Description
Book SynopsisEcocriticism 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 vernacular 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,
Trade ReviewThis timely volume provides a clue to understanding the outpourings of environmentalism.... With the landmark publication of this volume, the study of Taiwan’s environmental literature and arts has emerged as a legitimate research field. * The International Journal of Asian Studies *
Ecocriticism in Taiwan is a remarkable collection of fifteen essays that expertly introduce and rigorously analyze the longstanding commitment of Taiwanese artists, academics, and activists to confronting local and global ecological challenges. Captivating sections on the alternative strategies exhibited by Taiwan’s aboriginal societies, creative activism and environmental movements, and avant-garde art and posthumanist ecoasethetics draw long overdue attention to Taiwan’s cosmopolitan vernacularism and contribute significantly to promoting a transnational environmental consciousness. -- Karen Thornber, Harvard University
In the 1990s, Taiwan embraced, nurtured, and globally networked the field of ecocriticism. In this long-awaited volume, Chang and Slovic bring the island’s most renowned ecocritical leaders together with fast-rising scholars to illustrate Taiwan’s significant and continuing contribution to the field. Among the thought-provoking topics and vexing issues discussed are Han Chinese poetry, Taiwanese aboriginal cultures and arts, women’s nature writing, food, deforestation, and documentary film. Readers will discover why Taiwan is rightly recognized as one of the intellectual epicenters of ecocriticism. -- Joni Adamson, Professor, Environmental Humanities, Arizona State University, and co-editor, Keywords for Environmental Studies
Taiwan has long been a powerhouse of global ecocriticism, but the full depth and breadth of scholarly work on the island has never been available to Anglophone critics - until now. The editors’ term ‘cosmopolitan vernacular ecocriticism’ encapsulates the impressive range of relationships to place, land, nation, and planet articulated in this wonderfully illuminating collection. -- Greg Garrard, University of British Columbia Okanagan
Table of ContentsIntroduction - Chia-ju Chang and Scott Slovic Section One: Island Identities, Eco-postcolonial Historiography, and Alter(native) Strategies 1.Going Back into a Future of Simplicity: Taiwan Aborigines’ Sustainable Utilization of Natural resources - Ming-tu Yang 2.(W)ri(gh)ting Climate Change in Neqou Soqluman’s Work - Hsinya Huang 3.Taiwanese Mountain and River Literature from a Postcolonial Perspective - Peter I-min Huang 4.Taiwan Is A Whale: The Emerging Oneness of Dark Blue and Human Identity in Chia-Hsiang Wang’s Historical Fiction - Shu-fen Tsai 5.Agrarian Origin Stories, National Imaginaries, and the Ironies of Modern Environmentalism: On Chi-Po Lin’s Beyond Beauty: Taiwan from Above - Hannes Bergthaller Section Two: Slow Violence, Creative Activism, and Environmental Movements 6.Toxic Objects, Slow Violence, and the Ethics of Trans-Corporeality in Chi Wen-Chang’s The Poisoned Sky - Robin Chen-hsing Tsai 7.Imagining 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 Juan 8.If Nature Had a Voice: A Material-Oriented Environmental Reading of The Man with the Compound Eyes - Kathryn Yalan Chang 9.Imagining Catastrophe: Nuclear Issues in postwar Taiwan Literature - Hueichu Chu 10.Pre-texts for Tree-texts, W.S. Merwin and the Trees of Taiwan - Iris Ralph 11.Revisiting Resistance: Urban Foraging, Public Markets, and New Organic Landscape - Serena Shiuhhuah Chou Section Three: Animal Fiction, Avant-garde Art, and Posthumanist Ecoaesthetics 12.What’s in a Plant?: The Transcorporeality in Yucca Invest Trading Plant - Iping Liang 13.Becoming-Animal: Liu Kexiang’s Writing Apprenticeship On Birds - Yu-lin Lee 14.Aesthetic Configurations and Qualia in Environmental Consciousness in Contemporary Taiwanese Poetry and Installation Art - Dean Anthony Brink 15.Utopia in Theatre: Mulian Rescues Mother Earth - Joy Shih-yi Huang
