Sidestepping environmental justice: "Natural" landscapes and the wilderness plot

Frontiers

Volumn 18, Issue 2, 1997, Pages 73-101

  Comer, Krista ^a  

^a NONE

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0040562540     PISSN: 01609009     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/3346966     Document Type: Article

References (91)

1. Charles Bowden, "Dead Minds, Live Places," in Open Spaces, City Places: Contemporary Writers on the Changing Southwest, ed. Judy Nolte Temple (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1994), 16.
2. If the downwind impact of nuclear testing during the 1950s on local southwestern residents were a regular feature of public discussion, the consequences for the Southwest's regional image might destroy not just the defense dollars coming into the region, but also the retirement industries in Scottsdale, Phoenix, Tucson, Santa Fe, and Taos. The prospect of a nuke-infested region would not help sell tract homes to young families, obviously, or attract tourists who travel to the Southwest precisely to consume clean, not carcinogenic, air. The mystification of southwestern identity also disables public discussion about the environmental impact of huge cities on waterless terrain. The investment of various profit-driven industries in the cultural production of a mystified Southwest is understandable enough. Without it, the region does not pay.
3. Val Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature (New York: Routledge, 1993), 17.
4. For a very to-the-point discussion of these issues, see Giovanna Di Chiro, "Nature as Community: The Convergence of Environment and Social Justice," in Uncommon Ground: Toward Reinventing Nature, ed. William Cronon (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1995), 298-320.
5. To be sure, some of the focus on "nature" by ecocritics is self-consciously human centered. See, for example, Scott Slovic, Seeking Awareness in American Nature Writing: Henry Thoreau, Annie Dillard, Edward Abbey, Wendell Berry, Barry Lopez (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1992). For a very explicit discussion of nature as "fantasy topography," see Annette Kolodny, The Land Before Her: Fantasy and Experience of the American Frontiers, 1630-1860 (Durham: University of North Carolina Press, 1984).
6. To be sure, some of the focus on "nature" by ecocritics is self-consciously human centered. See, for example, Scott Slovic, Seeking Awareness in American Nature Writing: Henry Thoreau, Annie Dillard, Edward Abbey, Wendell Berry, Barry Lopez (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1992). For a very explicit discussion of nature as "fantasy topography," see Annette Kolodny, The Land Before Her: Fantasy and Experience of the American Frontiers, 1630-1860 (Durham: University of North Carolina Press, 1984).
7. Thomas J. Lyon, "The Nature Essay in the West," in A Literary History of the American West, ed. J. Golden Taylor (Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1987), 221. It should be noted here that Lyon is not only a founding member of ecocriticism, but also a dedicated revisionist. He is general editor of the forthcoming massive project Updating the Literary West (Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1998).
8. Thomas J. Lyon, "The Nature Essay in the West," in A Literary History of the American West, ed. J. Golden Taylor (Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1987), 221. It should be noted here that Lyon is not only a founding member of ecocriticism, but also a dedicated revisionist. He is general editor of the forthcoming massive project Updating the Literary West (Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 1998).
9. Frank Bergon, "Wilderness Aesthetics," American Literary History 9:1 (1997): 128-60.
10. Lawrence Buell, The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing and the Formation of American Culture (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1995).
11. Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982). See also Max Oelschlaeger, The Idea of Wilderness: From Prehistory to the Age of Ecology (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991).
12. Roderick Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982). See also Max Oelschlaeger, The Idea of Wilderness: From Prehistory to the Age of Ecology (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991).
13. Wallace Stegner, "Coda: A Wilderness Letter," in The Sound of Mountain Water (New York: Doubleday, 1969), 146-47. This letter was to become, like Aldo Leopold's Sands of Almanac County, something of a bible to the environmental movement.
14. Wallace Stegner, "Coda: A Wilderness Letter," in The Sound of Mountain Water (New York: Doubleday, 1969), 146-47. This letter was to become, like Aldo Leopold's Sands of Almanac County, something of a bible to the environmental movement.
15. Wallace Stegner and Richard Etulain, eds., Conversations with Wallace Stegner (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1990), xiv.
16. Ramachandra Guha, "Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique," Environmental Ethics: An Interdisciplinary Journal Dedicated to the Philosophical Aspects of Environmental Problems 11:1 (1989): 71-84. Richard White has made a similar point about the classed dimensions of environmental ethics in an American context in "Are You an Environmentalist or Do You Work for a Living?: Work and Nature," in Cronon, Uncommon Ground, 171-85.
