Description
Book SynopsisThis book, the first to consider Gerard Manley Hopkins as an ecological writer, explores the dimension that social ecology offers to an ecocriticism hitherto dominated by romantic nature writing. The case for a ‘green Hopkins’ is made through a paradigm of ‘Victorian Ecology’ that expands the scope of existing studies in Victorian literature and science. Parham argues that Hopkins developed a two-fold understanding of ecology – as a scientific philosophy constructed around ecosystems theory; and as a corresponding theory of society organised around the sustainable use of energy – as well as a corresponding poetic practice. In a radical new reading of the poems, he suggests that Hopkins translated an innovative nature poetry, in which rhythm conveyed a nature characterised by dialectical energy exchange, into a social ‘ecopoetry’ that embodied the environmental impact of Victorian ‘risk’ society on its human population. Located within a ‘Victorian ecological imagination’ that fused romanticism and pragmatism, the book views Hopkins’ work as indicating the value of reconciling a deep ecological assertion of the intrinsic value of (nonhuman) nature with social ecology’s more pragmatic attempts to critique and re-conceptualise human life.
Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Muddying the Waters: Towards a Humanist Ecocriticism Definitions: preservation, conservation, environmentalism, ecology ‘Deep’ versus ‘social’ ecology Deep ecocriticism Towards a social (and humanist) ecocriticism Outline of the book The Trajectory of a Victorian Ecology Re-thinking romanticism Parameters of a Victorian ecology The transition towards a Victorian ecology John Ruskin William Morris Conclusion Ways of Understanding Nature: Ecology in Hopkins’ Intellectual Formation Hopkins as not a poet of place Hopkins’ intellectual formation: three major influences Beginnings of an ecological philosophy: undergraduate essays The development of an ecological philosophy: journal writing Inscape and instress Duns Scotus and Hopkins’ ecological theology Conclusion Finding a Voice: The Development of a Sustainable Poetry The search for a contemporary style of nature writing The development of a poetic style Sprung rhythm Formation of an ecopoetic Sustainable poetry Hopkins in the Victorian World: From a Social to a Human Ecology Hopkins as a Victorian ecological critic Poems of ecological protest Hopkins, the city, and social ecopoetry Hopkins, the body, and environmental health A humanist ecopoetic Development of, and retraction from, an ecological social philosophy Bewitched by the “Spell of the Sensuous”: A Disenchanted Ecological Imagination The factors undermining an ecological philosophy Theological writing Unsustainable poetry Disenchantment Re-enchantment Bibliography Index
