Books by Nuno Marques
Umeå studies in language and literature, 2020
Atmospheric and Geological Entanglements is a study of contemporary North American ecopoetry, whi... more Atmospheric and Geological Entanglements is a study of contemporary North American ecopoetry, which is characterized by a negotiation or subversion of established cultural representations of nature, and by a re-deployment of poetic forms such as lyrical poetry , pastoral and elegy. The studied poets experiment with form and question well-established categories such as human and nature, instead emphasizing connections between the human, other organisms , and inorganic matter. Their poetry-one of several results of their artistic and critical practice, or poetics-thus highlights en-tanglements of various kinds and draws attention to the world as on how twentieth-century ecopoetry relates to two material and aesthetic dimensions of the Anthropocene: the atmospheric and the geological. Geological imagery has been dominant in discussions about and in the Anthropocene, but ecopoetry emphasizes song,-tion and relationships, and for thinking with others and the planet.
Douda Correria, 2017
The first translation of Gary Snyder’s poetry in European Portuguese. Translated with Margarida V... more The first translation of Gary Snyder’s poetry in European Portuguese. Translated with Margarida Vale de Gato. (drawings by Délio Vargas)
Douda Correria, 2018
Collection of ecopoems that reworks Portuguese cultural models of nature in light of inherent vio... more Collection of ecopoems that reworks Portuguese cultural models of nature in light of inherent violence of eating animals. (drawings by André Alves)
Papers by Nuno Marques
In December 2001, three months after the attacks on the World Trade Centre (WTC) on 11th Septembe... more In December 2001, three months after the attacks on the World Trade Centre (WTC) on 11th September, Don DeLillo wrote that the real target of the terrorists was “the high gloss of [US] modernity … technology … foreign policy … It was the power of American culture to penetrate every wall, home, life, and mind” (DeLillo 2001, 34). Let us begin this introduction by focusing on the words “wall[s] and home[s]” used by DeLillo. In light of US hegemony, how should we re-think and revisit notions of home and its (linguistic and physical) boundaries? How can we measure the extent of a movement that reaches “every wall, home, life, and mind”?
In December 2001, three months after the attacks on the World Trade Centre (WTC) on 11th Septembe... more In December 2001, three months after the attacks on the World Trade Centre (WTC) on 11th September, Don DeLillo wrote that the real target of the terrorists was “the high gloss of [US] modernity … technology … foreign policy … It was the power of American culture to penetrate every wall, home, life, and mind” (DeLillo 2001, 34). Let us begin this introduction by focusing on the words “wall[s] and home[s]” used by DeLillo. In light of US hegemony, how should we re-think and revisit notions of home and its (linguistic and physical) boundaries? How can we measure the extent of a movement that reaches “every wall, home, life, and mind”?
Ecocene: Cappadocia Journal of Environmental Humanities 1, no. 2 (December), 2020
I propose that Gary Snyder’s bioregional project can contribute to recent ecopoetic th... more I propose that Gary Snyder’s bioregional project can contribute to recent ecopoetic thought with its argument for poetry as embodied practice and with its definition of community as place-based, transnational, and multi-species. I start by showing continuities between bioregionalism and ecocriticism with the concept of place. I then turn to Snyder’s conceptualization of place as a dialectics between the biotic and sociopolitical dimensions. For Snyder poetry is a situated and embodied practice of investigation and creation of place. It therefore relates with recent discussions on ecopoetics as a critical and poetic practice extended to ecologically oriented forms of community action and activism (Hume and Osborne 2018,2). As an example of how current ecopoetry practices a poetics of place I briefly discuss Allison Cobb’s Plastic: An Autobiography (2015)
Kulturella perspektiv - Svensk etnologisk tidskrift, 2020
Traditionally, elegy moves from loss to consolation by framing death within larger regenerative c... more Traditionally, elegy moves from loss to consolation by framing death within larger regenerative cycles of nature. But in the current time of ecological disruption, nature as regeneration is no longer available, and this absence hinders the process of mourn- ing, not allowing consolation. In parallel, the large scale of the environmental crisis creates a sense of futility of action. Both the inability to overcome mourning and the lack of will to act for environ- mental change create a permanent state of grief that Juliana Spahr, Joshua Clover and Allison Cobb term West Melancholia. How can ecopoetry overcome the process of mourning for lost ecosys- tems and species, and instead contribute to action? I propose that in contemporary North-American ecopoetry, consolation is given by poetic research in language and activist engagement. Spahr’s "Gentle Now, Don’t Add to Heartache" (2011) and Misan- thropocene: 24 Theses (2014), co-authored with Clover, tie grief to the failure of inherited models of representing nature and instead suggest consolation in ecopoetry as activist practice. Cobb’s After We All Died (2016) grounds consolation in a practice of starting from failure to researching language for modes of overcoming grief. I discuss these works to uncover the poets’ proposals of overcoming melancholia through exploration of language and engaged activist writing.
