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Chapter 20 - Risk

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 August 2021

Jeffrey Cohen
Affiliation:
Arizona State University
Stephanie Foote
Affiliation:
West Virginia University
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Summary

The chapter begins with a brief genealogy of new materialism and inquiry into the significance of the nonhuman stories entangled in the ethical, political, scientific, and theoretical complexities of the Anthropocene. It first explains the convergence of the new materialism(s) and environmental humanities on ecologically engaged collaborative thinking in responding to bioethical, socio-cultural, and scientific questions that arise from the challenges of Anthropocene. It then discusses how new materialism has espoused the postmodern and poststructuralist disclosure of the link between the dualistic conceptions of the world and the traditional realist systems of representation. The broad argument is that the significance of the agentic capacity of matter in producing layers of expressivity has undermined the established credo about storytelling being uniquely all too human. The “nonhuman story” is argued to mark an important shift in the foundational notions of narrative and storytelling. Material ecocriticism re-envisions narrative as the signifying agency of living matter or narrative agency. Material ecocriticism sees the world as a site of narrativity where narrative agencies – the building blocks of storied matter – demonstrate some degree of creative experience.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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References

Further Reading

Deming, Alison Hawthorne, Zoologies, Milkweed Editions (2014).Google Scholar
Dungy, Camille, Trophic Cascade, Wesleyan University Press (2017).Google Scholar
Ehrlich, Gretel, This Cold Heaven, Pantheon (2001).Google Scholar
Gay, Ross, Catalog of Gratitude, University of Pittsburgh Press (2015).Google Scholar
Leach, Amy, Why Things Are, Milkweed Editions (2014).Google Scholar
Peters, Clinton Crocket, Pandora’s Garden: Cockroaches, Kudzu and Other Misfits of Ecology, University of Georgia Press (2018).Google Scholar
Sze, Arthur, Sight Lines, Copper Canyon Press (2019).Google Scholar
Walker, Nicole, Sustainability: A Love Story, The Ohio State University Press (2018).Google Scholar

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  • Risk
  • Edited by Jeffrey Cohen, Arizona State University, Stephanie Foote, West Virginia University
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Environmental Humanities
  • Online publication: 12 August 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009039369.021
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  • Risk
  • Edited by Jeffrey Cohen, Arizona State University, Stephanie Foote, West Virginia University
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Environmental Humanities
  • Online publication: 12 August 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009039369.021
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Risk
  • Edited by Jeffrey Cohen, Arizona State University, Stephanie Foote, West Virginia University
  • Book: The Cambridge Companion to Environmental Humanities
  • Online publication: 12 August 2021
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009039369.021
Available formats
×