Swamp: Nature and Culture

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Description

Throughout history, swamps have been idealised and demonised, purged and protected. They are considered to be places of evil, pestilence, and death, as well as diverse ecosystems teeming with life. They can be obstacles to development and remnants of fading cultures. Distillations of pure wildness, with menacing morasses and fragile wetlands, swamps have fascinated, terrified, frustrated, and sustained us throughout human history.

From swamps and bogs to marshes and wetlands,Swampventures into the cultural and ecological histories of these mysterious, mythologised, and misunderstood landscapes. It ranges from the freshwater marshes of Botswana's tremendous Okavango Delta, to the notable swamps between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and the peat bogs in Russia, the British Isles, and Scandinavia. It explores ideas and representations of wetlands across centuries, cultures, and continents, considering legend and folklore, mythology, literature, film, and natural and cultural history. As it plumbs the murky depths of their complex relationship with people all over the world, from the distant past to the uncertain future,Swampprovides an engaging, informative, and lavishly illustrated journey into these fascinating and mysterious landscapes.

Reviews

Swamps, once deemed tangles of putrefaction and peril, are only now receiving the respect they deserve. That's the dramatic arc of this beautifully illustrated social and literary history of wetlands by Anthony Wilson . . . Historically, swamps have been home to a host of dark imaginings: the nine-headed Hydra of Greek mythology; the grim monster Grendel of Beowulf; the bat-like hag Gwrach-y-Rhibyn of Welsh folklore . . . Wilsons chapter on swamp horrors draws from a deep well of storytelling, not all of it fictional. * Natural History magazine *

This beautifully illustrated volume is one of a series, entitled Earth, which addresses the importance of both historical and cultural depictions of nature and its resources. The series augments the interconnectedness of ecosystems and humanity, and Wilsons work fits well into this oeuvre because it explores the deadly legends and superstitions that are associated with
swamps. Avoiding a didactic approach when highlighting their threatened status, Swamp raises awareness of the significance of preserving these wetlands by offering an accessible insight into real and fictional imagery of swamps, bogs, and marshes . . . The book gives a fascinating insight into the lives of those who have lived in swamp environments throughout different time periods across the globe . . . Wilson satisfyingly takes us through a journey of the swamp "from poisonous hell to unspoiled Eden".

Author Bio

Anthony Wilson is an Associate Professor of English at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia. He is the author of Shadow and Shelter: The Swamp in Southern Culture (2006).