Steinbeck and the Environment: Interdisciplinary Approaches - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0817354875 ISBN 13: 9780817354879

Publisher: The University of Alabama Press, 2008

Synopsis

John Steinbeck, intellectual soulmate of pioneering ecologist Edward F. Ricketts, developed a literary vision unique for its biological holism. From his exploration of the environmental disaster in the Dust Bowl region described in The Grapes of Wrath to his voyage of scientific and spiritual discovery among near-pristine marine ecosystems recounted in Log from the Sea of Cortez, Steinbeck's entire canon probes the multiple and interlocked dimensions of his outstanding theme - that human beings and their environment are an inseparable unit. Written by scholars from various disciplines - marine biology, the social and physical sciences, environmental studies, feminist theory, history, and philosophy, as well as American literature - these essays offer a dynamic contribution to the study of Steinbeck by considering his writings from an environmental perspective. And although these writers come from different backgrounds, they find a common theme - Steinbeck blended his literary vision with a unique understanding and appreciation of the environment.

About this title

Review:

"What has been needed for some time has been an approach to Steinbeck on his own terms, valuing him for what he did say, rather than what he should have said. . . . It has taken three decades since his death for a collection of essays on the writer and his relationship to the natural world to appear. Each of the editors writes an introduction to the book, from the perspective of a literary scholar who is new to Steinbeck (Beegel), from the perspective of a Steinbeck specialist (Shillinglaw), and from the perspective of a field scientist (Tiffney). This pattern is carried out throughout the collection by the various contributors who are also non-specialist literary scholars, Steinbeck specialists, or scientists. The essays are well done and some are exceptional, but what raises this book above so many anthologies of criticism on a single author is once again the rich variety of approaches, which are, nevertheless, brought together into a unified whole."—South

"Few American literary figures have elicited so much response from the scientific community—and extremely lucid commentary at that—as Steinbeck. What is accomplished is a sharper definition of Steinbeck as environmentalist, a description previously used all too nebulously, an aspect of Steinbeck's political awareness that has not been given its fair share of attention. . . . A most necessary addition."—Choice

About the Author:

Susan F. Beegel is the editor of The Hemingway Review and Visiting Assistant Professor of English at the University of Idaho. Susan Shillinglaw is Director of the Steinbeck Research center and Associate Professor of English at San Jose Sttae Univesity. Wesley N. Tiffney, Jr., is Director of the University of Massachusetts Nantucket Field Station and a field biologist specializing in human land use history and ecology.

About this edition

• Publisher: The University of Alabama Press
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 0817354875
• ISBN 13: 9780817354879
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384
• Editor: Susan F. Beegel, Susan Shillinglaw, Wesley Tiffney