Landscape and Literature 1830-1914

This study examines the vital centrality of 'readings' of nature in a variety of literary forms in the period 1830-1914. It is exploratory and original in approach, stressing the philosophical and cultural implications in a range of texts from Tennyson, Hardy, Jefferies and Thomas.

This study is engaging and dense. Landscape and Literature is a book which combines a deeply ingrained knowledge of English Landscapes in time landscapes as transcoded by poets and novelists with a profound conviction that philosophical reflections and theoretical insights cannot be excluded by a topological analysis of literary texts. (Francesco Marroni, RSV - Rivista di Studi Vittoriani, Vol. 20 (40), July, 2015)

''an intriguing book which opens up so many new ways of looking at the relation between literature and the landscape in this period'' Tennyson Research Bulletin

"Roger Ebbatson will be a well-known name to many readers of this journal: his previous work has already played a significant role in recuperating Richard Jefferies as a writer worthy of serious critical and theoretical attention...The book is characterized by intelligent and often arresting juxtapositions, which serve to illuminate canonical writers in new ways,as well as offering fresh insights into Jefferies's fiction and lesser-known essays....Landscape and Literature is full of erudite and engaging material, with many thought-provoking asides, any number of which could be developed further. The book's 'constellation' structure (as Ebbatson terms it) means it can also be read effectively as a series of discrete essays, dipped into and returned to." Jefferies Society Journal

"...sophisticated and ambitious" Times Literary Supplement

"Roger Ebbatson's writing style as well as his subject gets under the skin... his deeply theoretical work is informed by the Frankfurt school. How often do you hear that linked to ecocriticism?... Altogether, this is an ususual and pentrating examination of 'nature, text, aura', full of quiet insights that should return to haunt future ecocritical studies." Sue Edney, Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism

Autorentext

Roger Ebbatson is currently Visiting Professor at Lancaster University, UK, having previously held appointments at the University of Sokoto, Nigeria, the University of Worcester, and Loughborough University. His publications include Lawrence & the Nature Tradition, Hardy: Margin of the Unexpressed, An Imaginary England, and Heidegger's Bicycle. He is a Fellow of the English Association, and member of the editorial boards of the Tennyson Society and the Hardy Society, and of the executive council of the Jefferies Society.

Inhalt
Introduction: The Shifting Landscape PART I: TENNYSONIAN 1. 'The Sea-Fairies': The Sirens and the Administered Society 2. 'Impassioned Song': Arthur Hallam and Lyric Poetry 3. Locksley Hall: Progress and Destitution 4. 'The Northern Farmer': Language and Homeland 5. Charles Tennyson Turner: Lyricism and Modernity PART II: HARDY, JEFFERIES, RUSKIN 6. Far From the Madding Crowd: Swampy Decomposition and Female Individualism 7. 'In Front of the Landscape': Spectral Ressentiment 8. 'A Singer Asleep': Hardy's Envoi to Decadence 9. The Machine in the Wheatfield 10. Prophetic Landscapes: Hardy and Jefferies 11. The Springs of Wandel: Ruskin, Proust, Benjamin PART III: THE SOUTH COUNTRY 12. Traversing the South Country, 1850-1914 13. The Spiritual Geography of Edward Thomas Bibliography