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The Earth's land and its inhabitants are in jeopardy. Ecosystems are threatened in every corner of the world. Neocolonial forces define human relations increasingly in fundamentalist terms. Land settlement patterns formulated during the colonial era have left more and more people on today's planet without property, without the resources needed to sustain a livable existence, and with only a combative understanding of identity. This book argues that humanity's relationship to the land has undergone a fundamental change, and reveals how the historical phenomenon known as the "enclosure movement" has come to have a profound effect on how we relate to the earth, and on how we conceive of ourselves as human beings. Analyzing narratives by Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, E.M. Forster, D.H. Lawrence, Salman Rushdie, and others, Marzec reveals the extent to which the legacy of enclosures continues to dictate the geopolitical reality of the present.
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An Ecological and Postcolonial Study of Literature This page intentionally left blank An Ecological and Postcolonial Study of Literature From Daniel Defoe to Salman Rushdie by Robert P. Marzec AN ECOLOGICAL AND POSTCOLONIAL STUDY OF LITERATURE © Robert P. Marzec, 2007. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. First published in 2007 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™ 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10010 and Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS Companies and representatives throughout the world. PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the Palgrave Macmillan division of St. Martin’s Press, LLC and of Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. Macmillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom and other countries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European Union and other countries. ISBN-13: 978–1–4039–7640–6 ISBN-10: 1–4039–7640–6 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Marzec, Robert P. An ecological and postcolonial study of literature : from Daniel Defoe to Salman Rushdie / by Robert P. Marzec. p. cm. ISBN 1–4039–7640–6 (alk. paper) 1. English fiction—History and criticism. 2. Inclosures in literature. 3. Land tenure in literature. 4. Land use in literature. 5. Imperialism in literature. 6. Ontology in literature. I. Title. PR830.I593M37 2007 820.9⬘358—dc22 2006050996 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: April 2007 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Printed in the United States of America. Con t e n t s Acknowledgments vii Chapter One Enclosures, Colonization, and the Robinson Crusoe Syndrome: Notes toward an Ontology of Land 1 I. Introduction: The Robinson Crusoe Syndrome and the Enclosure Movement 1 II. Enclosures and Inhabitancy 8 III. Robinson Crusoe and the Tour 13 IV. Conclusion—Global Enclosures 22 Chapter Two The Territorialization of Land 27 I. Imperialism and the Territorialization of Land: The Native Ground of Heidegger’s “Earth” 30 II. Imperialism and the Deterritorialization of Land: Deleuze and Guattari’s “Stockpiling” 37 III. Sticks of Mead: A Genealogy of Enclosures, the Open-Field System, and the Commons 42 IV. Daniel Defoe and Arthur Young: The Panoptic “General View” 51 V. The Material Mechanism That Holds It All Together: Adam Naming the Land 65 VI. Native Earth: The “Tenacious Cement” 71 vi / contents Chapter Three Problematizing Enclosure in Eight