Special Topic: The Seasons Guest
Special Topic: The Seasons Guest

Summary/Abstract: Th e seasons have been a perennial but subtending theme in art and literature for centuries. And yet they remain relatively unexamined and underappreciated within philosophy, environmental thought, and geographical thinking about space and place. Th is issue begins an exploration of the seasons, focusing in particular on contributions that engage poetry, religion, and literary or philosophical texts in relation to subjects such as climate, locality, natural change, and time. Th rough an initial consideration of the topic here as well as in a subsequent issue of the journal, we hope to generate interest in and attention to a range of ideas and questions that are relevant to philosophers, geographers, and environmental thinkers. What exactly is a season, and how might it be understood ontologically, metaphysically or historically? Are the seasons the same as they were in former eras given rapid rates of ecological and climatic change? How do they play a role in our cultural imaginations, everyday life, and creative pursuits? In what ways do the seasons relate to or infl uence our senses of time, geographical place, and the body? What might they reveal about the elemental world or notions of the cold, the hot, the wet, and the dry? How do winter, spring, summer, and fall aff ect our use of language, views of the land, and social or political practices?

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