Framing the World: Explorations in Ecocriticism and Film

by Paula Willoquet-Maricondi (Editor)

Overview

The essays in this collection make a contribution to the greening of film studies and expand the scope of ecocriticism as a discipline traditionally rooted in literary studies. In addition to highlighting particular films as productive tools for raising awareness and educating us about environmental issues, Framing the World: Explorations in Ecocriticism and Film encourages its readers to become more ecologically minded viewers, sensitive to the ways in which films reflect, shape, reinforce, and challenge our perceptions of nature, of human/nature relations, and of environmental issues.

The contributors to this volume offer in-depth analyses of a broad range of films, including fictional and documentary, Hollywood and independent, domestic and foreign, experimental and indigenous. Drawing from disciplines including film theory, ecocriticism, philosophy, rhetoric, environmental justice, and American and Indigenous studies, Framing the World offers new and original approaches to the ecocritical study of cinema. The twelve essays are gathered in four parts, focusing on ecocinema as activist cinema; the representation of environmental justice issues in Hollywood, independent, and foreign films; the representation of animals, ecosystems, and natural and human-made landscapes in live action and animation; and ecological themes in the films of two eco-auteurs, Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Peter Greenaway. Willoquet-Maricondi’s introduction provides an overview of the field of ecocriticism and offers both philosophical and theoretical foundations for the ecocritical study of films.

Contributors

Beth Berila, St. Cloud State University * Lynne Dickson Bruckner, Chatham College * Elizabeth Henry, University of Denver * Joseph K. Heumann, Eastern Illinois University * Harri Kilpi, University of East Anglia * Jennifer Machiorlatti, Western Michigan University * Mark Minster, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology * Robin L. Murray, Eastern Illinois University * Tim Palmer, University of North Carolina, Wilmington * Cory Shaman, Arkansas Tech University * Rachel Stein, Siena College * Paula Willoquet-Maricondi, Marist College

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813930060
Publisher:	University of Virginia Press
Publication date:	09/03/2010
Series:	Under the Sign of Nature
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Paula Willoquet-Maricondi is Associate Professor of Media Arts at Marist College and coeditor of the revised edition of Peter Greenaway’s Postmodern / Poststructuralist Cinema.

Table of Contents

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xvii

Introduction: From Literary to Cinematic Ecocriticism Paula Willoquet-Maricondi 1

Part I Ecocinema as and for Activism

The Rhetoric of Ascent in An Inconvenient Truth and Everything's Cool Mark Minster 25

Shifting Paradigms: From Environmentalist Films to Ecocinema Paula Willoquet-Maricondi 43

Ecocinema, Ecojustice, and Indigenous Worldviews: Native and First Nations Media as Cultural Recovery Jennifer A. Machiorlatti 62

Part II Bodies that Matter: Environmental Justice in Fiction and Documentary Films

Testimonial Structures in Environmental Justice Films Cory Shaman 83

Disposable Bodies: Biocolonialism in The Constant Gardener and Dirty Pretty Things Rachel Stein 101

Engaging the Land/Positioning the Spectator: Environmental Justice Documentaries and Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer and A River Runs Through It Beth Berila 116

Part III Positioning Ecosystems in Fiction, Documentary, and Animation

The Landscape's Lie: Class, Economy, and Ecology in Hotel Rwanda Harri Kilpi 135

Fast, Furious, and Out of Control: The Erasure of Natural Landscapes in Car Culture Films Robin L. Murray Joseph K. Heumann 154

The Screaming Silence: Constructions of Nature in Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man Elizabeth Henry 170

Bambi and Finding Nemo: A Sense of Wonder in the Wonderful World of Disney? Lynne Dickson Bruckner 187

Part IV Art Cinema Eco-Auteurs

The Rules of the World: Japanese Ecocinema and Kiyoshi Kurosawa Tim Palmer 209

Beyond the Frame: The Spirit of Place in Peter Greenaway's The Draughtsman's Contract Paula Willoquet-Maricondi 225

Notes on Contributors 245

Index 247