Nature versus Ecology (A Roundtable)
Sponsoring Organization(s)
Exemplaria: A Journal of Theory in Medieval and Renaissance Studies
Organizer Name
Shannon Gayk
Organizer Affiliation
Indiana Univ.-Bloomington
Presider Name
Shannon Gayk
Paper Title 1
Why Not Nature?
Presenter 1 Name
Kellie Robertson
Presenter 1 Affiliation
Univ. of Maryland
Paper Title 2
Playing Nature on the Early English Stage
Presenter 2 Name
Robert W. Barrett, Jr.
Presenter 2 Affiliation
Univ. of Illinois-Urbana-Champaign
Paper Title 3
"Thus seyth the Bok of Kendys": Ecological Thinking in the Castle of Perseverance
Presenter 3 Name
Rebecca Davis
Presenter 3 Affiliation
Univ. of California-Irvine
Paper Title 4
"Dwell" . . . "Magyk Natureel": The Possibilities of Middle English Terminologies
Presenter 4 Name
Emily Houlik-Ritchey
Presenter 4 Affiliation
Rice Univ.
Paper Title 5
Spirited Ecology in the Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle
Presenter 5 Name
Myra E. Wright
Presenter 5 Affiliation
Bates College
Paper Title 6
Unnatural
Presenter 6 Name
Jeffrey Jerome Cohen
Presenter 6 Affiliation
George Washington Univ.
Start Date
11-5-2017 10:00 AM
Session Location
Bernhard 106
Description
Ecocritical work in medieval studies has increasingly followed the lead of romanticist Timothy Morton in avoiding discussion of "nature" in favor of "ecology." For Morton, the term "nature," has been a stumbling block to ecological thinking. He suggests that to refer to "nature" is to reify the nonhuman world, to keep it at a distance, while to speak of "ecology" requires acknowledging that humans are deeply enmeshed in relationships with other organisms. Yet, to speak of "nature" (or natura or kynde) in premodern Europe was to invoke a massive range of discourses - scientific, philosophical, allegorical, theological - many of which represent the relationships of human beings to the nonhuman world as complex, participatory, and entangled. This roundtable will investigate both the possibilities and limitations of the turn toward "ecology without nature" in medieval studies, considering the extent to which nature might remain a useful category for understanding medieval representations of the environment. Papers might consider some of the following questions: what exactly is gained and lost when medievalists focus on ecology rather than nature? To what degree if any does it make sense to advocate for "nature without ecology"?
Shannon N. Gayk
Nature versus Ecology (A Roundtable)
Bernhard 106
Ecocritical work in medieval studies has increasingly followed the lead of romanticist Timothy Morton in avoiding discussion of "nature" in favor of "ecology." For Morton, the term "nature," has been a stumbling block to ecological thinking. He suggests that to refer to "nature" is to reify the nonhuman world, to keep it at a distance, while to speak of "ecology" requires acknowledging that humans are deeply enmeshed in relationships with other organisms. Yet, to speak of "nature" (or natura or kynde) in premodern Europe was to invoke a massive range of discourses - scientific, philosophical, allegorical, theological - many of which represent the relationships of human beings to the nonhuman world as complex, participatory, and entangled. This roundtable will investigate both the possibilities and limitations of the turn toward "ecology without nature" in medieval studies, considering the extent to which nature might remain a useful category for understanding medieval representations of the environment. Papers might consider some of the following questions: what exactly is gained and lost when medievalists focus on ecology rather than nature? To what degree if any does it make sense to advocate for "nature without ecology"?
Shannon N. Gayk