Global monocultures and local diversity: Gilbert White, and natural observation as a form of community-building
Lead Research Organisation:
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Department Name: English Faculty
Abstract
My research explores Gilbert White's natural history writing, the community-making his observations enacted, and its potential resonances for modern ecology. This research is based in literary analysis of White's The Natural History and Antiquities of Selbourne, his journals and letters. It also explores wider eighteenth-century natural history, contextualising White's place within this emerging discipline.
In writing Natural History, White used various sources of observation-from renowned naturalists and academic texts to local people and personal experience- fashioning a disparate community centred around observing nature. My work examines how White built and interacted with this local, textual community, and how it influenced his thinking and writing. From here, I will question how naturalist observation and nature writing itself might function as a community-making process, and whether modern ecologists can utilise White's example to re-engage local communities with nature. By looking at White in relation to modern ecological concerns, this research will further nuance our understanding of White's seminal text and uncover new resonances between White's practice and contemporary ecology, reassessing his place within his time and our own.
Gilbert White is commonly viewed as a pioneer-Rick Bowers claims 'he was the first to think globally and act locally'-breaking away from mainstream eighteenth-century naturalism that was concerned with collecting and categorising specimens. Rather, by observing organisms in their habitats, White was, Ted Dadswell argues, 'effectively turning away from [taxonomic] concerns of this kind'. However, Natural History displays not so much a new naturalism supplanting the old, but a complex intertwining of knowledge from various sources. White takes observations from life and couples them with considerations of Linnaean categories, plunging into 'thickets of taxonomic Latin'. My research explores White's position in this 'community of knowledge', examining how he formed this network of naturalists, how he qualified and compared his sources against each other, and how these disparate sources were rendered in his finished text.
Researching White through an ecocritical lens can reveal new depths to his work, while also expanding its relevance outwards-Rhian Williams' ecocritical approach to White's journal-keeping, exposed a latent ecological radicalism in White's daily routine of natural observation. In The Bioregional Imagination, Tom Lynch et al. warn that 'we increasingly inhabit a global monoculture, consuming the same food, watching the same movies [...] thinking the same thoughts'. Local communities are fading, and people's connection to local landscapes are fading faster. Ecocritics like Amitav Ghosh, Donald Worster and Elizabeth DeLoughrey, attribute this to the continued dominance of eighteenth and nineteenth century ideas. Therefore, analysing White's negotiation of such ideas in his community-making is pertinent for modern ecology-do ecologists show preference for academic sources above local knowledge; how might modern ecologists cultivate a community around nature like White did? My research examines the Natural History's legacy, the community it galvanised, and question whether natural observation can play a meaningful role in re-engaging modern communities in ecology.
This research will also lead to a public engagement project with Gilbert White's House and Gardens. My focus on community-building offers scope for a multidisciplinary project, inviting new conversations between White and modern creatives to confront pressing questions of climate change, while cultivating cross-temporal communities between White and the present. Combining close manuscript study and a well-tailored public engagement project, my research will elucidate White's relationships and networks, while also uncovering his text's ecological resonances stretching beyond the eighteenth century to the present.
In writing Natural History, White used various sources of observation-from renowned naturalists and academic texts to local people and personal experience- fashioning a disparate community centred around observing nature. My work examines how White built and interacted with this local, textual community, and how it influenced his thinking and writing. From here, I will question how naturalist observation and nature writing itself might function as a community-making process, and whether modern ecologists can utilise White's example to re-engage local communities with nature. By looking at White in relation to modern ecological concerns, this research will further nuance our understanding of White's seminal text and uncover new resonances between White's practice and contemporary ecology, reassessing his place within his time and our own.
Gilbert White is commonly viewed as a pioneer-Rick Bowers claims 'he was the first to think globally and act locally'-breaking away from mainstream eighteenth-century naturalism that was concerned with collecting and categorising specimens. Rather, by observing organisms in their habitats, White was, Ted Dadswell argues, 'effectively turning away from [taxonomic] concerns of this kind'. However, Natural History displays not so much a new naturalism supplanting the old, but a complex intertwining of knowledge from various sources. White takes observations from life and couples them with considerations of Linnaean categories, plunging into 'thickets of taxonomic Latin'. My research explores White's position in this 'community of knowledge', examining how he formed this network of naturalists, how he qualified and compared his sources against each other, and how these disparate sources were rendered in his finished text.
Researching White through an ecocritical lens can reveal new depths to his work, while also expanding its relevance outwards-Rhian Williams' ecocritical approach to White's journal-keeping, exposed a latent ecological radicalism in White's daily routine of natural observation. In The Bioregional Imagination, Tom Lynch et al. warn that 'we increasingly inhabit a global monoculture, consuming the same food, watching the same movies [...] thinking the same thoughts'. Local communities are fading, and people's connection to local landscapes are fading faster. Ecocritics like Amitav Ghosh, Donald Worster and Elizabeth DeLoughrey, attribute this to the continued dominance of eighteenth and nineteenth century ideas. Therefore, analysing White's negotiation of such ideas in his community-making is pertinent for modern ecology-do ecologists show preference for academic sources above local knowledge; how might modern ecologists cultivate a community around nature like White did? My research examines the Natural History's legacy, the community it galvanised, and question whether natural observation can play a meaningful role in re-engaging modern communities in ecology.
This research will also lead to a public engagement project with Gilbert White's House and Gardens. My focus on community-building offers scope for a multidisciplinary project, inviting new conversations between White and modern creatives to confront pressing questions of climate change, while cultivating cross-temporal communities between White and the present. Combining close manuscript study and a well-tailored public engagement project, my research will elucidate White's relationships and networks, while also uncovering his text's ecological resonances stretching beyond the eighteenth century to the present.
People |
ORCID iD |