The Comedy of Survival: Literary Ecology and a Play EthicSince publication of the first edition more than twenty years ago, The Comedy of Survival has been credited as the founding work in the field of literary ecology, the study of relationships between the literary arts and scientific ecology. Here, Joseph Meeker expands upon his consideration of comedy and tragedy, not as dramatic motifs for humor and sadness but rather as forms of adaptive behavior in the natural world that either promote our survival (comedy) or estrange us from other life forms (tragedy). In this third major edition of his classic work, Meeker examines the role of literature in shaping such behavior. Drawing upon centuries of western writing from Dante to Shakespeare to E. O. Wilson, he demonstrates the universality of comedy in both human and animal behavior and shows how the comic mode helps us to live in harmony with nature. Meeker then defines the tragic view of life, interweaving that behavior with exploitation of the environment. With imagination and flair, the author also introduces the idea of a play ethic, as opposed to a work ethic, and demonstrates the importance of play as a necessary and desirable component of the comic spirit. Within a growing body of environmental literature dealing with spirituality, ethics, ecofeminism, nature writing, and alternative lifestyles, Meeker's is a one-of-a-kind book, combining elements of literary criticism, ethology, New Age thinking, and personal narrative. Full of provocative twists and turns, The Comedy of Survival is a book for literary critics, environmentalists, human ecologists, philosophers, and anthropologists. Many will find much to ponder in this clear explication of how we might become better stewards of the Earth. |
From inside the book
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Page 7
... nature may thus influ- ence both human perceptions of nature and human responses to it . Ecology is an ancient theme in art and literature , however new it may be as a science . Plants , animals , mountains , seas , and sky have ...
... nature may thus influ- ence both human perceptions of nature and human responses to it . Ecology is an ancient theme in art and literature , however new it may be as a science . Plants , animals , mountains , seas , and sky have ...
Page 26
... nature , although the conquest of nature is a necessary precondition for its realization . Sophocles has here made explicit the hu- man superiority over nature that is an essential feature of the tragic view of life . It is not that the ...
... nature , although the conquest of nature is a necessary precondition for its realization . Sophocles has here made explicit the hu- man superiority over nature that is an essential feature of the tragic view of life . It is not that the ...
Page 57
... nature . Gardens are not images of nature , but of the human management of nature . When anthropologists talk about " the pastoral age " they are not referring to a poetic period , but to the stage of human evolution when plants and ...
... nature . Gardens are not images of nature , but of the human management of nature . When anthropologists talk about " the pastoral age " they are not referring to a poetic period , but to the stage of human evolution when plants and ...
Contents
The Comic Way | 12 |
Tragedy and Related Disasters | 22 |
Hamlet and the Animals | 37 |
Copyright | |
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Other editions - View all
The Comedy of Survival: Literary Ecology and a Play Ethic Joseph W. Meeker No preview available - 1997 |
Common terms and phrases
Achilles action aggression basic Beatrice beautiful become belief biological birds caribou caribou mother century character comedy and play Comedy of Survival comic complex consciousness context conversation create creatures cultural dangerous Dante Dante's death E. O. Wilson Earth ecosystems environmental ethic ethology evil evolution evolutionary history evolutionary psychology experience feel Frank Fraser Darling garden Greek Guildenstern Hamlet Hell human behavior imagination Inferno infinite game instinct intellectual intelligence Karl von Frisch killing Konrad Lorenz Krull Laertes Literary Ecology literature live Lorenz means Meeker mental merely mind models modern moral order murder natural environments pain Paradise pattern picaresque picaresque novels picaro Pinker polarized Polonius Purgatory relationships response Richard Dawkins role scene Sinus Block social society souls species spiders Steven Pinker story storytelling strategy suffering symbolic things tion tradition tragic hero tragic view trans transcend unique University Press Virgil vision York Yossarian