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Romantic Ecologies and Colonial Cultures in the British Atlantic World, 1770-1850 |
eBook Available
The intersections between ecological history, transatlantic slavery, and the colonization of Native Americans between 1770 and 1850.
Why did Afro-British writer and abolitionist Ignatius Sancho rail against the abuse of domestic animals in the eighteenth-century London marketplace? Why did Samuel Taylor Coleridge attack the institution of slavery by writing a poem about animal rights? Did William Blake's allegorical depiction of American colonialism as an act of sexual and ecological violence make him an early ecofeminist? When nineteenth-century Ojibwa author George Copway invoked Wordsworthian Romanticism and quoted various European Romantic poets in his autobiographical accounts of traditional Indigenous hunting practices and religious beliefs, was he embracing - or rejecting - the still-influential Romantic ideal of the "ecologically noble savage"?
By addressing these and other intriguing questions, Kevin Hutchings highlights significant intersections between Green Romanticism and colonial politics, demonstrating how contemporary understandings of animality, climate, and habitat informed literary and cross-cultural debates about race, slavery, colonialism, and nature in the British Atlantic world. Revealing an innovative dialogue between British, African, and Native American writers of the Romantic period, this book will be of interest to anyone wishing to consider the interconnected histories of transatlantic colonial relations and environmental thought.
By addressing these and other intriguing questions, Kevin Hutchings highlights significant intersections between Green Romanticism and colonial politics, demonstrating how contemporary understandings of animality, climate, and habitat informed literary and cross-cultural debates about race, slavery, colonialism, and nature in the British Atlantic world. Revealing an innovative dialogue between British, African, and Native American writers of the Romantic period, this book will be of interest to anyone wishing to consider the interconnected histories of transatlantic colonial relations and environmental thought.
Details
240 Pages, 6 x 9
ISBN 9780773535794
August 2009
Formats: Cloth, eBook
"This is an ambitious work that successfully attempts nothing less than the synthesis of several strands of literary and cultural analysis that have helped define Romantic studies in the last generation of scholarship (c.1990-present)." Mark Lussier, Arizona State University
"Hutchings makes a valuable contribution towards the theorization of postcolonial ecocriticism, developing a two-pronged approach that is attentive to both materiality and ideology, as well as to their inevitable entanglement, arguing persuasively that ecopoetics cannot be cordoned off from ecopolitics." Kate Rigby, Monash University
"But Romantic Ecologies and Colonial Cultures in the British-Atlantic World would not be the groundbreaking study it is without Hutchings's attention to the complexity of Ojibwa writer George Copway's inconsistent strategy of counter-discourse to those doctrines of segregation and removal. With Romantic Ecologies and Colonial Cultures, Hutchings gestures towards questions about the politics of patronage and publication, particularly with respect to the writings of Native American and African writers of literary romanticism." Vermonja R. Alston, Department of English, York University
"Romantic Ecologies makes a significant contribution to the study of early Canada-particularly, for its attention to indigenous writers and communities." Nicholas Bradley, Canadian Literature
"Hutching's readings of Richardson's play The Indians and Campbell's epic poem Gertrude of Wyoming will prove invaluable for those interested in transatlantic Romanticism. This volume complements Tim Fulford's Romantic Indians (2006) and Wordsworth in American Literary Culture, ed by Joal Pace and Matthew Scott (CH, Oct'05, 43-0814) Summing Up: Highly Recommended." D. A. Robinson, Widener University
"Refusing to separate ecopoetics from ecopolitics, Hutchings's book is notable for its ability to question representations of nature while drawing attention to its materiality. Of particular interest to postcolonial and Romantic scholars, it deserves attention from any ecocritic interested in interconnections between nature and culture, politics and representation, and the two sides of the Atlantic." Erin James, University of Nevada
"Hutchings makes a valuable contribution towards the theorization of postcolonial ecocriticism, developing a two-pronged approach that is attentive to both materiality and ideology, as well as to their inevitable entanglement, arguing persuasively that ecopoetics cannot be cordoned off from ecopolitics." Kate Rigby, Monash University
"But Romantic Ecologies and Colonial Cultures in the British-Atlantic World would not be the groundbreaking study it is without Hutchings's attention to the complexity of Ojibwa writer George Copway's inconsistent strategy of counter-discourse to those doctrines of segregation and removal. With Romantic Ecologies and Colonial Cultures, Hutchings gestures towards questions about the politics of patronage and publication, particularly with respect to the writings of Native American and African writers of literary romanticism." Vermonja R. Alston, Department of English, York University
"Romantic Ecologies makes a significant contribution to the study of early Canada-particularly, for its attention to indigenous writers and communities." Nicholas Bradley, Canadian Literature
"Hutching's readings of Richardson's play The Indians and Campbell's epic poem Gertrude of Wyoming will prove invaluable for those interested in transatlantic Romanticism. This volume complements Tim Fulford's Romantic Indians (2006) and Wordsworth in American Literary Culture, ed by Joal Pace and Matthew Scott (CH, Oct'05, 43-0814) Summing Up: Highly Recommended." D. A. Robinson, Widener University
"Refusing to separate ecopoetics from ecopolitics, Hutchings's book is notable for its ability to question representations of nature while drawing attention to its materiality. Of particular interest to postcolonial and Romantic scholars, it deserves attention from any ecocritic interested in interconnections between nature and culture, politics and representation, and the two sides of the Atlantic." Erin James, University of Nevada
Kevin Hutchings is associate professor of English and Canada Research Chair in Romantic Studies, University of Northern British Columbia.
Romantic Ecologies and Colonial Cultures in the British Atlantic World, 1770-1850
Kevin Hutchings
Table of Contents
ix
Introduction: The Politics and Poetics of Green Romanticism 3
1 Naturalizing Colonial Relations in the British Atlantic World: Slavery as Fact and Figure 33
2 Race and Animality in the British Atlantic World 50
3 Gender, Environment, and Imperialism in William Blake’s Visions of the Daughters of Albion 70
4 Enslaved Brutes and Brutalized Slaves: Animal Rights and Abolition in Coleridge and the Black Atlantic 92
5 Environmental Determinism and the Politics of Nature: William Richardson’s The Indians, A Tragedy 113
6 Thomas Campbell’s American Idyll: Colonial Ideology in Gertrude of Wyoming 134
7 Romanticism, Colonialism, and the “Natural Man” in the Writings of Sir Francis Bond Head and George Copway 154
Afterword: Colonialism and Ecology 176
Notes 187
Bibliography 201
Index 219
Kevin Hutchings
Table of Contents
ix
Introduction: The Politics and Poetics of Green Romanticism 3
1 Naturalizing Colonial Relations in the British Atlantic World: Slavery as Fact and Figure 33
2 Race and Animality in the British Atlantic World 50
3 Gender, Environment, and Imperialism in William Blake’s Visions of the Daughters of Albion 70
4 Enslaved Brutes and Brutalized Slaves: Animal Rights and Abolition in Coleridge and the Black Atlantic 92
5 Environmental Determinism and the Politics of Nature: William Richardson’s The Indians, A Tragedy 113
6 Thomas Campbell’s American Idyll: Colonial Ideology in Gertrude of Wyoming 134
7 Romanticism, Colonialism, and the “Natural Man” in the Writings of Sir Francis Bond Head and George Copway 154
Afterword: Colonialism and Ecology 176
Notes 187
Bibliography 201
Index 219
