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Women Writers:Spiritual Realism, Ecological Responsibility, and Inhabitation


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1 Dept of English, University of Central Florida, United States
     

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What does it mean to use a term such as “spiritual realism” in the postmodern world of blurred boundaries, diffused subjects, and socially constructed nature? And what can “ecological responsibility” imply when we are informed that nature is a social construction and even when talking about a referential subject there is no wilderness definable as pristine, and, therefore, there is no wilderness that can be defended or reserved; and politicians and businessmen state that if you can’t make something out of it, nature has no value? Finally, why would anyone want to talk about “inhabitation” when the United States has the most extensive highway system in the world and other countries, such as China and India, are rushing headlong into automobile production and the development of car culture, which promotes a ischolar_mainlessness and restlessness among its consumers? Further, what can “inhabitation” mean at a time when the two most populous countries in the world are rapidly reducing the percentage of their people who live on the land and maintain their livelihoods, meager though they may be, through agriculture, silviculture, and aquaculture in their efforts to industrialize, modernize, and expand their middle classes?.
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  • Women Writers:Spiritual Realism, Ecological Responsibility, and Inhabitation

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Authors

Patrick D. Murphy
Dept of English, University of Central Florida, United States

Abstract


What does it mean to use a term such as “spiritual realism” in the postmodern world of blurred boundaries, diffused subjects, and socially constructed nature? And what can “ecological responsibility” imply when we are informed that nature is a social construction and even when talking about a referential subject there is no wilderness definable as pristine, and, therefore, there is no wilderness that can be defended or reserved; and politicians and businessmen state that if you can’t make something out of it, nature has no value? Finally, why would anyone want to talk about “inhabitation” when the United States has the most extensive highway system in the world and other countries, such as China and India, are rushing headlong into automobile production and the development of car culture, which promotes a ischolar_mainlessness and restlessness among its consumers? Further, what can “inhabitation” mean at a time when the two most populous countries in the world are rapidly reducing the percentage of their people who live on the land and maintain their livelihoods, meager though they may be, through agriculture, silviculture, and aquaculture in their efforts to industrialize, modernize, and expand their middle classes?.