104, 215, 235; traps, 6
puns, 250n19; in Berry’s poetry, 16; in Dickinson’s poetry, 71; in Gladding’s poetry, 167; in Reilly’s poetry, 83, 96, 121, 127; in Roberson’s poetry, 214, 216; in Skinner’s poetry, 171–72
queer theory, 15, 254n26
race, 178, 183, 211–21, 254n1, 258n5; spatialization of, 29, 211, 214–20
racism, 211–21, 258n5; environmental, 213
Rasula, Jed, 13
rationality, 47, 155, 162
rawlings, a., 28, 136, 255n33; approach to nonhuman animals in work of, 142, 145, 164, 165, 239; Wide Slumber for Lepidopterists, 143, 144, 148–62, 151, 152, 161, 163, 255–56nn38–40
realism, 24, 67–68, 75, 106
Redstart: An Ecological Poetics (Gander), 27, 47–52
refugees, 29, 178, 209, 231–38, 260n35; climate, 58, 234; environmental, 234, 236
Reilly, Evelyn, 39, 240, 250n24, 251n28, 251n35; Apocalypso, 28, 98, 99, 121–35, 136, 239; and apocalyptic discourse, 101, 103, 105, 106, 107; the Internet in the work of, 75–97, 250n24, 250n27, 251n33; on nonhuman animals, 124, 126–29, 253n37; Styrofoam, 27, 61, 62–65, 67, 75–97, 239; on transcendence, 19–24, 253n52; “Wing / Span / Screw / Cluster (Aves),” 19–24, 76, 80, 85
resilience, 208
Retallack, Joan, 24; on experimental poetry, 26, 52, 147–48, 152, 232; on “reciprocal alterity,” 136, 154, 169
Revelation, book of, 103, 117, 122, 127, 129–32, 133, 253n47
rhyme, 97, 112
“Rime of the Ancient Mariner” (Coleridge), 79
risk: and apocalyptic discourse, 100–101, 105, 239; and class, 202, 208; perception of, 62, 106; society, 61–62, 72, 75, 87, 89, 251n1
Roberson, Ed, 259n15; and apocalyptic discourse, 104–5, 107, 120, 134–35; City Eclogue, 29, 180–82, 211–21, 240; and environmental justice, 209, 210, 229, 236; on scale, 27, 32–33, 39, 239; To See the Earth Before the End of the World, 53–60, 104–5, 248n29
Romanticism, 122; and ideas of nature, 13, 15, 18, 79–81; in nature writing, 181, 246n15; in poetry, 9–10, 16, 26, 253n52
Ronda, Margaret, 248n22, 259n6
Rukeyser, Muriel, 193
rural areas, 19, 29, 174, 176–77, 210; coal mining in, 225; and the pastoral, 115, 122, 236–37; people in, 177, 229–30, 258n5
Sago mining disaster, 222, 223–24, 227–28, 230–31
scalar dissonance, 27, 32, 38, 39–47, 104; emotional responses to, 39, 45, 59–60
scale, 31–60, 63, 203, 239; of Anthropocene planetary change, 26–27, 32, 105; of coal mining, 225; effects, 36–39; of human attention, 41; of individual action versus collective impact, 37, 44; perception of, 26, 32, 56; and toxicity, 66
science, 32, 35, 39, 94, 96, 146; and animals, 137–38, 147, 150, 155, 158–60, 162; and apocalyptic discourse, 103; and art, 62–63, 68, 76, 88, 91, 95; and collection of insect specimens, 155, 158–60, 163; critique of, 87–91; and perception of risk, 62; and plastics, 73, 78, 93; and realism, 67–68, 75; translation of, 47–48, 92
Scigaj, Leonard M., 9, 11
sea. See oceans
Sea Change (Graham), 28, 98–99, 107–20, 134–35, 239
segregation, 148, 213; racial, 210, 211, 216, 218, 220–21
self, 194, 195, 203, 220; bounded, 187; human, 144; nonhuman, 164. See also subject
sense of place. See place, sense of
senses: and dwelling in crisis, 106–7, 111–12, 114, 125; and eating, 184; and embodiment, 148–49, 152–53, 157; human versus nonhuman, 138–39, 142, 143, 145, 170; pleasures of, 84, 99–100, 106–7, 112–15, 120, 134; and poesis, 255n33; and scale, 49, 53, 57, 59–60
settler colonial society, 183, 185, 187–88, 190
Shakespeare, William, 59
Shellenberger, Michael, 101, 105
Shockley, Evie, 259n15
Sierra Nevada, 175–76
Silent Spring (Carson), 8, 100, 181
Skinner, Jonathan, 28, 99, 136, 142, 239; on birdsong, 138–39, 143–44, 145; “
Blackbird Stanzas,” 168–73, 173; ecopoetics (journal), 12
slow listening, 138–39, 170, 173
Snyder, Gary, 9, 168, 182, 192, 198; on bioregionalism, 15, 177; “Burning the Small Dead,” 175–77, 180
social justice, 210, 230, 237
sociology, 102, 215
Soper, Kate, 141, 143, 144
sound: of machines, 181; in poetry, 152–54, 169–70, 172–73, 232, 255n38; recordings of animals, 169–72
space, 29, 174–75, 177–80, 183; globalized, 193; outer, 21, 31, 53, 54; of the page, 23, 29, 232; racialization of, 29, 211, 214–20; scales of, 27, 32, 33, 41, 48. See also place, sense of; places
Spahr, Juliana, 53, 59, 239, 257n21; on nature poetry, 20; on place, 174–75, 179, 194, 197, 207; “Unnamed Dragonfly Species,” 32, 38–47, 182; Well Then There Now, 27, 29, 39–47, 182–93, 240, 248n22
species: bird, 168, 171; chordate, 124; companion, 138; disparaged, 127–28, 134; endangered, 27, 39–47, 114; evolution of, 48; extinction, 3, 7, 20–22, 39, 57, 114, 138; global movement of, 6, 174, 188; humanity as, 2, 6–7, 33, 35–37, 208; humility, 34; impact of humans on other, 8, 20, 59, 137, 169; interdependence of human and nonhuman, 28, 99, 113, 126–27; intersubjectivity between human and nonhuman, 137–62; native, 19, 186; nonmammalian, 28; nonnative, 186–87, 190; not threatened, 142; not yet named, 45; subjective experiences of different, 140–41, 144–45, 153, 186
Spivak, Gayatri, 160
Steffen, Will, 4
Stein, Gertrude, 26, 183
Stevens, Wallace, 56, 114, 125, 170, 181
Stingel, Rudolf, 82–84, 83, 86, 87, 96
Stoermer, Eugene, 2, 8
Styrofoam, 63, 78, 80, 251n6; art made with, 82–87, 83, 96
Styrofoam (Reilly), 27, 61, 62–65, 67, 75, 76–97, 239
subaltern, 138, 141, 160
subject, 169; human, 52, 124, 140. See also self
subsistence, 231–38, 259n6
Sun Ra, 248n29
surrealism, 226
sustainability, 7
syncretism: complex, 182, 188–89
syntax: conventions of, 185; deconstruction of, 52, 190; multivalent, 55, 212; torqued, 71, 136, 170, 184
Tatters, The (Coultas), 241–44
technology, 56–57, 93–94, 104, 211, 253n37; and animal communication, 171; and the Anthropocene, 6, 8, 32; communication, 138, 178; digital, 121–24, 126, 133–34, 241–42, 244; industrial, 126