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The Saving Graces of America's Green Jeremiad

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American environmental literature characteristically embodies an appreciative, lyrical evocation of the natural world. But conservation-minded authors have often been moved to dramatize diverse, anthropogenic perils to environmental preservation. John Gatta freshly reveals how this darker strain of environmental writing enlarges upon a jeremiad tradition of prophecy inherited from Puritan New England. In the spirit of ancient Hebrew prophecy, jeremiads reach beyond effusions of doom and gloom toward prospects of renewal through a conversion of heart. Accordingly, writing steeped in what Gatta terms this "Green Jeremiad" tradition not only warns of material perils but incorporates a spiritual, existential layer of meaning.
John Gatta is professor english emeritus at the University of Connecticut and at the University of the South, Sewanee.
Introduction Chapter 1. Ancient Jeremiah's New World Progeny Chapter 2. Toward the Jeremiad Bloom of Silent Spring Chapter 3. From the Blustery Dawn of Earth Day to Earth First! Chapter 4 Prophesying the End of Nature Chapter 5. Saving Truths of the New "CliFi" Jeremiad Conclusion
I read John Gatta's inspirational and informative study with pleasure and excitement. He is onto something of great value here, as he looks for what he calls 'transformative grace" in certain key texts. He identifies a significant, if not central, American tradition, the Green Jeremiad, and he tracks it lovingly, rightly seeing a testimony of faith in each of these works: faith in the readers who come to these pages with expectation, with moral attentiveness, alert to the possibilities of change. This is a deeply serious and important book. -- Jay Parini, Middlebury College, and author of Borges and Me
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