Overview

Jasper National Park is an international travel destination, world heritage site, and icon of Canadian identity. Although national parks occupy a prominent place in the Canadian imagination, we are only beginning to understand how their visual imagery has shaped and continues to inform our perception of the natural world, ecological issues, and ourselves. In Manufacturing National Park Nature, J. Keri Cronin draws on visual images such as postcards and tourist snapshots to show that popular forms of picturing nature can have ecological implications that extend far beyond the frame of the image. Adopting an ecocritical approach to visual culture, she reveals that packaging Jasper as a series of breathtaking vistas and adorable-looking animals masks the real threats to the park's ecosystems. In telling the story of how various groups have used photography to shape our ideas about nature, this book sets the stage for a re-examination of protection policies and acknowledgment of environmental damage in national parks.

Full Product Details

9780774819084

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Reviews

Manufacturing National Park Nature joins a growing literature on the visual culture of the environment and, unlike most other works in the field, does so through a specific focus on one place. This approach allows Cronin to consider both environmental perceptions and material changes over the past century in Jasper. Her focus on tourist imagery - including postcards, brochures, newspapers, magazines, and advertisements - is original, as she uses sources often ignored by art historians, environmental historians, ecocritics, and other scholars.<br> - Finis Dunaway, History Department, Trent University

Author Information

J. Keri Cronin is an assistant professor in the Visual Arts Department at Brock University. She is also a faculty affiliate in Brock's Social Justice and Equity Studies graduate program and the editor of The Brock Review.

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