Georgic Literature and the Environment: Working Land, Reworking Genre (Routledge Environmental Literature, Culture and Media)

This expansive edited collection explores in depth the georgic genre and its connections to the natural world. Together, its chapters demonstrate that georgic—a genre based primarily on two classical poems about farming, Virgil’s __Georgics__ and Hesiod’s __Works and Days__—has been reworked by writers throughout modern and early modern English-language literary history as a way of thinking about humans’ relationships with the environment. The book is divided into three sections: Defining Georgic, Managing Nature and Eco-Georgic for the Anthropocene. It centres the georgic genre in the ecocritical conversation, giving it equal prominence with pastoral, elegy and lyric as an example of ‘nature writing’ that can speak to urgent environmental questions throughout literary history and up to the present day. It provides an overview of the myriad ways georgic has been reworked in order to address human relationships with the environment, through focused case studies on individual texts and authors, including James Grainger, William Wordsworth, Henry David Thoreau, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Seamus Heaney, Judith Wright and Rachel Blau DuPlessis. This is a much-needed volume for literary critics, academics and students engaged in ecocritical studies, environmental humanities and literature, addressing a significantly overlooked environmental literary genre. Cover Endorsement Half Title Series Information Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of Contributors Foreword Acknowledgements Introduction Works Cited Part I Defining Georgic 1 What Is Georgic’s Relation to Pastoral? Works Cited 2 How Is Walden Georgic? Works Cited 3 Middlemarch and the Georgic Novel Works Cited Part II Managing Nature 4 Agrilogistics and Pest Control in Early Modern Georgic Weaponising Virgil: Epic Georgic and Inter-Species Warfare Pest Control and Agrarian Magic: Rhyming Rats to Death Notes Works Cited 5 James Grainger’s The Sugar-Cane and Naturalists’ Georgic James Grainger, The Sugar-Cane, and Natural History The Sugar-Cane as a Naturalist’s Georgic Naturalists’ Georgic Beyond The Sugar-Cane Works Cited 6 Rural Frances Burney Frances (Fanny) Burney: Urban Burney Mme D’Arblay (Frances Burney D’Arblay): Rural Burney Works Cited 7 Wordsworth’s Tidal Georgic Note Works Cited 8 Wordsworth’s ‘Michael’ and the Imperilled Georgic: Questions of Agricultural Permanence Georgic Storytelling: Wordsworth’s Exigence and Technique Labouring Honourably: Seeing Michael Clearly Conclusion Works Cited 9 Georgic Culture in Thomas Hardy’s The Return of the Native: Participant Observation The Return of the Native The Philosopher as Labourer Pastoral and Georgic Hardy’s Georgic Culture Works Cited Part III Eco-Georgic for the Anthropocene 10 Georgic Hope in Robert Bloomfield and John Clare Robert Bloomfield’s Stewardship John Clare and Playful Employment Works Cited 11 Seamus Heaney’s Elegiac and Domestic Georgics Elegiac Georgics Domestic Georgics Acknowledgements Works Cited 12 The Semi-Georgic Australian Sugarcane Novel McKie Devanny Naish Conclusion Acknowledgements Works Cited 13 Judith Wright and Virgil’s Third Georgic Horses Dogs Snakes Plague Conclusions Works Cited 14 Derek Jarman’s Gay Georgic Three Kinds of ‘No Future’ The Garden Modern Nature The Garden at Prospect Cottage Acknowledgements Note Works Cited 15 Georgic Reversals in Rachel Blau DuPlessis’ Days and Works Days and Dailiness Works, What Works? Fabular Detournement Acknowledgements Works Cited Afterword Work Cited Index "This expansive edited collection explores in depth the georgic genre and its connections to the natural world. Together its chapters demonstrate that georgic - a genre based primarily on two classical poems about farming, Virgil's Georgics and Hesiod's Works and Days - has been reworked by writers throughout modern and early modern English-language literary history as a way of thinking about humans' relationships with the environment. The book is divided into three sections: Defining Georgic, Managing Nature and Eco-Georgic for the Anthropocene. It centres the georgic genre in the ecocritical conversation, giving it equal prominence with pastoral, elegy, and lyric as an example of 'nature writing' that can speak to urgent environmental questions throughout literary history and up to the present day. It provides an overview of the myriad ways georgic has been reworked in order to address human relationships with the environment, through focused case studies on individual texts and authors, including James Grainger, William Wordsworth, Henry David Thoreau, George Eliot, Thomas Hardy, Seamus Heaney, Judith Wright and Rachel Blau DuPlessis. This is a much-needed volume for literary critics, academics and students engaged in ecocritical studies, environmental humanities and literature, addressing a significantly overlooked environmental literary genre"-- Provided by publisher