Writing for an Endangered World

Horror or realism? Filming ‘toxic discourse’ in Jane Smiley'sA Thousand Acres

“…Smiley works with the topoi of toxic discourse to produce a complicated and powerful narrative in which the unnatural use of the land and its subsequent poisoning is linked to the unnatural use and subsequent poisoning of the family, but in which many questions remain unanswered, such as the usefulness of social convention, as I noted above; or the possibilities of effective protest or political action in the wake of what Buell calls a 'disenchantment from the illusion of the green oasis'; 25 or the precise meaning of what, in fact, is 'natural' (recall that the stone quarry is both natural and man-made, as are the farms themselves, and Ginny, as I note below, uses a 'natural' plant, hemlock, in an 'unnatural' way, to attempt the murder of Rose). In contrast to Smiley, Moorhouse evacuates these topoi, minimizing their force, to produce a film that is powerfully feminist, but domestically so, focusing on family dysfunction and in particular on sexual abuse and the potential of recovered memory.…”

“…62 Nor is it the kind of resolution we look for in toxic discourse, which promotes intervention in social policy so as to further human and social, as well as ecological, health. 63 Safe's refusal to engage propositionally with our relationship to nature and technology, its refusal to 'tell. .…”

“…Toxic discourse recognizes that 'the case has not yet been proven, at least to the satisfaction of the requisite authorities', a recognition that nevertheless does not undermine its 'moralism and intensity'. 49 Yet this moral intensity, which leads to 'hesitant but persistent insinuation' in the face of scientific or public skepticism, 50 can lead the subjects of toxic discourse, like Carol in Safe, to lose credibility with, and the sympathy of, their audiences. 51 Perhaps Haynes senses this, since Safe's development of toxic discourse, its movement towards horror, is an important means by which he upsets film's narrative expectation that an audience will be able to know and to identify with the protagonist.…”

A fabricação de uma cidade tóxica: A Tribuna de Santos e os desastres tecnológicos de Cubatão (Brasil) na década de 1980

“…Lawrence Buell (2011) observa que a toxicidade é um conjunto interconectado de temas cuja força deriva em parte das ansiedades da cultura industrial e em parte de hábitos profundamente enraizados de pensamento e expressão (BUELL, 2011, p. 30). O tóxico, o contaminante, o poluente, dessa forma, emergem dos pânicos individuais e sociais e de uma base evidencial nos fenômenos ambientais (BUELL, 2011, p. 31).…”

História oral e história ambiental no sul do Brasil: estudo de caso sobre a fruticultura em Fraiburgo/Santa Catarina

“…É necessário que se diga, de início, que não há uma forma específica de se fazer história. Partimos, contudo, da ideia de que a história ambiental é um tipo de história na qual é necessário perceber a relação entre humanos e não humanos a partir da interface entre as dimensões natural e construída do mundo palpável (BUEll, 2001). Christof Mauch e helmut trischler (2010), ao pensarem as relações, o papel e a contribuição da história no trato de questões ambientais, afirmam que a natureza ainda representa, contudo, um desafio cultural para historiadores e historiadoras.…”