Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: June 24, 2021 at 11:29:44 AM EDT > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-Environment]: McKay on Cohen and Duckert, 'Veer > Ecology: A Companion for Environmental Thinking' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Lowell Duckert, eds. Veer Ecology: A Companion > for Environmental Thinking. Minneapolis University of Minnesota > Press, 2017. 536 pp. (paper), ISBN 978-1-5179-0077-9. > > Reviewed by Micah McKay (University of Alabama) > Published on H-Environment (June, 2021) > Commissioned by Daniella McCahey > > One of the most valuable things that literary and cultural studies > have to offer the environmental humanities is a rich, critical > perspective on the role of language in shaping the way humans > interact with the more-than-human world. We necessarily use language > to describe the world and our place in it and to advocate for kinder, > less destructive ways of inhabiting the planet. The essays collected > in Jeffrey Jerome Cohen and Lowell Duckert's Veer Ecology: A > Companion for Environmental Thinking compel readers to consider the > power of language as a tool for both thinking and acting in the > Anthropocene. > > _Veer Ecology_ is the third book in a series of collections edited by > Cohen (Duckert co-edited the second and third books) and published by > the University of Minnesota Press that approach environmental themes > from creative, intellectually generative angles. While _Prismatic > Ecology: Ecotheory Beyond Green_ (2013) and _Elemental Ecocriticism: > Thinking with Earth, Air, Water, and Fire_ (2015) gather essays that > use the full spectrum of colors and the classical elements, > respectively, to invigorate ecotheory, _Veer Ecology_ proposes an > eclectic set of verbs for inciting "possibilities for environmental > thinking, ecological theory, and engaged humanities practice during a > time of widespread crisis," as Cohen and Duckert put it in the > volume's introduction (p. 1). In addition to the co-editors' > introduction, a foreword written by Cheryll Glotfelty, and an > afterword from Nicholas Royle, the book contains twenty-nine essays > centered on verbs that work "against the concretizing tendency of a > research guide or definitive overview" and aim to trace "environment > in motion as an arcing verb, as _veer_" (p. 2). As Glotfelty > indicates in her foreword, the volume's contributors eschew obvious > choices like _recycle_, _conserve_, _garden_, and _restore_ (p. vii). > Instead, they opt for adventurous verbs that turn away from > conventional thinking and veer toward open-ended, polyvalent ways of > thinking about the environment. (Cohen and Duckert, along with > several contributors, note that the etymological root of > _environment_ is the French _virer_, "to turn," and thus at the heart > of the environment is the notion of turning, veering, moving > dynamically, and going off course.) Some of these verbs may seem > counterintuitive at first blush, like Jesse Oak Taylor's choice of > "Globalize." He notes that the notion of globalization is redolent of > precisely the kinds of attitudes that have fueled the > instrumentalization of nature and gotten us into the current > environmental crisis, but his argument for us to globalize turns away > from logistical efficiencies and instead urges us to model "planetary > entanglements on a scale at which they can become present to us, from > within" (p. 42). Daniel C. Remein's essay, "Decorate," provides > another example of a verb that might strike readers as an activity > that is far afield of ecological concerns, but he makes a compelling > case for decoration as an aesthetic mode that emphases overlapping > and crossing over surfaces, postures that chime with a less > anthropocentric view of the world and promote an openness to contact > across epistemological divides. > > Other contributors choose to write about verbs that are more > apparently ecological, but in keeping with the spirit of the > collection, they follow the surprising turns those verbs can take. A > prime example is Catriona Sandilands's essay, "Vegetate," which turns > the typical (anthropocentric) notion of vegetating as being dull or > inactive on its head by attending to the experience of plants, which > "encourage us to imagine a form of living that is not always > predicated on the central assumption of an individual self in > encounter with discrete others" (p. 18). For Sandilands, to vegetate > is to cultivate plant thinking: an ethical and intellectual > engagement with forms of life that sustain us and merit > consideration. In a similar vein, Serpil Oppermann urges us to pay > heed to our ineluctable materiality in her essay, "Compost." For > Oppermann, the "simultaneously terrifying and magical" process of > composting "veers us away from anthropocentricity by transforming > sites of decay into vibrant sites of fecund imagination" (pp. 139, > 137). Recognizing how we are subject to processes of decay cultivates > what Oppermann calls "ecological anagnorisis," a realization of our > earthbound identity and our interdependent planetary existence (p. > 144). > > I could continue to meander through these rich, vibrant essays, > pointing out specific arguments and critical moves, but suffice it to > say that each one is erudite, engaging, and challenging. While the > volume in no way claims to be exhaustive, it seems to me that despite > its richness, its primary limitation is the extent to which the > perspectives presented in the essays are rooted in Anglophone > ecocriticism and environmental humanities. Most of the contributors > work in English departments, and that perspective is largely borne > out in the literary, cultural, geographical, and social references > that anchor the collection's essays. Notable exceptions include the > consideration of the experience and knowledge of indigenous peoples > in essays by Sandilands ("Vegetate"), Coll Thrush ("Haunt"), and > Laura Ogden ("Saturate"), as well as Serenella Iovino's analysis of > the Brazilian writer Clarice Lispector ("Behold"). A broader set of > cultural, geographic, and linguistic perspectives would have improved > what is already a compelling set of essays. > > Such limitations are inevitable, and Cohen and Duckert deserve credit > not only for recognizing this, but also for incorporating the > recognition of the limits of their own work into the book itself. > Tucked between the book's acknowledgements and notes on the > contributors is a single page entitled "Errata" that lists some > sixty-two verbs "for wandering" that are not included in the book (p. > 477). This is more than double the number of essays in the collection > itself, and it signals both the inherent incompleteness of the > project and the way that thinking about the words that open us up to > the environment is an ongoing, open-ended process. That list and the > fantastic book that precedes it are an invitation to readers to > attend to the relationship between contemplation and action. > > Citation: Micah McKay. Review of Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome; Duckert, > Lowell, eds., _Veer Ecology: A Companion for Environmental Thinking_. > H-Environment, H-Net Reviews. June, 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=56127 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#9401): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/9401 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/83763207/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
