Nature and Narrative - Rhetoric and Design in Contemporary Fiction

Through its analysis of several contemporary novels, the study proposes a reciprocal relationship between nature and narrative, arguing that nature both informs and inspires artistic creations, while literary designs and rhetoric also shape our ideas and perceptions of nature.

List of contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Natural and the Unnatural: History and Anamorphosis in Hilary Mantel's Wolf Hall
2. Black and White Geographies: Seeing and Writing the New World in Toni Morrison's A Mercy
3. Imagi(ni)ng the Arctic: Historical Narrative and Visual Poetics in Ian McGuire's The North Water
4. Liquid Identities: Water and Storytelling in Barbara Kingsolver's The Lacuna
5. A Heart Open to Nature: Experience, Memory, and Time in Paul Harding's Tinkers and Enon
6. Ethics and Embodiment: Realism, Ideas, and Animal Rights in J. M. Coetzee's Elizabeth Costello
7. A Rhetoric of Climate Change: Comedy, Character, and Progression in Ian McEwan's Solar
8. Living on Multiple Planes: Daily Life, Global Crisis, and Narrative Fragmentation in Jenny Offill's Weather
Conclusion
References
Index

About the author

Markku Lehtimäki, PhD., is a professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Turku, Finland. His fields of expertise are narrative theory, visual culture, ecocriticism, American literature, and the contemporary novel. His research projects include Natural Narratology, Cognitive Poetics, and Ecocriticism (2009-2011), The Changing Environment of the North: Cultural Representations and Uses of Water (2017-2021), The Novel's Knowledge: The Changing Roles of Author and Book in Society (2022-2024), and Authors of the Story Economy: Narrative and Digital Capital in the 21st Century Literary Field (2024-2028). He is the author or co-editor of several books, most recently Visual Representations of the Arctic: Imagining Shimmering Worlds in Culture, Literature and Politics (Routledge 2021) and Cold Waters: Tangible and Symbolic Seascapes of the North (2022). He has also published articles in journals such as Image [&] Narrative, Storyworlds: A Journal of Narrative Theory, and Style.

Product details

• Authors: Markku Lehtimaki, Markku Lehtimäki
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Release: 23.05.2025
• EAN: 9781032996950
• ISBN: 978-1-0-3299695-0
• No. of pages: 246
• Series: Routledge Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Literature
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Biology > Ecology; NATURE / Ecology, LITERARY CRITICISM / Comparative Literature, LITERARY CRITICISM / Modern / 21st Century, Applied ecology, Literary studies: from c 1900 -, Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000