Binocular Vision

by Schaffner, Spencer

• ISBN13: 9781558498860
• ISBN10: 1558498869
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-07-31
• Publisher: Univ of Massachusetts Pr

Summary

From Meadows to Marshlands, Seashores to Suburbs, Field Guides help us identify many of the things we find outdoors: plants, insects, mammals, birds. In these texts, nature is typically represented, in both words and images, as ordered, clean, and untouched by human technology and development. This preoccupation with species identification, however, has produced an increasingly narrow view of nature, a ôbinocular vision,ö that separates the study of individual elements from a range of larger, interconnected environmental issues. In this book, Spencer Schaffner reconsiders this approach to nature study by focusing on how birds are presented in field guides.

Author Biography

Spencer Schaffner is assistant professor of English at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Field Guides and the New Hobby of Birdwatching	p. 14
Nuisance Birds, Field Guides, and Environmental Management	p. 51
Picturing Birds in Altered Landscapes	p. 83
Technojumping into Electronic Field Guides	p. 105
Birding on Toxic Land	p. 125
Conclusion: The Birdwatchers of the Montlake Landfill	p. 151
Notes	p. 165
Works Cited	p. 175
Index	p. 191
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