Excellent4.8 out of 5On Trustpilot
  1. Christian Academic Books/
  2. Philosophy

Stone

An Ecology of the Inhuman

by Jeffrey Jerome Cohen

  • Paperback
  • 376 pages
  • Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
  • 14 x 21.7 x 2.4 cm

£19.93

Free UK Delivery

Available - Usually dispatched within 4 days

Buying for a school or church? Upgrade to a FREE Eden Advance Account

Free delivery on orders over £10

Stone maps the force, vivacity, and stories within our most mundane matter, stone. For too long stone has served as an unexamined metaphor for the "really real" blunt factuality, nature's curt rebuke. Yet, medieval writers knew that stones drop with fire from the sky, emerge through the subterranean lovemaking of the elements, tumble along riverbeds from Eden, partner with the masons who build worlds with them. Such motion suggests an ecological enmeshment and an almost creaturely mineral life.Although geological time can leave us reeling, Jeffrey Jerome Cohen argues that stone's endurance is also an invitation to apprehend the world in other than human terms. Never truly inert, stone poses a profound challenge to modernity's disenchantments. Its agency undermines the human desire to be separate from the environment, a bifurcation that renders nature "out there," a mere resource for recreation, consumption, and exploitation.Written with great verve and elegance, this pioneering work is notable not only for interweaving the medieval and the modern but also as a major contribution to ecotheory. Comprising chapters organized by concept --"Geophilia," "Time," "Force," and "Soul"--Cohen seamlessly brings together a wide range of topics including stone's potential to transport humans into nonanthropocentric scales of place and time, the "petrification" of certain cultures, the messages fossils bear, the architecture of Bordeaux and Montparnasse, Yucca Mountain and nuclear waste disposal, the ability of stone to communicate across millennia in structures like Stonehenge, and debates over whether stones reproduce and have souls.Showing that what is often assumed to be the most lifeless of substances is, in its own time, restless and forever in motion, Stone fittingly concludes by taking us to Iceland⎯a land that, writes the author, "reminds us that stone like water is alive, that stone like water is transient."
Stone and Elemental Ecocriticism: Thinking with Earth, Air, Water, and Fire
Elemental Ecocriticism: Thinking with Earth, Air, Water, and FireStone

  • Author

    Jeffrey Jerome Cohen

  • Book Format

    Paperback

  • Publisher

    University of Minnesota Press

  • Published

    August 2015

  • Weight

    496g

  • Page Count

    376

  • Dimensions

    14 x 21.7 x 2.4 cm

  • ISBN

    9780816692620

  • ISBN-10

    0816692629

  • Eden Code

    4584737

Over 14,000 churches and schools have upgraded to an Advance Account and we‘d love to welcome you into this free program. We know that church volunteers and school teachers often use their own money, then have claim it back on on an expense form. We can take all of that hassle away by invoicing your church or school directly and delivering your order straight away.

Opening an account is quick and easy, with most accounts being approved and setup within a few hours of filling in the form below (on weekdays, not weekends). As soon as we‘ve approved the application we‘ll send you an email to let you know that its done.

Upgrade to a FREE Eden Advance Account
Write a review
      Ask a question
      Open Doors Ad