Sept 2009 Greg Garrard: Ecocriticism

The next reading group meeting is Monday 21st September, 6.30pm. I’ll put some of the chapters at Spike Reception from Mon 31st August – thought it would be a good idea to each read a different chapter.

Here’s the Amazon link for Ecocriticism

and for interest – The Lure of the Local

and The Language of Landscape

Comments
5 Responses to “Sept 2009 Greg Garrard: Ecocriticism”
  1. meggylou says:
    September 1, 2009 at 6:48 pm

    Greg Garrard is coming along to the next reading group…yay!

    http://www.bathspa.ac.uk/about/profiles/profile.asp?user=academic%5Cgarg1

    Reply
  2. Sovay says:
    September 23, 2009 at 10:26 am

    This was my first attendance of a reading group and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you very much!

    I enjoyed this introduction to ecocriticism, which seems to have many relevances.

    Reply
    • meggylou says:
      September 23, 2009 at 10:37 am

      Thanks Sovay…would be great if you or anyone else wants to write a response to the reading or discussion, or post references. There were so many that came up…will put some up later today.

      Reply
  3. meggylou says:
    September 23, 2009 at 8:06 pm

    As far as the session went, I read Apocalypse and also the chapter ‘Positions’ that traces ideological thinking on the environment from Ecofeminism and ‘Deep Ecology’, Cornucopia and Environmentalism to Eco-Marxism. I felt most affinity with the Social Ecologists (see Murray Bookchin) for whom social systems, institutions, ideas and culture are as much a part of a ‘natural’ system as are the birds and the trees etc. I also liked reading about a questioning of the idea that there is some ideal ecological balance that is irrefutable. What came up a few times was the idea that diverse systems were not necessarily stable ones.
    The book highlighted for me that there is no one monumental environmental crisis, but many crises. And to do anything about any of it, it helps to be able to imagine a future. The discussion was excellent and it was great to hear how Greg had used Bill McKibben’s book, ‘The End of Nature’ (or was it ‘The Age of Missing Information?’) as an inspiration for activities with his students, such as comparing their sense of time perception when spending 20 minutes alone in a park with their phone switched off and 20 mins playing a video game. This ties in with what I have been reading and thinking about around experiential learning and the different experiences that constitute knowledge. It also related to the most interesting and relevant part of the discussion for me, which was talking about the way many of us experience climate change (often mediated through the TV/radio/Internet) as long-term speculative digital simulations. If people do not have direct, long-term, physical experience of one place, what are the ways in which they experience climate change and what inspires people to act?

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