Recent Environmental Approaches towards More-than-Human Humanities

"This book is as diverse, varied, as is the world about which the articles reflect. I cannot imagine a wider scope of questioning, a more in-depth search for knowledge, and a more adequate mapping of the different species of creatures that make us move, or look, beyond the human in its anthropo-centered limitation, than this collective volume, introduced convincingly by two scholars who are currently working on Environmental Humanities and posthumanism in Greece. The animal, vegetal, and ‘blue’ turns around which the book is ordered compel readers to face the many possibilities of existence and life outside of our restrictive centrism. One glance at the Table of contents already says it: look beyond, away from what we already (think) we know, and thus enrich your life and that of others. Written with clarity and in-depth insights, the articles will enrich, not just “us” as readers, but the lives of all those other creatures that have as much a right to exist and live as we (think we) do."

--Mieke Bal, ASCA (The Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis), The Netherlands

"Unique in both scope and focus, the articles collected in Recent Environmental Approaches towards More-than-Human Humanities help to chart the future of the environmental humanities, reaching beyond anthropocentrism toward the oxymoronic concept of the “more-than-human humanities.” I am impressed with the interdisciplinary, multicultural, and theoretical range of this project, but I also see the special value in identifying points of overlap and intersection between the plant, blue, and animal humanities, which seem like disparate fields but actually have a common aspiration to explore nonhuman ontologies. This is an ambitious and exciting book!"

--Scott Slovic, Oregon Research Institute, U.S.A.

"The relationship with the “lifeworld”—Husserl’s Lebenswelt —has profoundly influenced philosophy, the arts, and literature, demonstrating that human creativity has always drawn sustenance from this connection rather than operating in a state of isolation or self-sufficiency. This volume offers an in-depth analysis of the intimate connection and intersectionality between the human dimension and nonhuman entities, situating itself within the interdisciplinary field known as ecocriticism. By moving beyond the confines of anthropocentrism, the authors’ valuable work provides new epistemological, ontological, and aesthetic perspectives that allow us to frame the urgent ecological issue using fresh tools and viewpoints. Drawing on specific topics as well as diverse literary traditions and cultural paradigms, the various chapters explore the significance of the relationship with the nonhuman. The result is a coherent framework capable of prompting ethical reflection and envisioning new socio-political scenarios."

--Roberto Marchesini, Director of the Center for Posthumanist Philosophy Studies, Italy

"After the various “turns” that have occurred within various critical discourses over the last few decades, critics have come to reassess the role of the human in the humanities. In Recent Environmental Approaches towards More-than-Human Humanities, Peggy Karpouzou and Nikoleta Zampaki present approaches to the question that avoid the apparent teleology of the “posthuman” while also engaging in ecocritical investigations of our present situation. By looking at the “more-than-human,” the contributors to this volume demonstrate ways to rethink the humanities in such a way that the human is neither separate from or presiding over the complex networks of relations that sustain life on this planet. Looking specifically at the animal, vegetal, and blue turns—as well as the relations among the zoological, botanical, and thalassic zones—these essays indicate how a more-than-human humanities help us make sense of the world we, and all, live in today."

--Robert T. Tally Jr., Texas State University, author of Geocritical Cosmopolitanism: Space, Literature, and the Sense of the Global