Bibliographies
Ecofeminism Texts
Date: Mon, 04 Jan 1999
From: Steven Skattebo (skattebo@cherokee.nsuok.edu)
I'm enjoying the current thread on women and nature, and I'm stealing bib. info. as needed. I also share the "overwhelm factor": I did a search on Amazon.com for ecofeminism and got over 80 titles.
I may write a chapter of my diss. on an ecofeminist analysis of some short stories by Maria Luisa Bombal (a Chilean author, early magical realism). First, I need some foundational/theoretical texts on ecofeminism. Then, I would like to try to find any common ground between Bombal's texts and ecofeminist insights (hopefully there will be some). Bombal's characters are often middle class women in cold marriages who relate in intimate ways with trees, birds, and water. The lines between various realities (e.g. dreams) get fuzzy in magically-real ways, and she often describes walking on the soft, moist earth, and erotic communion with ponds and streams. Obviously the woman~nature issue is involved.
My current knowledge of ecofeminism is thin. I read Merchant's Death of Nature and a few articles by Todd and Spretnak.
Any suggestions will be deeply appreciated.
Steven Skattebo
Northeastern State University, Tahlequah, OK
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999
From: Glynis Carr (gcarr@bucknell.edu)
Steve, from what you say, it sounds like Bombal is a bit of a radical ecofeminist. Radical theory that might illuminate her writings would include works by Susan Griffin (whose theories appear in beautifully unconventional forms)--especially *Woman and Nature* and *Pornography and Silence*, but also her later works. Mary Daly's *Gyn/Ecology* and her newest *Quintessential* might also be good. Also, many of the essays in two widely used anthologies, *Reweaving the World* and *Healing the Wounds*, edited by Irene Diamond and Gloria Orenstein, might be useful (sorry I don't have complete publishing data on hand), as would selections in *Ecofeminism and the Sacred*, edited by Carol J. Adams (NY: Continuum, 1993). Writings by Charlene Spretnak and Ynestra King and other contributions to the ecofeminism/deep-ecology debate might also be useful to you, as would the recent collection edited by Karen Warren, *Ecofeminist Philosophy.*
However, just because your author may be radical, doesn't mean you must be
-- in fact there are good reasons to be cautious of some aspects of radical
ecofeminism. Janet Biehl, in *Rethinking Ecofeminist Politics* (Boston: South End P, 1991), discusses some of the problems, but I find her book to be a little mean-spirited. Val Plumwood's *Feminism and the Mastery of Nature* includes a thoughtful critique of radical ecofeminism--and she avoids throwing out the baby with the bathwater.
Glynis Carr
Associate Professor of English
Bucknell University
Lewisburg, PA 17837
717-524-1553
gcarr@bucknell.edu
http://www.facstaff.bucknell.edu/gcarr
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1999
From: "Karla M. Armbruster" <armbruka@webster.edu>
In addition to (and with some overlap with) Glynis's list, let me share the mini-bibliography below. It's a little out of date as well, so I would add that I *highly* recommend looking at Noel Sturgeon's Ecofeminist Natures from Routledge. She provides a fantastic historical/cultural context for both U.S. and international ecofeminisms. Vera Norwood's chapter on ecofeminism in Made from This Earth also provides a nice overview and critique of U.S. ecofeminism up to the point in time when her book came out. I would also look at Patrick Murphy's book from (I think) SUNY titled something like Woman, Nature, Other - if someone could fill in the blanks, I would be most grateful! Also, if you are going to work with Susan Griffin, I would say it's essential (pun intended) to look at her essay in Karen Warren's recent anthology Ecofeminism: Women, Culture Nature from Indiana UP - she discusses the relationship between ecofeminism and postructuralist feminist theory and indirectly addresses most of the major criticisms I've heard made against her. Finally, though I haven't yet read it, I know Greta Gaard recently published abook on ecofeminism and the greens (called, I believe, Ecofeminism and the Greens).
...I would second Glynis's recommendation of Plumwood. I also find Cheney to be one of the most interesting ecofeminist thinkers around. And don't forget the special issue of ISLE on ecofeminist literary criticism (Summer 1996).
Good luck! Karla
********
Caldecott, Leonie and Stephanie Leland, eds. Reclaim the Earth: Women Speak Out for Life on Earth. London: Women's Press, 1983.
Cheney, Jim. "Ecofeminism and Deep Ecology." Environmental Ethics 9 (no. 2: Summer 1987): 115-45.
Gaard, Greta, ed. Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1993.
Griffin, Susan. Woman and Nature: The Roaring Inside Her. New York: Harper and Row, 1978.
Kheel, Marti. "Ecofeminism and Deep Ecology: Reflections on Identity and
Difference." Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1990.
King, Ynestra. "Healing the Wounds: Feminism, Ecology, and the Nature/Culture Dualism." Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1990.
Marshall, Ian. "Literal and Metaphoric Harmony with Nature: Ecofeminism and Harriet Prescott Spofford's 'Circumstance.'" Modern Language Studies 23 (Spring 1993): 48-58.
Merchant, Carolyn. The Death of Nature: Woman, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1981.
----. "Ecofeminism and Feminist Theory." Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1990.
----. "The Theoretical Structure of Ecological Revolutions." Environmental Review 11 (no. 4: Winter 1987): 269-74.
Murphy, Patrick. "Ground, Pivot, Motion: Ecofeminist Theory, Dialogics, and Literary Practice." Hypatia 6 (Spring 1991) 146-161.
----. "Prolegomenon for an Ecofeminist Dialogics." Feminism, Bakhtin, and the Dialogic Voice. Eds. Dale Bauer and Susan Jaret McKinstry. SUNY Press, 1991.
Plant, Judith, ed. Healing the Wounds: The Promise of Ecofeminism. Philadelphia and Santa Cruz, CA: New Society Publishers, 1989.
Plumwood, Val. Feminism and the Mastery of Nature. London: Routledge, 1993.
Quinby, Lee. "Ecofeminism and the Politics of Resistance." Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books,
1990.
Spretnak, Charlene. States of Grace: The Recovery of Meaning in the Postmodern Age. San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991.
Warren, Karen. "Feminism and Ecology: Making Connections." Environmental
Ethics 9 (no. 1: 1987): 3-20.
Zimmerman, Michael. "Feminism, Deep Ecology, and Environmental Ethics."
Environmental Ethics 9 (Spring 1987): 21-44.
Karla Armbruster
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Webster University
470 East Lockwood
St. Louis, MO 63119
314-961-2660. ext. 7577
FAX: 314-968-7173
armbruka@webster.edu
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1999
From: CYNTHIA H TAYLOR <ctaylor@uscolo.edu>
Hi, Karla,
The Murphy title is Literature, Nature, Other. In addition to the texts that Glynis and Karla mention, there is an early special issue of Studies in the Humanities (Vol. 15, No. 2, Dec. 1988) edited by Murphy, that you may want to look at, entitled "Feminism, Ecology and the Future of the Humanities." Has someone already mentioned the special issue of Hypatia edited by Karen Warren? (Vol. 6, No. 1, Spring 1991).
--Cindy Taylor