{"product_id":"plowswords-cates-baldridge-9780813951621","title":"Plowswords: Literature and the Agricultural Trap from Shakespeare to Coetzee","description":"\u003cb\u003eA critical examination of the 'agricultural trap' in literature\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e For thousands of years, agriculture and civilization were essentially synonymous. The superiority of farming over the unsettled, itinerant life of hunting and gathering appeared, to many, self-evident. Only recently has the field of anthropology challenged this assumption by positing that foragers were, and are, actually happier and healthier than people living in agro-cultures. \u003ci\u003ePlowswords\u003c\/i\u003e is the first work to consider the refiguring of the agricultural revolution into the agricultural trap through a literary lens. Reading texts that depict farmers in conflict with foragers, Cates Baldridge argues that agricultural ideology justified the tedium and toil of farming by enlisting a rhetorical foil: the \"savage\" and \"backward\" hunter-gatherer. Texts such as \u003ci\u003eThe Tempest\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eRobinson Crusoe\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eFrankenstein\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eWuthering Heights\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHeart of Darkness\u003c\/i\u003e, and the novels of J. M. Coetzee use this figure either to exalt farming's triumph over foraging or to mourn the consequences of the agricultural turn, anxiously championing or stridently challenging the received wisdom of humanity's supposed progress.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Cates Baldridge\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0813951623\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780813951621\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of Virginia Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/26\/2024\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 232\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.13lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.69d","brand":"Cates Baldridge","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":45897901932799,"sku":"9780813951621","price":115.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_34478c94-1fad-4a65-aa80-6ad5828b2e94.jpg?v=1721375024","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/plowswords-cates-baldridge-9780813951621","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}