
Sense of Place and Sense of Planet
The Environmental Imagination of the Global
Ursula K. Heise(Author)
Oxford University Press Inc
Published on 29. September 2008
Book
Hardback
264 pages
978-0-19-533563-7 (ISBN)
Description
Sense of Place and Sense of Planet analyzes the relationship between the imagination of the global and the ethical commitment to the local in environmentalist thought and writing from the 1960s to the present. Part One critically examines the emphasis on local identities and communities in North American environmentalism by establishing conceptual connections between environmentalism and ecocriticism, on one hand, and theories of globalization, transnationalism and cosmopolitanism, on the other. It proposes the concept of "eco-cosmopolitanism" as a shorthand for envisioning these connections and the cultural and aesthetic forms into which they translate. Part Two focuses on conceptualizations of environmental danger and connects environmentalist and ecocritical thought with the interdisciplinary field of risk theory in the social sciences, arguing that environmental justice theory and ecocriticism stand to benefit from closer consideration of the theories of cosmopolitanism that have arisen in this field from the analysis of transnational communities at risk.Both parts of the book combine in-depth theoretical discussion with detailed analyses of novels, poems, films, computer software and installation artworks from the US and abroad that translate new connections between global, national and local forms of awareness into innovative aesthetic forms combining allegory, epic, and views of the planet as a whole with modernist and postmodernist strategies of fragmentation, montage, collage, and zooming.
Reviews / Votes
As Heise argues, ecocriticism very much needs to embrace, explore and test the representation of the global, and to do so without merely reproducing the green cliche that everything is connected. Specific connections need identifying: the ones that matter. This important book makes a superb beginning. Richard Kerridge, Times Higher Education SupplementMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Illustrations
4 halftones
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Weight
10 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-533563-7 (9780195335637)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
10/2008
Oxford University Press Inc
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E-Book
09/2008
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€21.99
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E-Book
09/2008
1st Edition
OUP eBook
€21.99
Available for download
Content
Introduction; PART 1: WORLD-WIDE WEBS: IMAGINING THE PLANET; 1. From the Blue Planet to Google Earth: Environmentalism, Ecocriticism, and the Imagination of the Global; 2. Among the Everywheres: Global Crowds and the Networked Planet; 3. Adventures in the Global Amazon; PART 2: PLANET AT RISK; 4. Narrative in the World Risk Society; 5. Toxic Bodies, Corporate Poisons: Local Risks and Global Systems; 6. Afterglow: Chernobyl and the Everyday; Conclusion: Some Like It Hot: Climate Change and Eco-Cosmopolitanism; Notes; Works Cited