Ecocriticism and the Future of Southern Studies

Zackary Vernon (Edited by), Scott Romine (Series edited by), Robert Azzarello (Contributions by), Delia Byrnes (Contributions by), Lisa Hinrichsen (Contributions by), Sam Horrocks (Contributions by), Evangelia Kindinger (Contributions by), Christopher Lloyd (Contributions by), Sarah E. McFarland (Contributions by), John Moran (Contributions by), Joshua Myers (Contributions by), Scott Obernesser (Contributions by), Lucas Sheaffer (Contributions by), Jimmy Dean Smith (Contributions by), Daniel Spoth (Contributions by), Joseph Thompson (Contributions by), Ila Tyagi (Contributions by), Jonathan Villalobos (Contributions by), Jay Watson (Afterword by)

9780807171134

Hardback, published 14 August 2019

304 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.9 cm, 0.612 kg

As the planet faces ever-worsening disruptions to global ecosystems, carbon and chemical emissions, depletions of the ozone layer, the loss of biodiversity, rising sea levels, air toxification, and worsening floods and droughts, scholars across academia must examine the cultural effects of this increasingly postnatural world. That task proves especially vital for southern studies, given how often the U.S. South serves as a site for large-scale damming initiatives like the TVA, disasters on the scale of Hurricane Katrina and the Deepwater Horizon spill, and the extraction of coal, oil, and natural gas.

Ecocriticism and the Future of Southern Studies is the first book-length collection of scholarship that applies interdisciplinary environmental humanities research to cultural analyses of the U.S. South. Sixteen essays examine novels, nature writing, films, television, and music that address a broad range of ecological topics related to the region, including climate change, manmade and natural environments, the petroleum industry, food cultures, waterways, natural and human-induced disasters, waste management, and the Anthropocene. Edited by Zackary Vernon, this volume demonstrates how the greening of southern studies, in tandem with the southernization of environmental studies, can catalyze alternative ways of understanding the connections between regional and global cultures and landscapes.

By addressing ecological issues central to life throughout the South, Ecocriticism and the Future of Southern Studies considers the confluence between region and environment, while also illustrating the growing need to see environmental issues as matters of social justice.