An Island in the Stream: Ecocritical and Literary Responses to Cuban Environmental Culture

Author:   David Taylor ,  Scott Slovic ,  Armando Fernandez Soriano ,  Scott Slovic
Publisher:   Lexington Books
ISBN:  

9781498599160


Pages:   168
Publication Date:   15 July 2019
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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An Island in the Stream: Ecocritical and Literary Responses to Cuban Environmental Culture


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Overview

An Island in the Stream, a collaboration between Cuban and American writers and scholars, is a diverse collection of ecocritical and literary responses to the natural environment in Cuba and to Cuban environmental culture. The essays explore Cuba’s vibrant cultural history with particular attention to literature and the visual and performing arts, which are viewed through such lenses as ecofeminism, postcolonial ecocriticism, multiculturalism, and the nuclear imaginary, among others. American environmentalists have long viewed modern Cuba as a model of progressive environmental thinking. In the 1990s, the Cuban government made sustainability a centerpiece of national policy initiatives. This book explores some of the historical foundations of contemporary sustainability efforts in Cuba, while also describing the contemporary environmental situation in that part of the world. From José Martí to Excilia Saldaña, from Antonio Nuñez Jiménez to Lydia Cabrera, the articles here aim to provide a starting point for others who wish to learn about Cuban environmental thought. The conjunction of scholarly and creative work is a gesture toward the interdependence of humanities research and artistic expression, both of which seek to encourage environmental and cultural mindfulness and sensitivity.

Full Product Details

Author:   David Taylor ,  Scott Slovic ,  Armando Fernandez Soriano ,  Scott Slovic
Publisher:   Lexington Books
Imprint:   Lexington Books
Dimensions:   Width: 16.10cm , Height: 1.70cm , Length: 22.80cm
Weight:   0.454kg
ISBN:  

9781498599160


ISBN 10:   1498599168
Pages:   168
Publication Date:   15 July 2019
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Introduction Scott Slovic and David Taylor 1.“Dimensions of Nature and Ecofeminism in the narratives of Excilia Saldaña,” Mariana G. Serra Garcia 2.“Renewing Niagara Falls, Burning the Archive in the Cuban Poetic Tradition,” Gabriel Horowitz 3.“Men and Women of the Earth in the Texts of Marti’s Travels,” Mayra Beatriz Martinez 4.“Antonio Nuñz Jiménez, Oswaldo Guayasamín, and the Recovery of Cuba’s Progressive Intellectuals,” Susan E. Bender 5.“Lydia Cabrera and The Narrative of Nature,” Margarita Mateo Palmer 6.“The New World Baroque as Postcolonial Ecology in Alejo Carpentier’s The Lost Steps.” This essay was originally published in Postcolonial Ecologies (Oxford UP 2011), George B. Handley 7.“Cuban Theatre and the Dilemma of Nature,” Karina Pino Gallardo 8.“Among the Ruins of Ecological Thought: Parasites, Trash, and Nuclear Imaginings in La fiesta vigilada,” Christina Maria Garcia Appendix: Literary Responses 9.“Of the African in Cuba,” Heriberto Feraudy Espino 10.“The Gardener’s Creed,” Alison Hawthorne Deming 11.“Weight,” Sylvia Torti 12.“The Cuba Poems,” Robert M. Pyle 13.“Restauración,” Laura Ruiz Montes 14.“Lessons from Cuba,” Blas Falconer 15.“El Trompo: In the Sierra Mountains with Guerilla de Teatreros,” David Taylor 16.“Something Wonderful and Surreal: American Ecocritics and Environmental Writers Contemplate Exile in Cuba as Donald Trump Eyes the White House,” Scott Slovic Contributor’s Biographies

