IMAGINING EXTINCTION: THE CULTURAL MEANINGS OF ENDANGERED SPECIES
Book ID/图书代码： 13560016B95910
English Summary/英文概要： We are currently facing the sixth mass extinction of species in the history of life on Earth, biologists claim the first one caused by humans. Activists, filmmakers, writers, and artists are seeking to bring the crisis to the public’s attention through stories and images that use the strategies of elegy, tragedy, epic, and even comedy. Imagining Extinction is the first book to examine the cultural frameworks shaping these narratives and images. Ursula K. Heise argues that understanding these stories and symbols is indispensable for any effective advocacy on behalf of endangered species. More than that, she shows how biodiversity conservation, even and especially in its scientific and legal dimensions, is shaped by cultural assumptions about what is valuable in nature and what is not. These assumptions are hardwired into even seemingly neutral tools such as biodiversity databases and laws for the protection of endangered species. Heise shows that the conflicts and convergences of biodiversity conservation with animal welfare advocacy, environmental justice, and discussions about the Anthropocene open up a new vision of multispecies justice. Ultimately, Imagining Extinction demonstrates that biodiversity, endangered species, and extinction are not only scientific questions but issues of histories, cultures, and values.
Chinese Summary/中文概要： 我们目前正面临着地球生命史上第六次大规模的物种灭绝，生物学家声称这是第一次因为人类而造成物种大灭绝。活动家、电影制片人，作家和艺术家试图通过故事和影像，通过挽歌、悲剧、史诗或者喜剧的表现形式，唤醒人们对于这场危机的关注。本书是第一本通过文化框架研究这些叙述和图像。Ursula K. Heise认为，了解这些故事和符号对于有效宣传濒危物种是必不可少的。更重要的是，她展示了生物多样性保护，特别在科学和法律的层面上，是由文化假设来判定其价值和本质的。这些假设都是在看似中性的工具，如生物多样性数据库和保护濒危物种的法律。但Heise展现了生物多样性保护和动物福利宣传、环境正义之间的种种冲突，并讨论了人类世是否真的带来了新的多物种的公正世界。总的来说，本书展现了生物多样性、濒危物种甚至物种灭绝都不仅仅是科学问题，更是历史问题、文化问题和价值观的问题。（LYR）
Awards/获奖情况：Heise是她这一代人中最重要的环保批评家之一。任何人，如果关注人类以外的物种长期所面临的濒危甚至灭绝的威胁、而且正在加速走向末日，如果考虑这些文化困境在历史上以及未来究竟有何意义，那么他们都会从阅读这本书中获益。（Laurence Bruell，哈佛大学）
“Heise is the leading ecocritic of her generation. Any serious-minded person with a concern for the longstanding but accelerating plight of endangered nonhuman species—and how to make sense of its history and possible futures as an urgent cultural predicament—is certain to profit from reading Imagining Extinction.”
(Lawrence Buell, Harvard University)
“Imagining Extinction shows Heise working at the height of her powers, traversing a formidable range of charged ecological-cultural issues that include mass species extinctions and rapid loss of biodiversity; global climate change; narrative ‘templates’ that structure how cultures care about, and tell stories about, other species; the rise of biodiversity databases; biodiversity laws; and animal rights. This book is elegantly written, cogently organized, and comprehensively researched.”
(Nicole Shukin, University of Victoria)
About the Author/作者介绍： Ursula K. Heise是洛杉矶加利福尼亚大学英语系的文学研究主席，同时也是环境与可持续发展学院的重要学者。她的著作包括《Chronoschisms: Time, Narrative, and Postmodernism》以及《Sense of Place and Sense of Planet: The Environmental Imagination of the Global》。
Ursula K. Heise is the Marcia H. Howard Chair in Literary Studies in the Department of English and the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her books include Chronoschisms: Time, Narrative, and Postmodernism and Sense of Place and Sense of Planet: The Environmental Imagination of the Global.
Format:HARDCOVER
Rights Status/版权销售情况：Simplified Chinese/简体中文：AVAILABLE
Complex/Traditional Chinese/繁体中文：AVAILABLE
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