New Forms of Environmental Writing

Exploring a variety of environmental concerns and surveying a wide range of contemporary poetry fiction and memoir by women writers this book argues for the centrality of individual encounter and fragmentary form in 21st-century literature. In accounts of both solitude and community these texts find new ways to respond to the present in the absence of explanatory narratives. The work examined here provides new ways to consider questions of attention care and loss: rather than emphasising planetary change they highlight the role of individual agency and enmeshment in a more-than-human world. <br/><br/>Proposing a new model of 'gleaning' to encompass ideas of collection assemblage and relinquishment this book moves from accounts of individual encounters to collective care and considers questions of the archive classification systems performance and storytelling. In doing so it highlights the way fragmentary texts can be seen as a mode of resistance. Including analyses of works by both familiar and emerging writers including Sara Baume Ali Smith Elizabeth-Jane Burnett Bhanu Kapil Kathleen Jamie and many others this book also draws on theoretical perspectives such as ecofeminism new materialism posthumanism and affect theory.