Literature as Cultural Ecology

Hubert Zapf is Professor and Chair of American Literature at the University of Augsburg, Germany. His recent books include, as co-editor, American Studies Today: New Research Agendas (2014) and English and American Studies: Theory and Practice (2012).

• Part I: Cultural Ecology and Literary Studies1. Introduction2. The Ecocultural Potential of Literature3. Sustainability and Literature4. Literature as an Ecological Force in Poems by Emily Dickinson, Linda Hogan, and A.R. AmmonsPart II: Ecocriticism and Cultural Ecology5. Ecocriticism in the 20th Century: The Return of Nature to Writing About Culture6. Ecocriticism in the 21st Century: The Return of Culture to Writing About Nature7. Politicized Ecocriticism: From Nature-Worship to Civilizational Critique8. Ecological Thought and Critical Theory: From Antagonism to AlliancePart III: Literature As Cultural Ecology9. From Natural Ecology to Cultural Ecology10. Cultural Ecology and Material Ecocriticism11. Literature As Cultural Ecology12. Triadic Functional Models of Literature as Cultural Ecology: Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, Melville’s Moby Dick, Chopin’s The Awakening, Faulkener’s The Sound and The Fury, Morrison’s Beloved.Part IV: Transdisciplinary Contexts of a Cultural Ecology of Literature13. Text and Life14. Order and Chaos15. Connecting Patterns and Creative Energies16. Matter and Mind17. Solid and Fluid18. Wound and Voice19. Absence and Presence20. Local and GlobalBibliographyIndex

Zapf’s theoretical argumentation and analytical insights outlined in the four Parts of this rich book undoubtedly bespeak the scholar’s erudition. Zapf is very careful to make his point clear to the reader thanks to abundant philosophical documentation ... Zapf’s in-depth discussions never fail to provide inspiration for new comparative or transdisciplinary methods of literary analysis. All in all, then, this monograph will certainly become an indispensable tool for scholars wishing to undertake further research in this promising field of enquiry.