An Ecological and Postcolonial Study of Literature: From Daniel Defoe to Salman Rushdie

Robert P. MARZEC, An Ecological and Postcolonial Study of Literature: From Daniel Defoe to Salman Rushdie, Houndmills, Palgrave MacMillan, 2007, 200 p.
ISBN13 9781403976406
ISBN10 1403976406


SUMMARY

The Earth’s land and its inhabitants are in jeopardy. Ecosystems are threatened in every corner of the world. Neocolonial forces define human relations increasingly in fundamentalist terms. Land settlement patterns formulated during the colonial era have left more and more people on today’s planet without property, without the resources needed to sustain a livable existence, and with only a combative understanding of identity. This book argues that humanity’s relationship to the land has undergone a fundamental change, and reveals how the historical phenomenon known as the “enclosure movement” has come to have a profound effect on how we relate to the earth, and on how we conceive of ourselves as human beings. Analyzing narratives by Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, E.M. Forster, D.H. Lawrence, Salman Rushdie, and others, Marzec reveals the extent to which the legacy of enclosures continues to dictate the geopolitical reality of the present.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert P. Marzec is Associate Professor of English literature, postcolonial studies, global studies, and contemporary criticism at the State University of New York at Fredonia. He is currently at work on a second book project tentatively entitled Land and Empire: Literature in the Era of Globalization. He has had articles published in boundary 2, The Journal of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies, rhizomes, and Janus Head.  He is also the editor of the book Regional American Cultures: the Mid-Atlantic States (2004).