Hartung-Gorre Verlag

Inh.: Dr. Renate Gorre

D-78465 Konstanz

Fon: +49 (0)7533 97227

 

www.hartung-gorre.de

S

New Publication November 2024

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cătălina Bălinișteanu-Furdu

 

Plant and Animal Metaphors

As Signs of Proto-Ecofeminism

 

1st Edition 2024. 180 pages. € 39,80.

ISBN 978-3-86628-832-4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the UK, ecocriticism or the green studies originate from the British Romanticism of 1790s, rather than from the American transcendentalism of the 1840s, a fact reinforced by Lawrence Buell who mentioned the waves of ecocriticism in his works and analysed its evolution from a critical practice in the 1970s to the movement within the literary studies from the 1990s having “two semi-coordinated and interpenetrating epicentres: the British Romanticism and the US nature writing”. In the beginning, this movement was called environmental criticism, or literary environmental studies, or literary ecology, or literary environmentalism, or green literary studies; ultimately a convenient shortage was acknowledged as the suitable name: ecocriticism. A simple definition of ecocriticism would be the one offered by Lawrence Buell: “the study of the relationship between literature and the physical environment”. Although ecocritical canon was still in its early stages when Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, Out of Africa, Beatrix Potter’s Tales were written, it is important for us to understand that ecocriticism has evolved in different branches so that people should perceive better their connection to nature. The understanding of natural landscapes offered by both Brontë Sisters in their works fits Buell’s definition. However, Jane Eyre reveals a particular facet of ecocriticism: ecological feminism, known also as ecofeminism; thus our survey on ecocriticism requires broader parameters so that the readers might understand why the female writers focus on the relationship between the female protagonists and nature.

 

 

 

Contents

 

An Introduction to Women’s Animalities in the World Literature

 

Chapter I. Charlotte Brontë’s Proto-Ecofeminism in Jane Eyre

1.1. Bird Imagery in Jane Eyre

1.2. Animality with Diseased Women

1.3. Jane’s Rejection of Instrumentalization

1.4. Jane Eyre between Ecocriticism and Conservationism

1.5. Conclusions

Bibliography

 

Chapter II. Karen Blixen’s Behind the Scenes Ecofeminism

2.1. The Woman and the Cultural Context

2.2. The Representation of Kenya as a Utopian Land

2.3. Congruity between Natives and the African Landscape

2.4. Downplaying European Hegemony by Embracing Afrocentricity

2.5. Animal Imagery as a Potential Sign of Ecofeminism

2.6. Rejecting Anthropocentricity and Heading towards Ecofeminism

Bibliography

 

PART II. CHILDREN’S LITERATURE AS VEHICLE FOR ECOFEMINISM

 

Chapter III. Beatrix Potter – An Ecofeminist Ahead of Her Time

3.1. Beatrix Potter: “a Woman who Escaped the Prison with the Help of a Rabbit” – a Repressed Woman in a Restrictive Culture

3.2. An Ecofeminist Reading to The Tale of Jemima the Puddle-Duck

3.3. The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse – Ecopoetry in Action

3.4. A Multimodal Analysis of The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse and The Tale of Jemima Puddle-duck

3.5. Conclusions

Bibliography

 

Chapter IV. Eco-poetics in Romania as a Form of Dissent under the Communist Regime

4.1. A Short History of the Totalitarian Communist Regime

4.2. Ana Blandiana – a Fierce Representative of Resistance Literature in Romania

4.3. Ana Blandiana’s Children’s Literature – a Protest against Communist Reality

4.4.a. Gendered Objectification of Plants/Animals

4.4.b. Arpagic – The Critique of the Cult of Personality

4.4.c. Arpagic’s Poems – Possible Ecopoetry?

4.5. Conclusions

Bibliography

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cătălina Bălinișteanu-Furdu

A Topography Plagued by

Marginality in Victorian Novels

Konstanz 2022; 214 pages, € 39,80.

ISBN 978-3-86628-760-0

 

Cătălina Bălinișteanu-Furdu

Das problematische Weib in

Heinrich Manns Frühwerk

2021. 222 Seiten. € 39,80. ISBN 978-3-86628-733-4

 

 

 

 

Buchtitel und Reihen zum Thema Germanistik und ihr Umfeld

 

 

Hartung-Gorre Verlag

D-78465  Konstanz/Germany

Telefon: +49 (0) 7533 97227

Telefax: +49 (0) 7533 97228

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http://www.hartung-gorre.de