scholarly journals Imagining Rivers: The Aesthetics, History, and Politics of American Waterways. A Conversation Between Lawrence Buell and Christof Mauch

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 229-237
Author(s):  
Lawrence Buell ◽  
Christof Mauch
Keyword(s):  
Nature Writing ◽  
Harvard University ◽  
Literary Imagination ◽  
Environmental Crisis ◽  
Critical Survey ◽  
Environmental Writing ◽  
Environmental Criticism ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Environmental Imagination

This contribution features a transatlantic conversation between Christof Mauch, environmental historian and Americanist from Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich, and Lawrence Buell, literary scholar and “pioneer” of Ecocriticism from Harvard University. Buell’s The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture (1995) marked the first major attempt to understand the green tradition of environmental writing, nonfiction as well as fiction, beginning in colonial times and continuing into the present day. With Thoreau’s Walden as a touchstone, this seminal book provided an account of the place of nature in the history of Western thought. Other highly acclaimed monographs include Writing for an Endangered World (2001), a book that brought industrialized and exurban landscapes into conversation with one other, and The Future of Environmental Criticism: Environmental Crisis and Literary Imagination (2009), which provides a critical survey of the ecocritical movement since the 1970s, with an eye to the future of the discipline.    

Review Essay The Environmental Imagination: Walden and its Readers

1997 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 313-319
Author(s):  
STEPHEN FENDER
Keyword(s):  
Civil Rights ◽  
Nature Writing ◽  
Harvard University ◽  
Important Work ◽  
John Muir ◽  
Nineteenth Century Literature ◽  
Scarlet Letter ◽  
Moby Dick ◽  
The Scarlet Letter ◽  
Environmental Imagination

Laurence Buell, The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1995, £27.95). Pp. 586. ISBN 0 674 25861 4.In an MLA survey conducted in 1991 American professors proclaimed Walden the single most important work to teach in the country's nineteenth-century literature. Walden got 45% of the vote, as against 34% for The Scarlet Letter and 29% for Moby Dick. And, as Professor Buell reminds the readers of this wide-ranging, scholarly, and beautifully written book, Walden has always had a popular readership to match its early incorporation into the canon of American classics as studied in schools and universities. And there is hardly an American special-interest group – from nudists and whole-earthers, through civil-rights marchers, John-Birchers and survivalist cults – that has not claimed Thoreau at one time or another as its patron saint. The Unabomber is said to have been a particularly avid reader. Above all, it has been an inspiration to ecologists and environmentalists, starting with the pioneer of conservation legislation, John Muir.

A Dynamic Systems Approach to Personality

2001 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 172-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence A. Pervin
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Systems ◽  
Systems Approach ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
Dynamic View ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of

David Magnusson has been the most articulate spokesperson for a holistic, systems approach to personality. This paper considers three concepts relevant to a dynamic systems approach to personality: dynamics, systems, and levels. Some of the history of a dynamic view is traced, leading to an emphasis on the need for stressing the interplay among goals. Concepts such as multidetermination, equipotentiality, and equifinality are shown to be important aspects of a systems approach. Finally, attention is drawn to the question of levels of description, analysis, and explanation in a theory of personality. The importance of the issue is emphasized in relation to recent advances in our understanding of biological processes. Integrating such advances into a theory of personality while avoiding the danger of reductionism is a challenge for the future.

A Reflection on Crucial Periods in 50 Years of Social Psychology (in Germany)

2019 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6
Author(s):  
Katja Corcoran ◽  
Michael Häfner ◽  
Mathias Kauff ◽  
Stefan Stürmer
Keyword(s):  
Social Psychology ◽  
Early Development ◽  
West Germany ◽  
East And West Germany ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
East And West

Abstract. In this article, we reflect on 50 years of the journal Social Psychology. We interviewed colleagues who have witnessed the history of the journal. Based on these interviews, we identified three crucial periods in Social Psychology’s history, that are (a) the early development and further professionalization of the journal, (b) the reunification of East and West Germany, and (c) the internationalization of the journal and its transformation from the Zeitschrift für Sozialpsychologie to Social Psychology. We end our reflection with a discussion of changes that occurred during these periods and their implication for the future of our field.

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