Call for contributions to Ed. Volume:
Myth and 21st cent. Environmentalism. Literary and Artistic Practices for Saving the Planet
Myth and the environment have shared a rich common cultural history travelling as far back as the old times of storytelling and legend (Love 2003; O’Brian and White 2017, Schama 1996). From native American oral narrative where animals, humans and other beings interact, to Genesis in the Bible or the Darwinian theory of evolution, we can trace a rich array of elements which qualify as myth in different cultures. All of them, almost constantly have effects on the environment. From animals to “supernatural events,” the liminality of myth exhibits transition and transformation.
Ecological concerns have been present in literature and the arts for a long time, but the urgency and crisis of the present moment demand us to take action now. Fiction and art practices raise awareness and become a rallying cry in support of conservationism, sustainability, and reparation in order to regain livable conditions for the whole planet. Traditional accounts of myth have enhanced our relations and understanding of the environment. The anthropological, philosophical and sociological study of myth, together with the scientific evaluation of climate change damage, deserve further study in order to grasp the interactions between “science and culture” in a continuum rather than as worlds apart.
We seek contributions that engage the urgent need to act upon the deterioration of the planet across literary and artistic practice from the second half of the 20th century up to now in the crucial dialogue among the environment, science and myth. From classical views on the wilderness, to ecological ideas, environmentalism and current activism against climate change, including but not limited to cultural ecology, ethnobiology, animal studies, ecosophy, environmental philosophy and climate fiction. From Rachel Carson’s work to Vandana Shiva, to current dystopia, post-apocalyptic fiction and ecopoetics, and engaging with the legacy of land art, performance and current interventions, with names such as those of Alice Adams, Richard Long, Christo, Mendieta, Joan Jonas, Tomás Saraceno or Pedro Reyes.
Ecocritical, new materialist, performative, green and (anti)global warming perspectives are welcome. Chapters should be between 7,000-9,000 words and reflect upon the current status of myth and the environment/environmentalism. We welcome 500-word proposals which address, but are not limited, to the following:
– Myth and conservationism, sustainability, and reparation
– Myths of rebirth, new mythologies and cosmologies and revisionist mythmaking
– Ecosophy, environmentalism, ecocriticism and myth
-Nature, science and the sacred
– New Bucolic Literature
– Current iconographies of environmentalism and/or environmental issues
– Environmentale dystopias, climate fiction, Afrofuturism, Post-Anthropocene and Ecocene approaches
– Gender, myth and the environment
– Feminist mythmaking and the environment
– Ethnicity/race/indigeneity, myth and the environment
– Ethical readings of climate fiction and environmental literature and art — Environmental activism and eco-citizenship in literature and the arts
-Environmental education and ecoculture and children’s literature
– Environmental aesthetics
Deadline for proposals: May 31, 2021
Please, send your proposals as Word files to: mythenvironment2021@gmail.com Submissions should include author’s name, affiliation and email address, a tentative title, 5 keywords, and a 200-word cv.
Notification of acceptance: June 30, 2021
Full chapters (between 7,000 and 9,000 words) will be expected by January 31, 2022. Selected essays will be compiled in a volume that will be published by a top international publisher.