Routledge American Studies, Ecocriticism, and Citizenship: Thinking and Acting in the Local and Global Commons (Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature)

This collection reclaims public intellectuals and scholars important to the foundational work in American Studies that contributed to emerging conceptions of an "ecological citizenship" advocating something other than nationalism or an "exclusionary ethics of place." Co-editors Adamson and Ruffin recover underrecognized field genealogies in American Studies (i.e. the work of early scholars whose scope was transnational and whose activism focused on race, class and gender) and ecocriticism (i.e. the work of movement leaders, activists and scholars concerned with environmental justice whose work predates the 1990s advent of the field). They stress the necessity of a confluence of intellectual traditions, or "interdisciplinarities," in meeting the challenges presented by the "anthropocene," a new era in which human beings have the power to radically endanger the planet or support new approaches to transnational, national and ecological citizenship. Contributors to the collection examine literary, historical, and cultural examples from the 19th century to the 21st. They explore notions of the common―namely, common humanity, common wealth, and common ground―and the relation of these notions to often conflicting definitions of who (or what) can have access to "citizenship" and "rights." The book engages in scholarly ecological analysis via the lens of various human groups―ethnic, racial, gendered, coalitional―that are shaping twenty-first century environmental experience and vision. Read together, the essays included in American Studies, Ecocriticism, and Citizenship create a "methodological commons" where environmental justice case studies and interviews with activists and artists living in places as diverse as the U.S., Canada, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Taiwan and the Navajo Nation, can be considered alongside literary and social science analysis that contributes significantly to current debates catalyzed by nuclear meltdowns, oil spills, hurricanes, and climate change, but also by hopes for a common future that will ensure the rights of all beings--human and nonhuman-- to exist, maintain, and regenerate life cycles and evolutionary processes Review "It is fair to characterize the collection American Studies, Ecocriticism, and Citizenship as an attempt to theorize and reinvigorate how American studies scholars can reengage with the environmental crisis… this dynamic volume…extends beyond critical environmental justice studies to overtly engage activist work, acknowledging that ‘theory can be produced outside the academy in communities and activist contexts,’ which in turn has made environmental justice activism ‘a cultural movement interested in issues of ideology and representation.’" --Kevin C. Armitage, American Quarterly "The individual cultural and comparative cultural work represented in American Studies, Ecocriticism, and Citizenship is especially key given the results of the recent Green 2.0 report released in July 2014…[It] aims to ensure that diverse voices are highlighted for the central roles all are playing as citizens of the anthropocene…Its mix of approaches and subjects fertilizes important questions and connections for ecocriticism’s continued development as a field…The collection’s range assures that scholars within the humanities and social sciences―especially in gender studies, critical race and ethnic studies, and sustainability studies―will find multiple points of connection." --Kristin J. Jacobson, The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, American Literary History "This book offers a fertile intersection between areas of study frequently kept separate: American Studies and ecocriticism…The chapters in this book present clear examples of interdisciplinary analysis, often reaching surprising conclusions from the juxtaposition of apparently unrelated issues that merge together…One of the major strengths of the volume is the emphasis on environmental justice and activism…All in all, Joni