Description
Book SynopsisThis book offers a timely exploration of the rapidly growing field of ecocriticism and gives prominence to the writers, creators, theorists, traditions, concerns, and landscapes of Southeast Asia. The contributors emphasize the transnational flows between Southeast Asian countries and Australia, England, Taiwan (Formosa), and the United States.
Trade ReviewThis edited collection of essays is a crucial and exciting contribution to ecocritical scholarship for many reasons.... Certainly, this timely and important anthology facilitates critical debates around Southeast Asian environmental issues and highlights the creative and innovative work of both mainstream and minority writers and thinkers who might otherwise remain largely unknown to the rest of the world. While ecocritics lament the lacuna in Southeast Asia where world ecocritical studies is concerned, especially with the prominence of studies on Indian and East Asian literatures, this book successfully addresses and fills that gap, hence fulfilling one of Ryan’s primary goals..... The other contributions in the book encompass a wide scope of topics, tropes and genres, ranging from forests and rivers to travelogues and children or young adult literature, adding grist to the mill. This, along with the meticulous insertion of cross-references between chapters in the interest of coherence, adds to the book’s many merits. All in all, this considered and insightful book is a landmark in ecocriticism and will doubtless draw critical attention to the environmental realities of Southeast Asia. * SARE: Southeast Asian Review of English *
Southeast Asian Ecocriticism: Theories, Practices, Prospects is a welcome new addition to ecocritical (environmental criticism) scholarship, which has become a booming field but remains stubbornly focused on Western-language materials. Southeast Asia has been almost entirely neglected in the field, making this volume truly valuable. -- Karen Thornber, Harvard University
Table of ContentsChapter 1 An Introduction to Southeast Asian Ecocriticism John Charles Ryan Chapter 2 Ecocriticism, Hermeneutics, and the Vanishing Elephants of Thailand Ignasi Ribó Chapter 3 Filipino Ecological Imagination: Typhoon Yolanda, Climate Change, and Imperialism in Philippine Poetry and Prose Jeffrey Santa Ana Chapter 4 Imaging Indigenous Relationships With Nature: The Case of Igorot Music Videos Jason Paolo R. Telles Chapter 5 Terror, Narrative, and Ecology in Merlinda Bobis’s Novel Fish-Hair Woman Chitra Sankaran Chapter 6 Environmental Consciousness in the Ecopoetry of Angkarn Chanthatip: A Reading of “Sieng Sontana Jaak Panang Tham” from Hua Jai Hong Tee Ha (The Fifth Chamber of the Heart) Chaiyon Tongsukkaeng Chapter 7 Sense of Place and Nostalgia for Homeland in Rewat Phanphiphat’s Poetry Thanya Sangkhaphanthanon Chapter 8 From Padauk to Hyacinth: Literary Botany, the Agency of Plants, and the Contemporary Poetry of Myanmar John Charles Ryan Chapter 9 Listening to Nature, Rethinking the Past: A Reading of the Representations of Forests and Rivers in Post-war Vietnamese Narratives Tran Ngoc Hieu and Dang Thi Thai Ha Chapter 10 Sowing Seeds: Phytocriticism and the Botanical Dimensions of Indonesian Literature for Children and Young Adults Richard Li and John Charles Ryan Chapter 11 Transnational Paradigm: Teaching Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony in Thailand Wasinrat Nualsiri Chapter 12 Economics, Ecology, and Desire: Delineations of Formosa and Neighboring Southeast Asian Countries in Three Nineteenth-Century Travelers’ Natural Histories Li-Ru Lu Epilogue Ziggy Stardust and the Irrawaddy Dolphin: Prospects for a Transboundary Ecocriticism in Southeast Asia John Charles Ryan
