An Ecopoetics of Agency - Writing with the Nonhuman in Modernist and Contemporary Poetry

Focusing on a category of poems from the Modernist and contemporary periods which give agency to nonhuman beings and texts themselves, this book puts form, often neglected within ecocriticism, at the center of its definition of ecopoetics. Grounding ecopoetics in posthumanist ontologies (new materialism, flat ontology and Latour''s work on agency), this book explores the way in which the poems collapse the human/nonhuman divide and re-instil wonder at the natural world. By juxtaposing readings of Modernist poets such as D. H. Lawrence, Wallace Stevens and Marianne Moore with contemporary poets such as Les Murray, Pattiann Rogers, Alice Oswald and Kathleen Jamie, the book provides fresh insight into well-known works and offers a new perspective on contemporary ecopoetry.

List of contents

Introduction

1. The Nonhuman as Agent
2. The Nonhuman as Poet
3. A Language for the Nonhuman
4. Creaturely Poems
Conclusion: A new and quiet sense of space

Notes
References

About the author

Sarah Bouttier is an Assistant Professor of English at Ecole Polytechnique, France. Her research interests include literature and the environment, art and science, posthumanism, ecofeminism. poetry and speculative fiction.

Product details

• Authors: Sarah Bouttier
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 05.02.2026
• EAN: 9781350528369
• ISBN: 978-1-350-52836-9
• No. of pages: 224
• Series: Environmental Cultures
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; LITERARY CRITICISM / Poetry, LITERARY CRITICISM / American / General, LITERARY CRITICISM / Subjects & Themes / Nature, LITERARY CRITICISM / Comparative Literature, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 21st Century, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 20th Century, Literary studies: poetry & poets, Literary studies: from c 1900 -, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000, Literary studies: poetry and poets, Literary studies: from c 2000