Women Writing Nature: A Feminist View

by Barbara Cook, Alex Hunt, Susan A. C. Rosen, Barbara J. Cook, Sarah E. McFarland

Overview

Since Silent Spring was published in 1962, the number of texts about the natural world written by women has grown exponentially. The essays in Women Writing Nature: A Feminist View argue that women writing in the 20th century are utilizing the historical connection of women and the natural world in diverse ways. For centuries women have been associated with nature but many feminists have sought to distance themselves from the natural world because of dominant cultural representations which reflect women as controlled by powerful natural forces and confined to domestic spaces. However, in the spirit of Rachel Carson, some writers have begun to invoke nature for feminist purposes or have used nature as an agent of resistance.
This collection considers women's writings about the natural world in light of recent and current feminist and ecofeminist theory and finds a variety of approaches and perspectives, both by the scholars and by the authors discussed, culminating with the voices of two women, activist and scientist Joan Maloof and Irish poet Rosemarie Rowley, who both write about the natural world from a feminist perspective.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780739119136
Publisher:	Lexington Books
Publication date:	12/14/2007
Series:	After the Empire: The Francophone World and Postcolonial France
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	152
Product dimensions:	6.08(w) x 9.06(h) x 0.46(d)

About the Author

Barbara J. Cook is assistant professor of English and Women’s Studies at Mount Aloysius College.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 1. Introduction: Nature Writing From the Feminine
Chapter 2 2. Modernist Women, Snake Stories, and the Indigenous Southwest: An Ecofeminist Politics of Creation and Affirmation
Chapter 3 3. Littoral Women Writing From the Margins
Chapter 4 4. Multifaceted Dialogues: Toward an Environmental Ethic of Care
Chapter 5 5. Wild Women: Literary Explorations of American Landscapes
Chapter 6 6. Louise Gluck, Feminism and Nature in Firstborn's "The Egg"
Chapter 7 7. Ecofeminism, Motherhood, and the Post-Apocalyptic Utopia inParable of the Sower, Parable of the Talents, and Into the Forest
Chapter 8 8. Natural Resistance: Margaret Atwood as Eco-Feminist or Apocalyptic Visionary
Chapter 9 9. Touching the Earth: Gloria Anzaldúa and the Tenets of Ecofeminism
Part 10 Voices From the Field
Chapter 11 10. Teaching the Trees: How to be a Female Nature Writer
Chapter 12 11. Confessions of an Eco-Feminist

Editorial Reviews

The editor provides a cogent explanation of the basic premises of ecofeminism and a brief history of nature writing by North American women....Recommended.

Choice

The editor provides a cogent explanation of the basic premises of ecofeminism and a brief history of nature writing by North American women....Recommended.--CHOICE

From the Publisher

The editor provides a cogent explanation of the basic premises of ecofeminism and a brief history of nature writing by North American women....Recommended.

CHOICE

The editor provides a cogent explanation of the basic premises of ecofeminism and a brief history of nature writing by North American women....Recommended.

Choice Reviews