TY  - BOOK
AU  - Ziser,Michael
TI  - Environmental Practice and Early American Literature
T2  - Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture
SN  - 9780511794162 (ebook)
AV  - PS163 .Z57 2013
U1  - 810.9/36 23
PY  - 2013///
CY  - Cambridge
PB  - Cambridge University Press
KW  - Nature in literature
KW  - Ecology in literature
KW  - Agriculture in literature
KW  - Agent (Philosophy) in literature
N1  - Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 04 Apr 2016)
N2  - This original and provocative study tells the story of American literary history from the perspective of its environmental context. Weaving together close readings of early American texts with ecological histories of tobacco, potatoes, apples and honey bees, Michael Ziser presents a method for literary criticism that explodes the conceptual distinction between the civilized and natural world. Beginning with the English exploration of Virginia in the sixteenth century, Ziser argues that the settlement of the 'New World' - and the cultivation and exploitation of its bounty - dramatically altered how writers used language to describe the phenomena they encountered on the frontier. Examining the work of Harriot, Grainger, Cooper, Thoreau and others, Ziser reveals how these authors, whether consciously or not, transcribed the vibrant ecology of North America, and the ways that the environment helped codify a uniquely American literary aesthetic of lasting importance
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511794162
ER  -