Author: Keith Sagar Publisher: ISBN: Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 424
Book Description
At the outset of the third millennium, one problem towers above all others: how are we (as a species living what we think of as a civilized life) to survive? How, that is, are we to continue to live in an overcrowded world whose finite resources are being rapidly exhausted and whose biological life support systems are close to breakdown? There is a widespread and fast-growing belief that tinkering with economics ('sustainable development') and local conservation measures (always too little and too late) are not enough; that what is needed is a revolution in our consciousness regarding our place in the natural world and our responsibilities towards it. This book attempts to reassert the essential relationship between imagination, nature and human survival. Keith Sagar demonstrates, by close readings of major works by seventeen of the greatest writers, from Homer to Hughes, that literature has a central contribution to make in our efforts to discover what are the laws of nature and human nature, and to live within them.
Author: Minnie Bruce Pratt Publisher: ISBN: Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 136
Book Description
"Designated as the prestigious 1989 Lamont Poetry Selection by the Academy of American Poets, and winner of the 1991 American Library Association Gay/Lesbian Book Award, Pratt's Crime Against Nature is a stunning achievement. This beautifully crafted sequence of poems takes its title from language in the statute under which the author could have been prosecuted as a lesbian if she had sought legal custody of her children. These are poems of despair, self-doubt, sexual bliss, sexual shame, exhilaration, rage, hope, victory. In Crime Against Nature, Pratt breathes new life into the words lesbian, poet, mother. Without contradiction or self-denial, she holds herself, her loves, and her children in a world of passion, of power being realized, of wholeness."--AUTHOR WEBSITE.
Author: Steven Pinker Publisher: Penguin Books ISBN: 0143122010 Category : Psychology Languages : en Pages : 834
Book Description
Faced with the ceaseless stream of news about war, crime, and terrorism, one could easily think this is the most violent age ever seen. Yet as bestselling author Pinker shows in this startling and engaging new work, just the opposite is true.
Author: Jeff Sparrow Publisher: ISBN: 9781922310705 Category : Languages : en Pages : 240
Book Description
A polemic about global warming and the environmental crisis that argues that ordinary people have consistently opposed the destruction of nature and so provide an untapped constituency for climate action. Crimes Against Natureuses fresh material to offer a very different take on the most important issue of our times. It takes the familiar narrative about global warming -- the one in which we are all to blame -- and inverts it, to show how, again and again, pollution and ecological devastation have been imposed on the population without our consent and (often) against our will. From histories of destruction, it distils stories of hope, highlighting the yearning for a more sustainable world that returns again and again. In the era of climate strikes, viral outbreaks, and Extinction Rebellion, Crimes Against Naturemoves from ancient Australia to the 'corpse economy' of Georgian Britain to the 'Kitchen Debate' of the Cold War to present an unexpected and optimistic environmental history -- one that identifies ordinary people not as a problem but as a promise.
Author: Alison L. LaCroix Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0190610786 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 345
Book Description
Writers of fiction have always confronted topics of crime and punishment. This age-old fascination with crime on the part of both authors and readers is not surprising, given that criminal justice touches on so many political and psychological themes essential to literature, and comes equipped with a trial process that contains its own dramatic structure. This volume explores this profound and enduring literary engagement with crime, investigation, and criminal justice. The collected essays explore three themes that connect the world of law with that of fiction. First, defining and punishing crime is one of the fundamental purposes of government, along with the protection of victims by the prevention of crime. And yet criminal punishment remains one of the most abused and terrifying forms of political power. Second, crime is intensely psychological and therefore an important subject by which a writer can develop and explore character. A third connection between criminal justice and fiction involves the inherently dramatic nature of the legal system itself, particularly the trial. Moreover, the ongoing public conversation about crime and punishment suggests that the time is ripe for collaboration between law and literature in this troubled domain. The essays in this collection span a wide array of genres, including tragic drama, science fiction, lyric poetry, autobiography, and mystery novels. The works discussed include works as old as fifth-century BCE Greek tragedy and as recent as contemporary novels, memoirs, and mystery novels. The cumulative result is arresting: there are "killer wives" and crimes against trees; a government bureaucrat who sends political adversaries to their death for treason before falling to the same fate himself; a convicted murderer who doesn't die when hanged; a psychopathogical collector whose quite sane kidnapping victim nevertheless also collects; Justice Thomas' reading and misreading of Bigger Thomas; a man who forgives his son's murderer and one who cannot forgive his wife's non-existent adultery; fictional detectives who draw on historical analysis to solve murders. These essays begin a conversation, and they illustrate the great depth and power of crime in literature.
Author: Joris Karl Huysmans Publisher: ISBN: 9781522785392 Category : Languages : en Pages : 122
Book Description
Joris-Karl Huysmans was a famous French writer known for his large vocabulary and wit. Huysmans most famous novel was "Against Nature."
