Nature: An English Literary Heritage

A journey through texts on, about, or reflecting our experience of the natural world, exploring the diversity of themes grouped under the banner of nature writing and the ways in which English texts influence and are influenced by their continental and North American fellow-artists.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 368 pages
\n Publication date: 28 May 2021
\n Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
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A literary exploration of texts that delve into, contemplate, or reflect upon our experiences of the natural world. What does it entail to examine notions of nature within the rich tapestry of English literature? This volume beckons us to embark on a journey of discovery, exploring a multitude of perspectives on a central theme that has persisted throughout English literature. It prompts us to ponder the very essence of nature itself within this context.

Beginning with the notion of the pathetic fallacy, which asserts that nature not only satisfies our emotional desires and beliefs but also provides us with the necessary sustenance for our existence, the author delves into the diverse range of themes encompassed under the umbrella of nature writing. Some chapters examine the profound distinctions of nature experienced by human beings, encompassing concepts such as time and mortality. Others explore how nature is appropriated in the erotic pastoral lyrics of the Elizabethan sonneteers, how the concept of a natural family underpins the tragedy of King Lear, and how definitions of what is natural are employed to justify dominance over women, animals, and the Earth itself.

Here, a literary heritage of nature is envisioned as a harmonious symphony of voices spanning centuries, where English texts interplay and are influenced by their continental and North American counterparts. The colonial preoccupations of the Elizabethan Sir Walter Ralegh are re-examined in the writings of the American nineteenth-century defender of nature David Henry Thoreau. The meditations of W.G. Sebald on his twentieth-century East Anglian pilgrimage in The Rings of Saturn are bookended by the musings of Sir Thomas Browne, the seventeenth-century Norfolk physician, at the beginning and end. Mary Shelley's innovative genre of science fiction takes a surprising turn in Italo Calvino's Cosmicomics.

In conclusion, this volume invites us to explore the multifaceted dimensions of nature writing, unearthing the rich tapestry of ideas and perspectives that have shaped English literature over the ages. It encourages us to contemplate the profound connections between human beings and the natural world, and to appreciate the enduring significance of nature in our literary heritage.

\n Weight: 760g\n
Dimension: 178 x 248 x 28 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9781843846024\n \n