Spenser, Marine Life, and the Metaphysics of Extinction:Overfishing and the True Monsters of the Deep
This chapter plumbs Spenser’s representations of the sea and sea-life in the context of mounting anxiety about the decline of Britain’s fisheries. It reads the fisherman’s attempted rape of Florimell in Book 3 as a barbed critique of unsustainable fishing practices. The Faerie Queene contrasts Lucre...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Other Authors: | , |
Format: | Book Part |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
2024
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://pure.hud.ac.uk/en/publications/77110c08-94c1-4ee2-ab28-694fdf58d82e https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42641-4_3 https://link.springer.com/book/9783031426407 http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85188086808&partnerID=8YFLogxK |
id |
ftuhuddersfieldc:oai:pure.atira.dk:publications/77110c08-94c1-4ee2-ab28-694fdf58d82e |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftuhuddersfieldc:oai:pure.atira.dk:publications/77110c08-94c1-4ee2-ab28-694fdf58d82e 2024-06-23T07:55:09+00:00 Spenser, Marine Life, and the Metaphysics of Extinction:Overfishing and the True Monsters of the Deep Borlik, Todd Stenner, Rachel Shinn, Abigail 2024-02-21 https://pure.hud.ac.uk/en/publications/77110c08-94c1-4ee2-ab28-694fdf58d82e https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42641-4_3 https://link.springer.com/book/9783031426407 http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85188086808&partnerID=8YFLogxK eng eng Palgrave Macmillan, Cham info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess Borlik , T 2024 , Spenser, Marine Life, and the Metaphysics of Extinction : Overfishing and the True Monsters of the Deep . in R Stenner & A Shinn (eds) , Edmund Spenser and Animal Life . 1st edn , Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature , Palgrave Macmillan, Cham , pp. 45-68 . https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42641-4_3 bookPart 2024 ftuhuddersfieldc https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42641-4_3 2024-06-12T23:31:37Z This chapter plumbs Spenser’s representations of the sea and sea-life in the context of mounting anxiety about the decline of Britain’s fisheries. It reads the fisherman’s attempted rape of Florimell in Book 3 as a barbed critique of unsustainable fishing practices. The Faerie Queene contrasts Lucretian views of the ocean as the site par excellence of ecological instability with a Neoplatonic vision of the ‘fruitful’ ocean as a nursery of immeasurable fecundity and inexhaustible biodiversity. The crash of Britain’s fish stocks seemed to support Lucretius’ troubling theory that species could go extinct, but Spenser’s Neoplatonism spawns hope for the fisheries’ recovery. The chapter then turns to Guyon’s encounters with fish devouring sea-birds on the Rock of Vile Reproach (based on ‘Ireland’s Eye’) and the armada of sea monsters inspired by the drawings of Olaus Magnus. The episode both reinforces and debunks early modern notions of the monstrous alterity of marine life in ways that could alternately deter or encourage Britain’s incipient whaling industry and the expansion of fishing into the North Atlantic. Despite his recoiling from the idea of extinction, Spenser’s willingness to confront environmental problems and to navigate between stable-state and post-equilibrium ecologies makes him an important poet for eco-theory. Book Part North Atlantic University of Huddersfield Research Portal 45 68 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Huddersfield Research Portal |
op_collection_id |
ftuhuddersfieldc |
language |
English |
description |
This chapter plumbs Spenser’s representations of the sea and sea-life in the context of mounting anxiety about the decline of Britain’s fisheries. It reads the fisherman’s attempted rape of Florimell in Book 3 as a barbed critique of unsustainable fishing practices. The Faerie Queene contrasts Lucretian views of the ocean as the site par excellence of ecological instability with a Neoplatonic vision of the ‘fruitful’ ocean as a nursery of immeasurable fecundity and inexhaustible biodiversity. The crash of Britain’s fish stocks seemed to support Lucretius’ troubling theory that species could go extinct, but Spenser’s Neoplatonism spawns hope for the fisheries’ recovery. The chapter then turns to Guyon’s encounters with fish devouring sea-birds on the Rock of Vile Reproach (based on ‘Ireland’s Eye’) and the armada of sea monsters inspired by the drawings of Olaus Magnus. The episode both reinforces and debunks early modern notions of the monstrous alterity of marine life in ways that could alternately deter or encourage Britain’s incipient whaling industry and the expansion of fishing into the North Atlantic. Despite his recoiling from the idea of extinction, Spenser’s willingness to confront environmental problems and to navigate between stable-state and post-equilibrium ecologies makes him an important poet for eco-theory. |
author2 |
Stenner, Rachel Shinn, Abigail |
format |
Book Part |
author |
Borlik, Todd |
spellingShingle |
Borlik, Todd Spenser, Marine Life, and the Metaphysics of Extinction:Overfishing and the True Monsters of the Deep |
author_facet |
Borlik, Todd |
author_sort |
Borlik, Todd |
title |
Spenser, Marine Life, and the Metaphysics of Extinction:Overfishing and the True Monsters of the Deep |
title_short |
Spenser, Marine Life, and the Metaphysics of Extinction:Overfishing and the True Monsters of the Deep |
title_full |
Spenser, Marine Life, and the Metaphysics of Extinction:Overfishing and the True Monsters of the Deep |
title_fullStr |
Spenser, Marine Life, and the Metaphysics of Extinction:Overfishing and the True Monsters of the Deep |
title_full_unstemmed |
Spenser, Marine Life, and the Metaphysics of Extinction:Overfishing and the True Monsters of the Deep |
title_sort |
spenser, marine life, and the metaphysics of extinction:overfishing and the true monsters of the deep |
publisher |
Palgrave Macmillan, Cham |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
https://pure.hud.ac.uk/en/publications/77110c08-94c1-4ee2-ab28-694fdf58d82e https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42641-4_3 https://link.springer.com/book/9783031426407 http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85188086808&partnerID=8YFLogxK |
genre |
North Atlantic |
genre_facet |
North Atlantic |
op_source |
Borlik , T 2024 , Spenser, Marine Life, and the Metaphysics of Extinction : Overfishing and the True Monsters of the Deep . in R Stenner & A Shinn (eds) , Edmund Spenser and Animal Life . 1st edn , Palgrave Studies in Animals and Literature , Palgrave Macmillan, Cham , pp. 45-68 . https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42641-4_3 |
op_rights |
info:eu-repo/semantics/embargoedAccess |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-42641-4_3 |
container_start_page |
45 |
op_container_end_page |
68 |
_version_ |
1802647614331551744 |