Transversal Ecocritical Praxis

Articulating a methodological approach to ecocriticism, Murphy (English, Univ. of Central Florida) coins a new term that captures the intertwined nature of theory, critical practice, cultural studies, and social actions: transversal. In one sense, the author answers recent calls for more theoretical work in ecocriticism, using the word transversal to call attention to the processes of 'alliances and commingling' by which humans and 'more-than-humans' generate community in the face of difference. Contesting the viability of separating theory from practice, however, Murphy also models the dialogic relationships among transversal theory, literary analysis, ecological activism, and cultural critique. Following an introduction to the theory, a series of chapters plays out the employment of transversal ecocritical praxis within contextualized investigations of a variety of topics, texts, and human activities. Chapters consider identity, the sublime, the analogy between consumption and addiction, 'terraforming,' 'megadams,' and the future of the Okinawan economy. The articulation of Murphy's theoretical approach is at times compromised by the details of his textual and cultural analyses, but the richness of the chapters attests to the power of the conceptual framework. Summing Up: Recommended. Graduate students, researchers, faculty. * CHOICE *
Murphy's book is to be commended for the forthrightness with which it grapples with urgent and difficult issues of our time, and its compelling desire to find a new language in order to call attention to ecological issues is compelling. . . .Murphy's is a study which will certainly influence multiple trajectories if not open up serious debate about the position of the ecocritic. By calling attention to an array of global events and literary fictions through multiple lenses...the book has a wide appeal for readers in a variety of ecocritical fields. * Green Letters: Studies in Ecocriticism *
The elegant movement between method and application, breadth of vision and detailed analysis, intervention and celebration, makes this volume an exemplar of ecocriticism as ‘ethical turn.’ I recommend it for old hands and newcomers alike: Transversal Ecocritical Praxis has something to teach us all. * ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment *
In Transversal Ecocritical Praxis, Patrick D. Murphy not only extends his important earlier exhortations to ecocritics to think in comparative, transnational contexts, but he now explicitly demonstrates through the strategies of 'transversality' how such comparative readings of texts might occur in various contexts. Murphy’s work, always pushing new conceptual and cultural and generic frontiers, will be of tremendous interest to ecocritics and to scholars of comparative literature more generally. -- Scott Slovic, University of Idaho, coeditor of The Routledge Handbook of Ecocriticism and Environmental Communication