Author: Matilda van den Bosch Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 019103875X Category : Medical Languages : en Pages : 368
Book Description
Human beings have always been affected by their surroundings. There are various health benefits linked to being able to access to nature; including increased physical activity, stress recovery, and the stimulation of child cognitive development. The Oxford Textbook of Nature and Public Health provides a broad and inclusive picture of the relationship between our own health and the natural environment. All aspects of this unique relationship are covered, ranging from disease prevention through physical activity in green spaces to innovative ecosystem services, such as climate change adaptation by urban trees. Potential hazardous consequences are also discussed including natural disasters, vector-borne pathogens, and allergies. This book analyses the complexity of our human interaction with nature and includes sections for example epigenetics, stress physiology, and impact assessments. These topics are all interconnected and fundamental for reaching a full understanding of the role of nature in public health and wellbeing. Much of the recent literature on environmental health has primarily described potential threats from our natural surroundings. The Oxford Textbook of Nature and Public Health instead focuses on how nature can positively impact our health and wellbeing, and how much we risk losing by destroying it. The all-inclusive approach provides a comprehensive and complete coverage of the role of nature in public health, making this textbook invaluable reading for health professionals, students, and researchers within public health, environmental health, and complementary medicine.
Author: Lorraine Kerslake Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1351330586 Category : Literary Criticism Languages : en Pages : 182
Book Description
Despite the fame Ted Hughes’s poetry has achieved, there has been surprisingly little critical writing on his children’s literature. This book identifies the importance of Hughes’s children’s writing from an ecocritical perspective and argues that the healing function that Hughes ascribes to nature in his children’s literature is closely linked to the development of his own sense of environmental responsibility. This book will be the first sustained examination of Hughes’s greening in relation to his writing for children, providing a detailed reading of Hughes’s children’s literature through his poetry, prose and drama as well as his critical essays and letters. In addition, it also explores how Hughes’s children’s writing is a window to the poet’s own emotional struggles, as well as his environmental consciousness and concern to reconnect a society that has become alienated from nature. This book will be of great interest to not only those studying Ted Hughes, but also students and scholars of environment and literature, ecocriticism, children’s literature and twentieth-century literature.
Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley Publisher: Ballantine Books ISBN: 0345448162 Category : Fiction Languages : en Pages : 979
Book Description
The magical saga of the women behind King Arthur's throne. “A monumental reimagining of the Arthurian legends . . . reading it is a deeply moving and at times uncanny experience. . . . An impressive achievement.”—The New York Times Book Review In Marion Zimmer Bradley's masterpiece, we see the tumult and adventures of Camelot's court through the eyes of the women who bolstered the king's rise and schemed for his fall. From their childhoods through the ultimate fulfillment of their destinies, we follow these women and the diverse cast of characters that surrounds them as the great Arthurian epic unfolds stunningly before us. As Morgaine and Gwenhwyfar struggle for control over the fate of Arthur's kingdom, as the Knights of the Round Table take on their infamous quest, as Merlin and Viviane wield their magics for the future of Old Britain, the Isle of Avalon slips further into the impenetrable mists of memory, until the fissure between old and new worlds' and old and new religions' claims its most famous victim.
Author: Patricia Wiltshire Publisher: Penguin ISBN: 0525542248 Category : True Crime Languages : en Pages : 304
Book Description
A riveting blend of science writing and true-crime narrative that explores the valuable but often shocking interface between crime and nature--and the secrets each can reveal about the other--from a pioneer in forensic ecology and a trailblazing female scientist. From mud tracks on a quiet country road to dirt specks on the soles of walking boots, forensic ecologist Patricia Wiltshire uses her decades of scientific expertise to find often-overlooked clues left behind by criminal activity. She detects evidence and eliminates hypotheses armed with little more than a microscope, eventually developing a compelling thesis of the who, what, how, and when of a crime. Wiltshire's remarkable accuracy has made her one of the most in-demand police consultants in the world, and her curiosity, humility, and passion for the truth have guided her every step of the way. A riveting blend of science writing and true-crime narrative, The Nature of Life and Death details Wiltshire's unique journey from college professor to crime fighter: solving murders, locating corpses, and exonerating the falsely accused. Along the way, she introduces us to the unseen world all around us and underneath our feet: plants, animals, pollen, spores, fungi, and microbes that we move through every day. Her story is a testament to the power of persistence and reveals how our relationship with the vast natural world reaches far deeper than we might think.
Author: Keith Sagar
Author: Minnie Bruce Pratt
Author: Steven Pinker
Author: Jeff Sparrow
Author: Alison L. LaCroix
Author: Joris Karl Huysmans
Author: Matilda van den Bosch
Author: Lorraine Kerslake
Author: Marion Zimmer Bradley
Author: Patricia Wiltshire