The nature industry : reflections on culture at the end of nature

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dc.contributor.advisorHiggins, Johnen_ZA
dc.contributor.authorGreen, Louiseen_ZA
dc.date.accessioned2014-09-11T06:45:45Z
dc.date.available2014-09-11T06:45:45Z
dc.date.issued2004en_ZA
dc.descriptionIncludes bibliographical references (leaves 166-173).en_ZA
dc.description.abstractAt the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first century the concept of nature assumes a new visibility. I argue that this visibility, which takes the form of an anxiety about 'the end of nature', can be linked to a sense of crisis surrounding the possibility of life in late capitalist society. An understanding of the 'end of nature', I suggest, can best be achieved by returning to the work of Theodor Adorno. In particular, the figure of the constellation seems to offer a effective mode of analysis for addressing the complexities contained in this cultural phenomenon. The cultural texts I have chosen to juxtapose are drawn from a series of seemingly unconnected areas of cultural life: a parkway, a utopian novel, an exhibition of chimpanzee paintings, a dystopian novel, a series of popular films and a number of philosophical essays and cultural commentaries. I say seemingly unconnected because my thesis attempts to show how the general sense of 'the end of nature' emerges in different ways in these different discursive forms and representational arenas. What emerges from this constellation of elements is an image of nature as that which holds and conceals the irreducible contradictions of living in consumer society. The image makes visible how things like landscapes, animals and human bodies, become marginalized and/or reduced to commodities sometimes even in the very act of trying to conserve them. What also becomes evident in the phenomenon of the end of nature is an inflation in the value of the concept of 'nature'. If in some ways, the new value acquired by nature seems simply to repeat an earlier movement, in which reified nature becomes the desired alternative to the degraded landscape of industrial production, this interpretation does not sufficiently account for the extent and intensity of recent interest in nature. This inflation in the value of nature is not only a tum away from history. It also involves recognizing something about the agency of what is not human. Nature returns as a sign of loss and of value not only because of real environmental concerns, but also because, in a lived condition of increasing abstraction, it contains the promise of something outside.en_ZA
dc.identifier.apacitationGreen, L. (2004). <i>The nature industry : reflections on culture at the end of nature</i>. (Thesis). University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7416en_ZA
dc.identifier.chicagocitationGreen, Louise. <i>"The nature industry : reflections on culture at the end of nature."</i> Thesis., University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7416en_ZA
dc.identifier.citationGreen, L. 2004. The nature industry : reflections on culture at the end of nature. University of Cape Town.en_ZA
dc.identifier.ris TY - Thesis / Dissertation AU - Green, Louise AB - At the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first century the concept of nature assumes a new visibility. I argue that this visibility, which takes the form of an anxiety about 'the end of nature', can be linked to a sense of crisis surrounding the possibility of life in late capitalist society. An understanding of the 'end of nature', I suggest, can best be achieved by returning to the work of Theodor Adorno. In particular, the figure of the constellation seems to offer a effective mode of analysis for addressing the complexities contained in this cultural phenomenon. The cultural texts I have chosen to juxtapose are drawn from a series of seemingly unconnected areas of cultural life: a parkway, a utopian novel, an exhibition of chimpanzee paintings, a dystopian novel, a series of popular films and a number of philosophical essays and cultural commentaries. I say seemingly unconnected because my thesis attempts to show how the general sense of 'the end of nature' emerges in different ways in these different discursive forms and representational arenas. What emerges from this constellation of elements is an image of nature as that which holds and conceals the irreducible contradictions of living in consumer society. The image makes visible how things like landscapes, animals and human bodies, become marginalized and/or reduced to commodities sometimes even in the very act of trying to conserve them. What also becomes evident in the phenomenon of the end of nature is an inflation in the value of the concept of 'nature'. If in some ways, the new value acquired by nature seems simply to repeat an earlier movement, in which reified nature becomes the desired alternative to the degraded landscape of industrial production, this interpretation does not sufficiently account for the extent and intensity of recent interest in nature. This inflation in the value of nature is not only a tum away from history. It also involves recognizing something about the agency of what is not human. Nature returns as a sign of loss and of value not only because of real environmental concerns, but also because, in a lived condition of increasing abstraction, it contains the promise of something outside. DA - 2004 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2004 T1 - The nature industry : reflections on culture at the end of nature TI - The nature industry : reflections on culture at the end of nature UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7416 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11427/7416
dc.identifier.vancouvercitationGreen L. The nature industry : reflections on culture at the end of nature. [Thesis]. University of Cape Town ,Faculty of Humanities ,Department of English Language and Literature, 2004 [cited yyyy month dd]. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7416en_ZA
dc.language.isoengen_ZA
dc.publisher.departmentDepartment of English Language and Literatureen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Humanitiesen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subject.otherEnglish Language and Literatureen_ZA
dc.titleThe nature industry : reflections on culture at the end of natureen_ZA
dc.typeDoctoral Thesis
dc.type.qualificationlevelDoctoral
dc.type.qualificationnamePhDen_ZA
uct.type.filetypeText
uct.type.filetypeImage
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceThesisen_ZA
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