Mother/Nature

by Roach, Catherine M.

• ISBN13: 9780253215628
• ISBN10: 0253215625
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-01-01
• Publisher: INGRAM

Summary

This brief but ambitious book explores our relationship with nature through the imagery we use when we talk about Mother Nature. Employing the critical tools of religious studies, psychology, and gender studies, Catherine M. Roach examines the various manifestations of nature as "mother" and what that idea implies for the way we approach the natural world. Part One, "Nature as Good Mother," discusses the notion that nature is, or is like, a beneficent and nurturing mother who provides and maintains life. In studying the "green" slogan "Love Your Mother," Roach questions the effects -- for women and for the environment -- of imputing female gender to nature. She asks us to look at the associations that "motherhood" and "mothering" carry within a culture still shaped by patriarchy. She notes the danger of such an apparently pro-environmental slogan if "mother" evokes the bountiful, self-sacrificing provider who herself requires no care.Part Two, "Nature as Bad Mother," looks at the contrary notion of nature as a violent, threatening, and wrathful mother. This image arises most often when humans and technology are depicted as masters of unruly nature. Here Roach draws on theological reflection to analyze this ambivalence toward nature manifested in a fantasy that casts humans as gods. She explores the contributions of eco-theology and eco-psychology to a "heart of darkness" perspective. Finally, Part Three, "Nature as Hurt Mother," looks at possibilities and pitfalls of environmental healing inherent in the image of nature as a mother we have wounded and now seek to heal.

Author Biography

Catherine M. Roach is Assistant Professor of New College and Religious Studies at the University of Alabama.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Wilderness--Within and Without	p. 1
A Heart-of-Darkness Environmentalism	p. 1
Mother Nature in Popular Culture	p. 8
Tools of Analysis: Religion, Psychology, and Gender	p. 16
Nature as Good Mother	p. 25
"Love Your Mother"	p. 27
Loving Mother Earth: Case Study of a Bumper Sticker	p. 28
Ecofeminist Critique	p. 36
Are Women Closer to Nature?	p. 39
Mothers and Mother Nature	p. 51
The Unconscious and the Environment	p. 51
The Nature of Mothering	p. 58
Case Study Revisited	p. 67
Nature as Bad Mother	p. 73
"She Will Try to Drown You"	p. 75
The Threatening Mother: Case Study of Two Commercials	p. 75
"And Ye Shall Be as Gods": Fantasies of Aseity, a Theological Analysis	p. 80
Human Badness and Environmental Discourse	p. 91
Splitting Mother Nature	p. 102
A Psychoanalytic Perspective	p. 103
The Bad Mother	p. 107
Why Popular Culture Attacks Mother Nature	p. 115
Nature as Hurt Mother	p. 123
"Our Mother Needs Our Help"	p. 125
Green Knights: Case Study of a Public Service Announcement	p. 125
The Relational Self: Toward a Theory of Environmental Right Relation	p. 131
Earth Healing and the Environmental Movement: Four Criteria	p. 137
Healing Mother Nature	p. 155
Environmentalism and the Tragic	p. 155
Mother Nature, Human Nature: Concluding Appraisals	p. 160
Toward the Future	p. 170
Notes	p. 175
Bibliography	p. 201
Index	p. 215
Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved.