Panel Title
A Woman's Nature: Ecofeminism in Carl Hiaasen's Skinny Dip
Location
DIGS 221
Discussant
Casey Cothran
Panel
Skinny Dip: Carl Hiassen, Detective Fiction and the Murder of the Florida Everglades
Category
Arts & Literature
Start Date
7-11-2015 1:00 PM
End Date
7-11-2015 2:00 PM
Description
Carl Hiaasen’s 2004 novel, Skinny Dip, reworks the typical structures and tropes of detective fiction to argue that the most significant “murder” in this text is the large-scale destruction of the Florida Everglades. Using farce and humor to explore the ridiculous circumstances surrounding Charles Perrone’s failed attempts to kill both his wife and girlfriend, Hiassen quietly draws the reader’s attention to the ways that humans both ignorantly and willfully destroy wild spaces. In the novel, both individual persons and multi-million dollar corporations misuse water, water systems, and reptiles because of their failure to understand or value the natural world around them.
This novel was discussed in Professor Cothran’s Spring 2015 course, ENGL 200: Mystery and Detective Fiction. Dr. Cothran will introduce the author, his novel, the work’s popular and critical reception, and briefly discuss how it was incorporated into the classroom. Then three Winthrop undergraduates will share their papers on the book’s themes, using ecocriticism to illustrate its exciting, evocative form and message.
Laurie Hilburn’s “A Woman's Nature: Ecofeminism in Carl Hiaasen's Skinny Dip” discusses how “Hiaasen's ecocritical subversion of the detective fiction formula transforms main character Joey from the victim into the victor, empowered as the detective of the personal crimes against her as well as the larger crimes occurring against nature.” Because the violent crime enacted on her person transforms her into a detective rather than a dead body (with no voice or agency), the female victim in this work is empowered to speak for herself and for the environment.
A Woman's Nature: Ecofeminism in Carl Hiaasen's Skinny Dip
DIGS 221
Carl Hiaasen’s 2004 novel, Skinny Dip, reworks the typical structures and tropes of detective fiction to argue that the most significant “murder” in this text is the large-scale destruction of the Florida Everglades. Using farce and humor to explore the ridiculous circumstances surrounding Charles Perrone’s failed attempts to kill both his wife and girlfriend, Hiassen quietly draws the reader’s attention to the ways that humans both ignorantly and willfully destroy wild spaces. In the novel, both individual persons and multi-million dollar corporations misuse water, water systems, and reptiles because of their failure to understand or value the natural world around them.
This novel was discussed in Professor Cothran’s Spring 2015 course, ENGL 200: Mystery and Detective Fiction. Dr. Cothran will introduce the author, his novel, the work’s popular and critical reception, and briefly discuss how it was incorporated into the classroom. Then three Winthrop undergraduates will share their papers on the book’s themes, using ecocriticism to illustrate its exciting, evocative form and message.
Laurie Hilburn’s “A Woman's Nature: Ecofeminism in Carl Hiaasen's Skinny Dip” discusses how “Hiaasen's ecocritical subversion of the detective fiction formula transforms main character Joey from the victim into the victor, empowered as the detective of the personal crimes against her as well as the larger crimes occurring against nature.” Because the violent crime enacted on her person transforms her into a detective rather than a dead body (with no voice or agency), the female victim in this work is empowered to speak for herself and for the environment.