Reimagining Urban Nature: Literary Imaginaries for Posthuman Cities (English Association Monographs: English at the Interface, 10)

An Open Access edition of this book is available on the Liverpool University Press website and through Knowledge Unlatched. Reimagining Urban Nature questions some of the underlying imaginaries which have for so long allowed us humans to develop technologically at great cost to the more-than-human world and ourselves. In urban places, cultural and more-than-human entities are in frequent contact; however, the non-human is often seen as expendable in these human-centric places. While much important work has been done on improving care for the more rural and wild areas of the globe, to really address environmental damage we must work towards reimagining the city. These are places where the majority of people live and work, and where the majority of decisions are made about the care and protection of many environments within and beyond the city. This book contributes to the still under-developed field of urban ecocriticism by adding a posthumanist perspective, as well as expanding current discussions within urban studies and environmental activism that seek to shift political and cultural imaginaries of urban nature. Importantly, this investigation is grounded in the Australian (and more broadly, the Australasian) context to allow for the analysis of a more diverse set of voices, texts and ecologies in an area still dominated by the northern hemisphere and the Global North. Cover Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Introduction: Towards a posthuman urban ecocriticism Urban ecocriticism Urban ecologies Posthumanism New materialism The posthuman city Critical-creative methods Overview of the book 1 The language of urban nature Urban companions: Nature as other Urban companions: Nature as self Narratives for urban nature Place and space Terroir Country The Anthropocene 2 Writers who venture: Posthuman methodologies Embodied writing practices Ecophenomenology Reader empathy and econarratology Place-based writing research Towards a critical posthumanist writing practice 3 Private entanglements: Houses and gardens Houses, gardens, and narrative Inscribed gardens Gardens of resistance The more-than-human gardener The posthuman garden 4 Bodies of water Urban waters Thinking with water in the posthuman city Water and creation The future of waters and cities 3 Private entanglements: Houses and gardens The ideal city refigured The city garden refigured The flâneur refigured The city as more-than-human Conclusion: Recipro-city Posthuman research-creation Reading the city Writing as reciprocity The posthuman city to come References Index