Reviews

This hybrid collection of ecocritical and literary responses to the Cuban environment and to Cuban environmental culture offers a stimulating map of the ongoing process of mutual encouragement and support between academic and artistic communities located on the island and abroad. The variety of subjects and experiences-a complex network of literary and artistic traditions and ventures-shows a fruitful desire for connection beyond national borders, an authentic aspiration toward dialogue, which implies a polemic openness for American and Cuban participants alike. This book offers seeds of diverse, alternative environmentalisms in the context of dominant neoliberal fantasies: an invitation to overcome complicities with our respective systems and blind spots about our differences and resemblances. This is a powerful call not only for more innovative scholarly work, but also for expanding our quest for public debate over the meaning of the environment in our political and cultural lives. -- Roberto Forns-Broggi, Metropolitan State University of Denver, author of Knots like Stars: The ABC of Ecological Imagination in our Americas This refreshing collection of complementary essays brings to the fore, through translation, the often-neglected voice of Cuban artists and ecocritics, together with that of American hispanists and ecocritics: one more example of the growing strength and breadth of environmental humanities in non-English speaking cultures. -- Carmen Flys-Junquera, Instituto Franklin, Universidad de Alcala, Editor of Ecozon@ An Island in the Stream gathers a rich array of texts in an anthology of critical essays, short stories, memoir, travelogue, and poetry for an ecocritical examination of the scholarly and creative work of Cuban writers, artists, performers, and intellectuals. What is especially valuable about the collection is the way in which it functions as a corrective to the perception that Cuban texts have not been particularly concerned with the natural world. On the contrary, the book includes insightful ecocritical analysis of well-known literary figures such as Alejo Carpentier, Jose Marti, and Jose Maria Heredia while it also provides some needed exposure to the nature writing of lesser-known authors such as Lydia Cabrera and Antonio Jose Ponte. And, An Island in the Stream delves farther afield into Green Cuban cultural production with the inclusion of selected poetry and discussions of theater, painting, sculpture, even the environmental significance of a hand-carved spinning top. All of these elements come together for a particularly illuminating glimpse of current ecocritical thought from leading scholars in the field along with novel examples from a variety of unique and uniquely ecological Cuban imaginative work. -- Scott M. DeVries, Manchester University


This hybrid collection of ecocritical and literary responses to the Cuban environment and to Cuban environmental culture offers a stimulating map of the ongoing process of mutual encouragement and support between academic and artistic communities located on the island and abroad. The variety of subjects and experiences-a complex network of literary and artistic traditions and ventures-shows a fruitful desire for connection beyond national borders, an authentic aspiration toward dialogue, which implies a polemic openness for American and Cuban participants alike. This book offers seeds of diverse, alternative environmentalisms in the context of dominant neoliberal fantasies: an invitation to overcome complicities with our respective systems and blind spots about our differences and resemblances. This is a powerful call not only for more innovative scholarly work, but also for expanding our quest for public debate over the meaning of the environment in our political and cultural lives. -- Roberto Forns-Broggi, Metropolitan State University of Denver; author of Knots like Stars: The ABC of Ecological Imagination in our Americas This refreshing collection of complementary essays brings to the fore, through translation, the often-neglected voice of Cuban artists and ecocritics, together with that of American hispanists and ecocritics: one more example of the growing strength and breadth of environmental humanities in non-English speaking cultures. -- Carmen Flys-Junquera, Instituto Franklin, Universidad de Alcala, editor of Ecozon@ An Island in the Stream gathers a rich array of texts in an anthology of critical essays, short stories, memoirs, travelogues, and poetry for an ecocritical examination of the scholarly and creative work of Cuban writers, artists, performers, and intellectuals. What is especially valuable about the collection is the way in which it functions as a corrective to the perception that Cuban texts have not been particularly concerned with the natural world. On the contrary, the book includes insightful ecocritical analyses of well-known literary figures such as Alejo Carpentier, Jose Marti, and Jose Maria Heredia, while it also provides some needed exposure to the nature writing of lesser-known authors such as Lydia Cabrera and Antonio Jose Ponte. And, An Island in the Stream delves farther afield into Green Cuban cultural production with the inclusion of selected poetry and discussions of theater, painting, sculpture, even the environmental significance of a hand-carved spinning top. All of these elements come together for a particularly illuminating glimpse of current ecocritical thought from leading scholars in the field along with novel examples from a variety of unique and uniquely ecological Cuban imaginative work. -- Scott M. DeVries, Manchester University


Author Information

Armando Fernandez Soriano is coordinator for ecological politics for La Fundación Antonio Núñez Jiménez de la Naturaleza y el Hombre in Cuba. Scott Slovic is professor of literature and environment and professor of natural resources and society at the University of Idaho and co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of Ecocriticism and Environmental Communication (2019). David Taylor is an assistant professor of environmental humanities in the Sustainability Program at Stony Brook University.

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