The Systemic Nature of Environmental Disaster: Muriel Rukeyser’s The Book of the Dead

Abstract

Abstract:With scientific insights drawn from systems theory, this essay examines Muriel Rukeyser’s The Book of the Dead, which addresses the Hawk’s Nest Tunnel disaster, illuminating how the poem embodies the systemic nature of environmental disaster that emerges through the interactions of nature and matter, culture and technology, and human and nonhuman.