Committee Chair
Arnett, James J.
Committee Member
McCarthy, Andrew D.; Palmer, Heather M.
College
College of Arts and Sciences
Publisher
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Place of Publication
Chattanooga (Tenn.)
Abstract
In my thesis, I use the work of Donna Haraway, Timothy Morton, Karen Barad, and Anna Tsing to explore how three contemporary British novelists—Paul Kingsnorth, Tom McCarthy, and Ali Smith—deal with the representational and ethical challenges of writing about nature and climate change within the Anthropocene. The question of how to live and write now is a prominent thread in all their works, which show, in both form and content, the entanglements of ecology, materiality, locality, nationality, and personal identity. In doing so, their stories enable readers to engage with what Morton calls the “ecological thought,” i.e. “a practice and process of becoming fully aware of how human beings are connected with other beings,” and provoke us, as Haraway puts it, “to be truly present . . . as mortal critters entwined in myriad unfinished configurations of places, times, matters, meanings.”
Degree
M. A.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts.
Date
5-2021
Subject
British literature; Ecology in literature
Document Type
Masters theses
DCMI Type
Text
Extent
ix, 90 leaves
Language
English
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Recommended Citation
Peace, Garrett, "Living entanglements and the ecological thought in the works of Paul Kingsnorth, Tom McCarthy, and Ali Smith" (2021). Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations.
https://scholar.utc.edu/theses/694
Department
Dept. of English