Nature and Narrative

Rhetoric and Design in Contemporary Fiction

Inbunden, Engelska, 2025

3 139 kr

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The book explores environmental issues in twenty-first-century Anglophone fiction and how those issues are dealt with by specific literary means. It proposes a reciprocal relationship between nature and narrative—the idea according to which nature both informs and inspires artistic creations, while literary designs and rhetoric also shape our ideas and perceptions of the natural environment. It is argued that in order to address design and rhetoric in environmental texts, we need a close analysis of those world-shaping functions of literary narratives that unite ecocritical and narratological interests. The author presents readings of contemporary novels and their varying ways of seeing nature through narrative devices and fictional minds. The novels discussed in the book are Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall, Toni Morrison’s A Mercy, Ian McGuire’s The North Water, Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna, Paul Harding’s Tinkers and Enon, J. M. Coetzee’s Elizabeth Costello, Ian McEwan’s Solar, and Jenny Offill’s Weather.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2025-05-22
Mått152 x 229 x 19 mm
Vikt640 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
SerieRoutledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature
Antal sidor246
FörlagTaylor & Francis Ltd
ISBN9781032996950

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Litteraturvetenskap inom Skönlitteratur

Markku Lehtimäki, PhD., is a professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Turku, Finland. His fields of expertise are narrative theory, visual culture, ecocriticism, American literature, and the contemporary novel. His research projects include Natural Narratology, Cognitive Poetics, and Ecocriticism (2009–2011), The Changing Environment of the North: Cultural Representations and Uses of Water (2017–2021), The Novel’s Knowledge: The Changing Roles of Author and Book in Society (2022–2024), and Authors of the Story Economy: Narrative and Digital Capital in the 21st Century Literary Field (2024–2028). He is the author or co-editor of several books, most recently Visual Representations of the Arctic: Imagining Shimmering Worlds in Culture, Literature and Politics (Routledge 2021) and Cold Waters: Tangible and Symbolic Seascapes of the North (2022). He has also published articles in journals such as Image [&] Narrative, Storyworlds: A Journal of Narrative Theory, and Style.

AcknowledgmentsIntroduction 1. The Natural and the Unnatural: History and Anamorphosis in Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall2. Black and White Geographies: Seeing and Writing the New World in Toni Morrison’s A Mercy3. Imagi(ni)ng the Arctic: Historical Narrative and Visual Poetics in Ian McGuire’s The North Water4. Liquid Identities: Water and Storytelling in Barbara Kingsolver’s The Lacuna5. A Heart Open to Nature: Experience, Memory, and Time in Paul Harding’s Tinkers and Enon6. Ethics and Embodiment: Realism, Ideas, and Animal Rights in J. M. Coetzee’s Elizabeth Costello7. A Rhetoric of Climate Change: Comedy, Character, and Progression in Ian McEwan’s Solar8. Living on Multiple Planes: Daily Life, Global Crisis, and Narrative Fragmentation in Jenny Offill’s WeatherConclusionReferencesIndex

Markku Lehtimäki’s stimulating close readings help us see how the rhetoric of contemporary fiction grapples with a wide range of ecological questions, addressing the colonial roots of the climate crisis while imagining its destabilizing influence on everyday life.– Marco Caracciolo, Associate Professor, Ghent University, BelgiumNature and Narrative: Rhetoric and Design in Contemporary Fiction is a timely and important contribution to the ecocritical and eco-narratological discussion. Combining environmental literary studies with rhetorical narrative theory and emphasizing humanist ecocriticism, the book sheds new light on a range of prominent novels from the 21st century.– Alice Sundman,Postdoctoral Researcher, Stockholm University, Sweden