Description
Book SynopsisPortuguese Literature and the Environment explores the relationship between Portuguese literature and the environment from Medieval times to the present. From the centrality of nature in Medieval poetry, through the bucolic verse of the Renaissance, all the way to the Romantic and post-Romantic nostalgia for a pristine natural or rural landscape under threat in the wake of industrialization, Portuguese literature has frequently reflected on the connection between humans and the natural world. More recently, the postcolonial turn in contemporary literature has highlighted the contrast between the environment of the former colonies and that of Portugal.Contributors to the collection examine how Portuguese writers engage with the environment and have incorporated nature in their texts not only to prompt social, political or philosophical reflections on human society, but also as a way to learn from non-humans.The book is organized into three sections. The first explores the relationship b
Trade ReviewAn invitation to read anew many of the works that make up the canon of Portuguese literature, Portuguese Literature and the Environment represents the first concerted attempt to call attention to the ways in which literary representations create as much as are created by the natural environment in the horizon of which they emerge. Framed by brilliant philosophical and historical overviews of the state of the matter in present day Portugal, the ecocriticism that follows urges the question of how the local environment might have had global impact across the ages. -- Ana Paula Ferreira, University of Minnesota
A tour de force, this volume brings together reflections that span centuries and a marvelous range of materials. The critical approaches are as rich and varied as the literatures and environments that they engage. This is a timely and often brilliant book, and it should appeal to readers far and wide. -- Bruno Carvalho, Harvard University
Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1. A Portuguese Approach to the Environmental Crisis Chapter 2. Environment, Nature and Landscape: Conceptual Affinities and Distinctions in the Portuguese Context Chapter 3. Inter-, Multi- and Trans-Disciplinarity: New Horizons for Portuguese Environmental History Chapter 4. Elemental Portugal Chapter 5. “Songs of Stance” Chapter 6. Portuguese Environmental Perceptions of Brazil in the Sixteenth Century Chapter 7. Nature’s Literary Lessons: Júlio Dinis on Literature and the Environment Chapter 8. “On Borrowed ‘Women’s Time’: Ecological Female Bodies and the Re-Engendering of Nature in Eça de Queirós’s A Cidade e as Serras” Chapter 9. Hunters of Empire: João Teixeira de Vasconcelos’s Colonial Memoirs of African Hunting Chapter 10. Environmentalizing Fernando Pessoa's Modernism Chapter 11. The Posthuman Poetry of Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen Chapter 12. The Environment and José Saramago’s Literary Program in Journey to Portugal. In Pursuit of Portugal’s History and Culture
