Ecolinguistics
Language, Ecology and the Stories We Live By
Arran Stibbe
- 272 pages
- English
- ePUB (adapté aux mobiles)
- Disponible sur iOS et Android
Ecolinguistics
Language, Ecology and the Stories We Live By
Arran Stibbe
Ă propos de ce livre
Ecolinguistics: Language, Ecology and the Stories We Live By is a ground-breaking book which reveals the stories that underpin unequal and unsustainable societies and searches for inspirational forms of language that can help rebuild a kinder, more ecological world. This new edition has been updated and expanded to bring together the latest ecolinguistic studies with new theoretical insights and practical analyses.
The book presents a theoretical framework and practical tools for analysing the key texts which shape the society we live in. The theory is illustrated through examples, including the representation of environmental refugees in the media; the construction of the selfish consumer in economics textbooks; the parallels between climate change denial and coronavirus denial; the erasure of nature in the Sustainable Development Goals; creation myths and how they orient people towards the natural world; and inspirational forms of language in nature writing, Japanese haiku and Native American writing. This edition provides an updated theoretical framework, new example analyses, and an additional chapter on narratives.
Accompanied by a free online course with videos, PowerPoints, notes and exercises (www.storiesweliveby.org.uk), as well as a comprehensive glossary, this is essential reading for undergraduates, postgraduates and researchers working in the areas of Discourse Analysis, Environmental Studies and Communication Studies.
Foire aux questions
Informations
1
Introduction
Stories bear tremendous creative power. Through them we coordinate human activity, focus attention and intention, define roles, identify what is important and even what is real.(Charles Eisenstein 2011, p. 2)
We are in trouble just now because we donât have a good story. We are between stories. The old story, the account of how the world came to be and how we fit into it, is no longer effective. Yet we have not learned the new story.
Only an act of language can give us the ability to see and to create a new human condition, where we now only see barbarianism and violence. Only an act of language escaping the technical automatisms of financial capitalism will make possible the emergence of a new life form.
The stories we live by
We inhabitants of industrial civilisation still live inside a human-centred story ⊠it shapes our encounters with other-than-human living creatures, as well as with the larger planetary presence. This is the story of the human as a separate self. The human-centred story is causing the ecological web to come undone ⊠We are in the midst of a systemic ecocide ⊠This is the time to abandon humanity-as-separation, and to aid forth the emergence of entirely different stories to live by.
- Professor Alice Roberts investigates exactly what makes us different from the animal kingdom. What is it that truly makes us human? (ML12 â see Appendix for reference)
- What is it about our bodies, our genes and our brains that sets us apart? What is it that truly makes us human?
- Michael has devised an experiment that he believes reveals a specific piece of behaviour that separates us from chimps, that defines us as a species, and truly makes us human. (ML12 â transcribed extracts from âWhat makes us human?â)
When we study human language, we are approaching what some might call the âhuman essence,â the distinctive qualities of mind that are, so far as we know, unique to man.