AustLit

'The concept of compassion, defined as suffering with, has a long history often entangled in that of the cognate term pity. It has proven to be a changeable concept that is not only responsive to but integral to historical change itself. This is because it is a sociable emotion, but, in the sense that it expresses a desire to alleviate the suffering of another, the emotion also expresses the desire to effect change. For this reason it is a particularly timely lens through which to consider the emotional effect of climate change upon local communities, and the new emotional regime taking shape in the Anthropocene – and the dawning of the Pyrocene – beginning with Armidale, New South Wales through the drought and fire of Australia’s Black Summer of 2019–20, but extending beyond.' (Publication abstract)

'Local news media play a key role in fostering citizen participation in public life and offer communities forms of supportive action during crisis, which lie at the heart of compassion. Through the lens of emotion, we can see that ‘the story’ of local disaster reporting is one of being local, where the journalist’s position between involved actor and interpretive observer is anchored in compassion for the local. In turn, a focus on compassion illuminates the power of oral history as a means to contextualise the experience of disaster – in this case, how cyclones are made culturally meaningful – and expand media research on climate-related disaster.' (Publication abstract)

'This essay considers the nexus between literature and compassion in relation to the well-reported global environmental crisis and the attendant range of emotions, as signalled by the terms ‘ecocide’, ‘extinction crisis’ and ‘eco-anxiety’. While the words ‘grief’ and ‘hope’ have come to represent a range of associated emotions and feelings, there are important affective inflections occurring between these two semantic reference points, which are in themselves significant, if less amenable to debate and conversion to meaningful action. The following essay considers the nuances of these same affective extremities and emotional complexities, with particular reference to collective emotions such as anger and fear, and the implications of sustained feelings of dread, despair and collective trauma. The essay concludes by arguing for the constructive role of literature in mediating collective feeling and redirecting negative public emotions.' (Publication abstract)

'This essay argues that animal-human compassion, defined as human fellow-feeling with (and not for) animals, is most urgently articulated at points of crisis in human history, such as the terrible bushfires and drought of the Australian summer of 2019–20. Literary history, particularly of pastoral literature, reveals animal-human compassion as a long-contested structure of feeling. The pastoral template established in classical literature, and refined in early modern literature, sets conventions for proper human-animal emotional relations. These ideals are radically destabilised in Andrew Marvell’s ‘dark pastoral’ civil war poetry. This troubled legacy flows through Australian settler-colonial writing about animals, particularly the kangaroo; Barron Field, Charles Harpur and Ethel Pedley strive to intervene in the patriotic myth-making associated with colonial settlement and Federation.' (Publication abstract)