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Literary Criticism French

French 'Ecocritique'

Reading Contemporary French Theory and Fiction Ecologically

by (author) Stephanie Posthumus

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Nov 2017
Category
French, General, Environmental Conservation & Protection
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9781487501457
    Publish Date
    Nov 2017
    List Price
    $71.00
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781487513214
    Publish Date
    Oct 2017
    List Price
    $61.00

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

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, the book 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.

About the author

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

Stephanie Posthumus' profile page

Awards

  • Short-listed, Alanna Bondar Memorial Book Prize for the Environmental Humanities and Creative Writing

Editorial Reviews

"Posthumus’s book appears destined to become one of the most important resources for scholars interested in French ecological thought and fiction. It also promises to spark more interest in a field of study that has been relegated to the periphery in French and Francophone studies."

The French Review

‘Highly recommended.’

Choice Magazine vol 55:10:2018

"…Posthumus’s goal is to provide (eco)critical points of convergence, and she does so with great attention to coherence and detail…The book will of course be a reference for scholars working in French ecocriticism, but should not be overlooked by ecocritics from other linguistic traditions…"

H-France Review Vol. 19, no 76