Ecogothic in Nineteenth-Century American Literature (Routledge Studies in World Literatures and the Environment)

First Published in 2017. The first of its kind to address the ecogothic in American literature, this collection of fourteen articles illuminates a new and provocative literacy category, one that exists at the crossroads of the gothic and the environmental imagination, of fear and the ecosystems we inhabit. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Contents 6 Introduction: Approaches to the Ecogothic 8 1 “Perverse Nature”: Anxieties of Animality and Environment in Charles Brockden Brown’s Edgar Huntly 28 2 “A Heap of Ruins”: The Horrors of Deforestation in Leonora Sansay’s Secret History 44 3 “The Earth Was Groaning and Shaking”: Landscapes of Slavery in The History of Mary Prince 58 4 “Give me my skin”: William J. Snelling’s “A Night in the Woods” (1836) and the Gothic Accusation Against Buffalo Extinction 72 5 Failures to Signify: Poe’s Uncanny Animal Others 90 6 Gothic Materialisms: Experimenting with Fire and Water in Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales of (Im)mortality 103 7 “The Birth-Mark,” “Rappaccini’s Daughter,” and the Ecogothic 121 8 Ghoulish Hinterlands: Ecogothic Confrontations in American Slave Narratives 141 9 Bleeding Feet and Failing Knees: The Ecogothic in Uncle Tom’s Cabin and Chasing Ice 154 10 Vegetal Haunting: The Gothic Plant in Nineteenth-Century American Fiction 168 11 Ecogothic Extinction Fiction: The Extermination of the Alaskan Mammoth 182 12 Hyperobjects and the End of the World: Elemental Antagonists of American Naturalism 198 13 “Two Distinct Worlds”? Maintaining and Transgressing the Boundaries of the Hum Animal in Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon 213 Notes on Contributors 228 Index 232 Table of Contents:0Introduction : Approaches to the Ecogothic01. "Perverse Nature" : Anxieties of Animality and Environment in Charles Brockden Brown?s02. "A Heap of Ruins" : The Horrors of Deforestation in Leonora Sansay?s Secret History03. "The Earth was Groaning and Shaking" : Landscapes of Slavery in The History of Mary Prince04. "Give me my skin" : William J. Snelling?s "A Night in the Woods" (1836) and the Gothic05. Failures to Signify : Poe?s Uncanny Animal Others06. Gothic Materialisms : Experimenting with Fire and Water in Edgar Allan Poe?s Tales of07. "The Birth-Mark," "Rappaccini?s Daughter," and the Ecogothic08. Ghoulish Hinterlands : Ecogothic Confrontations in American Slave Narratives09. Bleeding Feet and Failing Knees : The Ecogothic in Uncle Tom?s Cabin and Chasing Ice010. Vegetal Haunting : The Gothic Plant in Nineteenth-Century American Fiction011. Ecogothic Extinction Fiction : The Extermination of the Alaskan Mammoth012. Hyperobjects and the End of the World : Elemental Antagonists of American Naturalism013. "Two Distinct Worlds"? Maintaining and Transgressing Boundaries of the HumAnimal in