Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects
Date of Degree
9-2019
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Program
English
Advisor
Wayne Koestenbaum
Committee Members
Joan Richardson
Alexander Schlutz
Subject Categories
American Literature | Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies | Literature in English, North America | Other American Studies | Other Arts and Humanities | Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Keywords
Anthropocene, Extinction, Poetry, Mourning, Invasive Species, Environmental Humanities
Abstract
This dissertation is an exploration of mourning and resilient joy in the midst of ecocide. Resisting the pervasive classification of the human as inherently destructive, I look to appetite as an aesthetic procedure that includes a material desire for intimacy with the more-than-human. My study considers the intersections of aesthetic production (primarily twentieth-century poetry and visual art), climate science, geology, cultural studies, theory within the contemporary nonhuman turn, and Alfred North Whitehead’s philosophy of organism. I employ an interdisciplinary approach, which helps me explore the various ways that literal and figurative appetite can be a way of sensing and exploring alternatives to the crisis of simultaneous capitalist accumulation and environmental degradation.
Recommended Citation
Brown, Iemanja, "Through the Mouth: An Essay on Appetite and Ecocide" (2019). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/3319
Included in
American Literature Commons, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies Commons, Literature in English, North America Commons, Other American Studies Commons, Other Arts and Humanities Commons, Other Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons