Ecocriticism in Taiwan (eBook)

Identity, Environment, and the Arts

Chia-ju Chang, Scott Slovic (Herausgeber)

eBook Download: EPUB

2016
238 Seiten
Lexington Books (Verlag)
978-1-4985-3828-2 (ISBN)

Infos

Despite the vibrant development of the field of ecocriticism on the island of Taiwan, there has, as yet, been no single volume in English dedicated to illustrating Taiwan’s important contributions to international ecocriticism, especially the emerging “vernacular” trend in the field that emphasizes the significance of local perspectives and styles, including non-western, aboriginal, and comparative approaches. Ecocriticism in Taiwan provides a model for a more nuanced version of the locale-specific, vernacular thinking about the environment, art, and human identity.

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Ecocriticism is a mode of interdisciplinary critical inquiry into the relationship between cultural production, society, and the environment. The field advocates for the more-than-human realm as well as for underprivileged human and non-human groups and their perspectives. Taiwan is one of the earliest centers for promoting ecocriticism outside the West and has continued to play a central role in shaping ecocriticism in East Asia. This is the first English anthology dedicated to the vibrant development of ecocriticism in Taiwan. It provides a window to Taiwan's important contributions to international ecocriticism, especially an emerging "e;vernacular"e; trend in the field emphasizing the significance of local perspectives and styles, including non-western vocabularies, aesthetics, cosmologies, and political ideologies. Taiwan's unique history, geographic location, geology, and subtropical climate generate locale-specific, vernacular thinking about island ecology and environmental history, as well as global environmental issues such as climate change, dioxin pollution, species extinction, energy decisions, pollution, and environmental injustice. In hindsight, Taiwan's industrial modernization no longer appears as a success narrative among Asia's "e;Four Little Dragons,"e; but as a cautionary tale revealing the brute force entrepreneurial exploitation of the land and the people. In this light, this volume can be seen as a critical response to Taiwan's postcolonial, capitalist-industrial modernity, as manifested in the scholars' readings of Taiwan's "e;mountain and river,"e; ocean, animal, and aboriginal (non)fictional narratives, environmental documentaries, and art installations. This volume is endowed with a mixture of ecocosmopolitan and indigenous sensitivities. Though dominated by the Han Chinese ethnic group and its Confucian ideology, Taiwan is a place of complicated ethnic identities and affiliations. The succession of changing colonial and political regimes, made even more complex by the island's sixteen aboriginal groups and several diasporic subcultures (South Asian immigrants, Western expatriates, and diverse immigrants from the Chinese mainland), has led to an ongoing quest for political and cultural identity. This complexity urges Taiwan-based ecoscholars to pay attention to the diasporic, comparative, and intercultural dimensions of local specificity, either based on their own diasporic experience or the cosmopolitan features of the Taiwanese texts they scrutinize. This cosmopolitan-vernacular dynamic is a key contribution Taiwan has to offer current ecocritical scholarship.

Autor

Chia-ju Chang is associate professor of Chinese at Brooklyn College, The City University of New York.Scott Slovic is professor of literature and environment and chair of the English Department at the University of Idaho.

Inhalt

Introduction - Chia-ju Chang and Scott SlovicSection One: Island Identities, Eco-postcolonial Historiography, and Alter(native) StrategiesGoing Back into a Future of Simplicity: Taiwan Aborigines’ Sustainable Utilization of Natural resources - Ming-tu Yang(W)ri(gh)ting Climate Change in Neqou Soqluman’s Work - Hsinya HuangTaiwanese Mountain and River Literature from a Postcolonial Perspective - Peter I-min HuangTaiwan Is A Whale: The Emerging Oneness of Dark Blue and Human Identity in Chia-Hsiang Wang’s Historical Fiction - Shu-fen TsaiAgrarian Origin Stories, National Imaginaries, and the Ironies of Modern Environmentalism: On Chi-Po Lin’s Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above - Hannes BergthallerSection Two: Slow Violence, Creative Activism, and Environmental MovementsToxic Objects, Slow Violence, and the Ethics of Trans-Corporeality in Chi Wen-Chang’s The Poisoned Sky - Robin Chen-hsing TsaiImagining the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and Spectacles of Environmental Disaster: Environmental Entanglement and Literary Engagement in Wu Ming-Yi’s The Man with the Compound Eyes - Rose Hsui-li JuanIf Nature Had a Voice: A Material-Oriented Environmental Reading of The Man with the Compound Eyes - Kathryn Yalan ChangImagining Catastrophe: Nuclear Issues in postwar Taiwan Literature - Hueichu ChuPre-texts for Tree-texts, W.S. Merwin and the Trees of Taiwan - Iris RalphRevisiting Resistance: Urban Foraging, Public Markets, and New Organic Landscape - Serena Shiuhhuah ChouSection Three: Animal Fiction, Avant-garde Art, and Posthumanist EcoaestheticsWhat’s in a Plant?: The Transcorporeality in Yucca Invest Trading Plant - Iping LiangBecoming-Animal: Liu Kexiang’s Writing Apprenticeship On Birds - Yu-lin LeeAesthetic Configurations and Qualia in Environmental Consciousness in Contemporary Taiwanese Poetry and Installation Art - Dean Anthony BrinkUtopia in Theatre: Mulian Rescues Mother Earth - Joy Shih-yi Huang

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.6.2016
• Reihe/Serie: Ecocritical Theory and Practice
• Co-Autor: Hannes Berthaller, Iping Liang, Iris Ralph, Robin Chen-hsing Tsai, Shu-fen Tsai, Ming-tu Yang, Dean Anthony Brink, Kathryn Yalan Chang, Shiuhhuah Serena Chou, Hueichu Chu, Hsinya Huang, Peter I-min Huang, Rose Hsui-li Juan, Yu-lin Lee
• Zusatzinfo: 10 Illustrations including: - 10 Halftones, Black & White including Black & White Photographs.
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Essays / Feuilleton
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Anglistik / Amerikanistik
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Sprach- / Literaturwissenschaft ► Literaturwissenschaft
• Themenwelt: Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Ökologie / Naturschutz
• Themenwelt: Technik ► Umwelttechnik / Biotechnologie
• Schlagworte: Chinese ecocriticism • East Asian ecocriticism • Ecocriticism • Environmental activism • Environmental Humanities • Environmental writing • Envitronmental activism • Slow violence • Taiwan • Taiwanese aborigines • Taiwanese ecocriticism
• ISBN-10: 1-4985-3828-2 / 1498538282
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4985-3828-2 / 9781498538282