Description
Book SynopsisSince storytelling began, narratives of getting lost in the woods or of choosing to live in the heterotopian space of the woods have remained popular and are, at the time of writing, experiencing a new revival. The theory of ecopsychology supplies a productive paradigm for understanding mental well-being in a cultural landscape suffused with reimaginings of nature as ‘unspoiled wilderness’. The eco-psychopathologies presented in the essays in this volume range in origin from medieval literature to contemporary films and online games. The classic romantic or gothic trope of getting lost in the forest, but also its recreational function (forest-bathing) reflect mental states humans develop when they step into the culturally constructed entity of the woodland. These ecocritical analyses present different facets of such encounters.
Table of ContentsIntroduction ............................................................................................................. 9
Section 1 – Literature
Feargal Ó Béarra
The Arboreal in Buile Shuibhne ............................................................................ 25
Nick Kankahainen
“A Voice! A Voice!”: The Foucauldian Silence of Mr Kurtz .............................. 41
Elena Campero
A Burst of Magic in the Shadows: The Woods’ in Marosa
di Giorgio’s Poetry .................................................................................................. 59
Maureen O’Connor
“Extremely Nervous on This Earth”: Fairy Tales and Madness in Edna
O’Brien’s in the Forest ............................................................................................. 75
Jennifer Coralie
Kindling Gatherers and Lost Children: The Peopled Forests of Kerstin
Ekman ...................................................................................................................... 91
Helen R. Andretta
Scenes of Mad Pursuits in Allegories by Hawthorne and O’Connor ............ 105
June-Ann Greeley
To Wander in the “Shadowed Land”: The Fearsome Enchantment of
Tolkien’s Woods ...................................................................................................... 119
Section 2 – Visual Media
Pat Brereton
Eco-Sustainability, Nature, Gender and Trees: A Case Study of Avatar,
How Harry Became a Tree, and The Tree of Life .................................................. 145
Brenda S. Gardenour Walter
At the Mercy of the Maddening Mother: Gothic and Medieval
Constructions of the Haunted Forest in Modern Horror Films ...................... 165
Emmanuelle Patrice
Eerie Encounters: The Bewitchery of the Dryads in the Film The Woods ...... 181
Michael Fuchs
When the Forest Is Not Quite What It Seems to Be: The Simulacral
Spaces of “Nature” in The Cabin in the Woods .................................................... 199
Fernando Pagnoni Berns
The Woods Are for the Poor (and Also for Monstrous Beings): Forests
as Liminal Spaces in Spanish Films ..................................................................... 219
Melissa Bianchi
Lost in the Woods: Procedurality and the Uncanny in The Legend of
Zelda Series ............................................................................................................. 233
