Greenwor(l)ds : ecocritical readings of poetry by Canadian women
Relke (women's and gender studies, U. of Saskatchewan) divides her book into what she calls three chronological "moments in feminist ecocritical consciousness": poetic, ecological, and ecocritical. Essays included under poetic consciousness are preoccupied with woman's search for subjectivity in a literary universe that can't accommodate women poets of nature, examining, for example, Atwood's Journals of Susanna Moodie. To ecological consciousness, Relke assigns essays examining how Dorothy Livesay, Isabella Valancy Crawford and Daphne Marlatt understand the metaphor, woman = nature, and how they use it to address green concerns. Lastly, essays under ecocritical consciousness focus on the critical act itself and on the masculine construction of Canadian literary history. The book's constant theme, writes Relke, "concerns the struggle by women poets to make the best of a bad idea--namely, patriarchy." Canadian card order number: C99-910815-8. Distribute by Raincoast Distribution Services. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Criticism, interpretation, etc
363 pages ; 23 cm
9781552380178, 9780585249681, 1552380173, 0585249687
1061872312
PrefaceIntroduction: A Literary History of Nature1. A Poetic ConsciousnessDouble Voice, Single Vision: Ecopoetic Subjectivity and Margaret Atwood's The Journals of Susanna MoodieMother Nature, Daughter Culture: Marjorie PIckthall's Quest for Poetic IdentityNoble and Ignoble Savagery: Patriarchy and Primitivism in the Poetry of Constance Lindsay Skinner2. Ecological ConsiousnessThe Task of Poetic Meditation: Revisiting Dorothy Livesay's Early PoetryThe Ecological Vision of Isabella Valency Crawford: A Reading of Malcom's Katie"time is, the delta": Steveston in Historical and Ecological Context3. Ecocritical ConsciousnessFeminist Ecocritique as Forensic Archaeology: Digging in Critical Graveyards and Phyllis Webb's GardenTracing the Terrestrial in the Early Work of P.K. Page: A Feminist Psychoanalytic EcoreadingConfronting the Green Indian: Aboriginal Poetry and Canadian Literary TraditionRecovering the Body, Reclaiming the Land: Marilyn Dumont's Halfbreed PoeticAfterward: Does Nature Matter?EndnotesWorks CitedIndexAbout the Author