Ecopoetry : Overcoming Anthropocene melancholia in the work of Juliana Spahr and Allison Cobb

• Traditionally, elegy moves from loss to consolation by framing death within larger regenerative cycles of nature. But in the current time of ecological dis- ruption, nature as regeneration is no longer availa- ble, and this absence hinders the process of mourn- ing, not allowing consolation. In parallel, the large scale of the environmental crisis creates a sense of futility of action. Both the inability to overcome mourning and the lack of will to act for environ- mental change create a permanent state of grief that Juliana Spahr, Joshua Clover and Allison Cobb term West Melancholia. How can ecopoetry overcome the process of mourning for lost ecosys- tems and species, and instead contribute to action? I propose that in contemporary North-American ecopoetry, consolation is given by poetic research in language and activist engagement. Spahr’s "Gentle Now, Don’t Add to Heartache" (2011) and Misan- thropocene: 24 Theses (2014), co-authored with Clover, tie grief to the failure of inherited models of representing nature and instead suggest consolation in ecopoetry as activist practice. Cobb’s After We All Died (2016) grounds consolation in a practice of starting from failure to researching language for modes of overcoming grief. I discuss these works to uncover the poets’ proposals of overcoming melan- cholia through exploration of language and engaged activist writing.

Ämnesord

HUMANIORA  -- Språk och litteratur -- Litteraturstudier (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- Languages and Literature -- Specific Literatures (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

ecopoetry

mourning

elegy

melancholia

activism.

Literature

litteraturvetenskap

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

art (ämneskategori)