Messengers from the Stars: On Science Fiction and Fantasy Nº 1 , 2016
I argue that Richard Brautigan’s poem “All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace” is an ecolog... more I argue that Richard Brautigan’s poem “All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace” is an ecological dystopia in the science fiction genre. Brautigan’s poem creates a post-pastoral image of a cybernetic ecology monitored and controlled by machines. The poem’s internal structure and tone provide an ironic commentary to its theme of a utopian project, highlighting its internal conflicts and showing its impossibility. I argue, therefore, that the poem is a critique of the ecological utopias of the 60s and can be read accordingly.
Paul Bowles -The New Generation: Do You Bowles? Essays and Criticism, 2014
Analysis of the novels by Paul Bowles and Jack Kerouac exploring the impossibility of a perfect c... more Analysis of the novels by Paul Bowles and Jack Kerouac exploring the impossibility of a perfect communion with nature, a common theme in North American literature.
Interdisciplinary Review for the Humanities, 5 / Special Issue: “Insecurity and Global Terror(s)", 2014
Book Reviews by Nuno Marques
Dedalus: Portuguese Journal of Comparative Literature, Special Issue: “Cultures of (In)Security in Comparison,” edited by. Susana Araújo, Carlos G. Castellano and Susana S. Martins, 2015
Thesis by Nuno Marques
A Nova Poética da natureza de Gary Snyder budismo e ecocrítica na sua obra, 2013
This thesis presents the work of the poet Gary Snyder (1930) to the Portuguese academia in order ... more This thesis presents the work of the poet Gary Snyder (1930) to the Portuguese academia in order to clearly state its original and unique place among North-American poetry. It is divided in three chapters that determine the three different grounds of the author’s syncretism.
The first chapter contextualizes Snyder’s work in the history of literary representations of nature. In rupture with the Pastoral literary mode it crystallizes a moment of passing between nature writing and environmental writing.
The second chapter discusses the Buddhist elements present in Snyder’s work and stresses the importance of the interrelation between mind and nature. By stating the equivalence between the Buddhist concept of interdependence and ecosystems processes, the poems assume certain formal characteristics that are presented.
Finally, the third chapter defines the relation between geographical places and Snyder’s poems. The formal aspects of the author’s poetry reflect Snyder’s notion of the poet as a shaman and its clarification allows for the discussion of the author’s statement of language as a wild ecosystem.
Snyder’s syncretism is his most profound, original and long lasting influence in north-American poetry. It extends its influence to environmental ethics, the presence of Buddhism in North-America and the recovery of Native American Myths and lore. It does so in the context of a social, political, poetic, religious and environmental revolution that intends to create a new (and old) place for Man with Nature.
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Books by Nuno Marques
Papers by Nuno Marques
Book Reviews by Nuno Marques
Thesis by Nuno Marques
The first chapter contextualizes Snyder’s work in the history of literary representations of nature. In rupture with the Pastoral literary mode it crystallizes a moment of passing between nature writing and environmental writing.
The second chapter discusses the Buddhist elements present in Snyder’s work and stresses the importance of the interrelation between mind and nature. By stating the equivalence between the Buddhist concept of interdependence and ecosystems processes, the poems assume certain formal characteristics that are presented.
Finally, the third chapter defines the relation between geographical places and Snyder’s poems. The formal aspects of the author’s poetry reflect Snyder’s notion of the poet as a shaman and its clarification allows for the discussion of the author’s statement of language as a wild ecosystem.
Snyder’s syncretism is his most profound, original and long lasting influence in north-American poetry. It extends its influence to environmental ethics, the presence of Buddhism in North-America and the recovery of Native American Myths and lore. It does so in the context of a social, political, poetic, religious and environmental revolution that intends to create a new (and old) place for Man with Nature.
The first chapter contextualizes Snyder’s work in the history of literary representations of nature. In rupture with the Pastoral literary mode it crystallizes a moment of passing between nature writing and environmental writing.
The second chapter discusses the Buddhist elements present in Snyder’s work and stresses the importance of the interrelation between mind and nature. By stating the equivalence between the Buddhist concept of interdependence and ecosystems processes, the poems assume certain formal characteristics that are presented.
Finally, the third chapter defines the relation between geographical places and Snyder’s poems. The formal aspects of the author’s poetry reflect Snyder’s notion of the poet as a shaman and its clarification allows for the discussion of the author’s statement of language as a wild ecosystem.
Snyder’s syncretism is his most profound, original and long lasting influence in north-American poetry. It extends its influence to environmental ethics, the presence of Buddhism in North-America and the recovery of Native American Myths and lore. It does so in the context of a social, political, poetic, religious and environmental revolution that intends to create a new (and old) place for Man with Nature.