Fragments from the History of Loss by Louise Green

Fragments from the History of Loss by Louise Green

Examines the theoretical framing of nature in South Africa and beyond. Analyzes myths and fantasies that have brought the world to a point of climate catastrophe and continue to shape the narratives through which it is understood.

“Louise Green has compiled an important collection of analyses, focusing on the problem of nature in the age of climate change, and relating this to cultural circumstances in colonial and postcolonial AfricaThese fascinating, well-researched, and surprisingly original studies show how nature is produced as a cultural relic in late capitalist society. Her book is an important contribution to the fields of Anthropocene studies, African studies, and cultural studies.”

—John Noyes, author of Herder: Aesthetics Against Imperialism

“What if the Anthropocene means the end of Third World futures, a shift from freedom to responsibility? In Fragments from the History of Loss, Louise Green shows how nature is produced as concept, commodity, and alibi for exploitation. With bracing nuance and salutary attention to inequality and immiseration, this scintillating book sifts through slices of time and fragments of nature in order to assemble shards of wisdom for living—lightly, with less—in the Anthropocene. An indispensable rejoinder to depoliticizing, universalist accounts of environmental crisis.”

—Jennifer Wenzel, author of The Disposition of Nature: Environmental Crisis and World Literature

“This brief but thought-provoking study challenges readers to view nature through a broad "constellation" . . . of historical and contemporary elements that illustrate the ways humans created a nature industry to reflect their interests rather than as something objectively natural.”

—A. S. MacKinnon Choice

“This book is an extraordinary curation of the relationship between the global nature industry and the postcolony. It embroiders seemingly unrelated moments and places them into a compelling whole, from the extinction of the mammoth and the ironies of a shopping bag promoting the plight of Africa’s wild dogs, to personal observations of queuing for water at Cape Town’s public fountain and the history of the Land Rover in South Africa.”

—Jasmin Kirkbride Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism

Louise Green is Associate Professor of English at Stellenbosch University.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780271087023
ISBN 10	0271087021
Title	Fragments from the History of Loss
Author	Louise Green
Series	Anthroposcene
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Pennsylvania State University Press
Year published	2021-05-26
Number of pages	204
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.