Overview

This book digs into environmental themes in Alaska travel writing since U.S. statehood in 1959, drawing on the works of six authors including Barry Lopez, Jonathan Raban, Tom Lowenstein and others. Each work, though disparate in style, advocates for the empowerment of the Alaska Native people by connecting not only with diverse perspectives but with the lived realities in the geographical spaces that have formed them. In analyzing how these authors have succeeded in depicting the realities of alterities, and where they have perhaps fallen short by more recent standards, we may begin to carve out a system of ethics. This is important as fresh waves of travel writers search for their own place in the environmental conversations surrounding the ever-evolving, 21st century Arctic and its place on the front lines of a changing climate.

Full Product Details

Author:   Benjamin Ferguson
Publisher:   Brill
Imprint:   Brill
Volume:   1
Dimensions:   Width: 15.50cm , Height: 2.60cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.679kg
ISBN:  

9789004734753

ISBN 10:   9004734759
Pages:   332
Publication Date:   07 August 2025
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements List of Illustrations Introduction  1 Peter Matthiessen’s Oomingmak  2 John McPhee’s Coming into the Country  3 Barry Lopez’ Arctic Dreams  4 Tom Lowenstein’s Ancient Land, Sacred Whale  5 Jonathan Raban’s Passage to Juneau  6 Nancy Lord’s Beluga Days  7 Anglophone Travel Writing: From Mercantilism to the Enlightenment  8 Anglo-Colonization, the Protestant Work Ethic, and the Last Frontier  9 Jefferson versus Hamilton  10 The Rise of Environmental Awareness  11 Theodore Roosevelt, Gifford Pinchot, and John Muir  12 Environmental Justice in Alaska PART 1: Mapping the Ethical Fault Lines 1 The McPhee Conundrum  1 The Question of Manichaeism in Environmental Writing   1.1 Encounters with the Archdruid   1.2 Annals of the Former World   1.3 Coming into the Country  2 What Does John McPhee’s Work Mean for Alaska? 2 Masculinity v. Femininity  1 Libby Beaman  2 Margaret Murie  3 Lois Crisler  4 Ecofeminism in Alaskan Literature  5 Nancy Lord 3 Native Oral Tradition, Lack of Written Record, and Lack of Respect  1 Attention to Language in Arctic Dreams  2 Raban Evokes Wittgenstein, Importance of Names  3 Tom Lowenstein and the Experiment of Translation 4 Depictions of Alaskan Natives  1 Raban’s Conflicted Contribution to Native Peoples  2 Nancy Lord’s Sensible Objectivity with Regard to Natives  3 Matthiessen’s Sharp, Concise Reflections on Alaska Natives of Nunivak in Oomingmak  4 Conclusion 5 Religion and Spirituality  1 Lord’s Aesthetic Atheism  2 Peter Matthiessen, the Missing Zen Master  3 Tom Lowenstein, or, How Does Buddhism Relate to the Inuit?  4 Wordsworth and Emerson, and their Descendants  5 “The Native Eye” in Lopez and Lowenstein  6 Conclusion 6 Animals  1 Animals Speak in the Work of Barry Lopez  2 Nancy Lord is Made of Salmon  3 Tom Lowenstein’s Whales  4 Matthiessen’s Means of Animal Communication  5 Do Animals Actually Speak in These Works? 7 Liberty  1 Raban’s Fishermen  2 McPhee’s River People  3 Lord’s “Take One” Alaska Native Distrust of the White Man PART 2: Writing beyond the Last Frontier Introduction 8 Perspective on Myopic Writing 9 Psychological Issues and the Middle Way  1 Introduction to Rationalization as a Social Construct, Linked with Political Journalism and Contemporary Academic History  2 What in the World Can We Learn about the American Political Dichotomy from an Englishman?  3 Attention to Language and Tone  4 The Bloom and Lilla Controversies  5 Community and (Toxic?) Masculinity: What Could John McPhee Do Better?  6 Conundrum Conclusion, and a Pre-emptive Defense of the Middle Way 10 Jon Krakauer, John Vaillant, and Dave Eggers: Different Approaches to Sensational Writing  1 Sensational Non-Fiction 11 “Local Travel Writing” in the Country, or Broadly Outside?  1 What the Walt?

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Author Information

Benjamin Ferguson is Visiting Assistant Professor of English at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina. He is also a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Malaurie Institute of Arctic Research (MIARC) and has published several articles on themes of Travel Writing and Ecocriticism about Alaska.

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