Forests

by Harrison, Robert Pogue

• ISBN13: 9780226318073
• ISBN10: 0226318079
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1993-03-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

In this wide-ranging exploration of the role of forests in Western thought, Robert Pogue Harrison enriches our understanding not only of the forest's place in the cultural imagination of the West, but also of the ecological dilemmas that now confront us so urgently. Consistently insightful and beautifully written, this work is especially compelling at a time when the forest, as a source of wonder, respect, and meaning, disappears daily from the earth. "Forests is one of the most remarkable essays on the human place in nature I have ever read, and belongs on the small shelf that includes Raymond Williams' masterpiece, The Country and the City. Elegantly conceived, beautifully written, and powerfully argued, [Forests] is a model of scholarship at its passionate best. No one who cares about cultural history, about the human place in nature, or about the future of our earthly home, should miss it.--William Cronon, Yale Review "Forests is, among other things, a work of scholarship, and one of immense value . . . one that we have needed. It can be read and reread, added to and commented on for some time to come."--John Haines, The New York Times Book Review

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Acknowledgments	xiii
First the Forests	1	(60)
Vico's Giants	3	(10)
The Demon of Gilgamesh	13	(6)
The Virgin Goddess	19	(11)
Dionysos	30	(16)
The Sorrows of Rhea Silvia	46	(6)
From Mythic Origins to Deforestation	52	(9)
Shadows of Law	61	(46)
The Knight's Adventure	65	(4)
Forest Law	69	(6)
Outlaws	75	(6)
Dante's Line of Error	81	(6)
Shadows of Love	87	(4)
The Human Age	91	(9)
Macbeth's Conclusion	100	(7)
Enlightenment	107	(48)
The Ways of Method	108	(6)
What is Enlightenment? A Question for Foresters	114	(11)
Rousseau	125	(8)
Conrad's Brooding Gloom	133	(11)
Roquentin's Nightmare	144	(4)
Wastelands	148	(7)
Forests of Nostalgia	155	(42)
Forest and World in Wordsworth's Poem	156	(8)
The Brothers Grimm	164	(13)
Forests of Symbols	177	(9)
Waiting for Dionysos	186	(11)
Dwelling	197	(48)
The Elm Tree	202	(9)
London Versus Epping Forest	211	(9)
The Woods of Walden	220	(12)
Fallingwater	232	(6)
Andrea Zanzotto	238	(7)
Epilogue: The Ecology of Finitude	245	(6)
Notes and Bibliography	251	(16)
Works Cited	267	(10)
Index	277	(11)
Illustration Credits	288