17. Ramachandra Guha, "Radical American Environmentalism and Wilderness Preservation: A Third World Critique," Environmental Ethics: An Interdisciplinary Journal Dedicated to the Philosophical Aspects of Environmental Problems 11:1 (1989): 71-84. Richard White has made a similar point about the classed dimensions of environmental ethics in an American context in "Are You an Environmentalist or Do You Work for a Living?: Work and Nature," in Cronon, Uncommon Ground, 171-85.
18. Julia Martin, "New with Added Ecology?: Hippos, Forests and Environmental Literacy," ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment 2:1 (1994): 6.
19. For a brief history of the emergence of this field, see Cheryll Glotfelty, "Introduction: Literary Studies in an Age of Environmental Crisis," in The Ecoc riticism Reader, ed. Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm (Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1996). The Ecocriticism Reader also provides a quite ranging sample of current ecocritical perspectives. For an early example of an ecocritical agenda, see William Reuckert, "Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism," Iowa Review 9:1 (1978): 71-87. For a later but similar piece, see Glen A. Love, "Revaluing Nature: Toward an Ecological Criticism," Western American Literature 21:3 (1990): 201-15. Also see Robert Finch and John Norton, eds., The Norton Book of Nature Writing (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1990).
20. For a brief history of the emergence of this field, see Cheryll Glotfelty, "Introduction: Literary Studies in an Age of Environmental Crisis," in The Ecoc riticism Reader, ed. Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm (Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1996). The Ecocriticism Reader also provides a quite ranging sample of current ecocritical perspectives. For an early example of an ecocritical agenda, see William Reuckert, "Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism," Iowa Review 9:1 (1978): 71-87. For a later but similar piece, see Glen A. Love, "Revaluing Nature: Toward an Ecological Criticism," Western American Literature 21:3 (1990): 201-15. Also see Robert Finch and John Norton, eds., The Norton Book of Nature Writing (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1990).
21. For a brief history of the emergence of this field, see Cheryll Glotfelty, "Introduction: Literary Studies in an Age of Environmental Crisis," in The Ecoc riticism Reader, ed. Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm (Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1996). The Ecocriticism Reader also provides a quite ranging sample of current ecocritical perspectives. For an early example of an ecocritical agenda, see William Reuckert, "Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism," Iowa Review 9:1 (1978): 71-87. For a later but similar piece, see Glen A. Love, "Revaluing Nature: Toward an Ecological Criticism," Western American Literature 21:3 (1990): 201-15. Also see Robert Finch and John Norton, eds., The Norton Book of Nature Writing (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1990).
22. For a brief history of the emergence of this field, see Cheryll Glotfelty, "Introduction: Literary Studies in an Age of Environmental Crisis," in The Ecoc riticism Reader, ed. Cheryll Glotfelty and Harold Fromm (Athens, Ga.: University of Georgia Press, 1996). The Ecocriticism Reader also provides a quite ranging sample of current ecocritical perspectives. For an early example of an ecocritical agenda, see William Reuckert, "Literature and Ecology: An Experiment in Ecocriticism," Iowa Review 9:1 (1978): 71-87. For a later but similar piece, see Glen A. Love, "Revaluing Nature: Toward an Ecological Criticism," Western American Literature 21:3 (1990): 201-15. Also see Robert Finch and John Norton, eds., The Norton Book of Nature Writing (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1990).
23. William Cronon, "The Trouble with Wilderness, Or Getting Back to the Wrong Kind of Nature," in Cronon, Uncommon Ground, 69-90.
24. Responses by Samuel P. Hayes, Michael P. Cohen, and Thomas R. Dunlap, Environmental History 1:1 (1996): 29-46. See especially Cohen's response, "Resistance to Wilderness," 33-42.
25. Responses by Samuel P. Hayes, Michael P. Cohen, and Thomas R. Dunlap, Environmental History 1:1 (1996): 29-46. See especially Cohen's response, "Resistance to Wilderness," 33-42.
26. Cronon, "The Trouble with Wilderness," 72.
27. Cronon, "The Trouble with Wilderness," 79-80.
28. This term, "wilderness religion," is in increasingly informal use among environmentalists. Flores used it at a NEH-sponsored conference in San Marcos, Texas, in July, 1996.
29. Cronon, "The Trouble with Wilderness," 78.
30. Revisionists include Martin Lewis, Green Delusions: An Environmentalist Critique of Environmentalism (Durham: Duke University Press, 1992); Lorne Leslie Neil Evernden, The Social Creation of Nature (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992); and Janet Biehl, Rethinking Ecofeminist Politics (Boston: South End Press, 1991). For a very insightful essay about the relationship of western historical narrative to environmentalism, see Carolyn Merchant, "Reinventing Eden: Western Culture as a Recovery Narrative," in Cronon, Uncommon Ground, 132-70.
31. Revisionists include Martin Lewis, Green Delusions: An Environmentalist Critique of Environmentalism (Durham: Duke University Press, 1992); Lorne Leslie Neil Evernden, The Social Creation of Nature (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992); and Janet Biehl, Rethinking Ecofeminist Politics (Boston: South End Press, 1991). For a very insightful essay about the relationship of western historical narrative to environmentalism, see Carolyn Merchant, "Reinventing Eden: Western Culture as a Recovery Narrative," in Cronon, Uncommon Ground, 132-70.
32. Revisionists include Martin Lewis, Green Delusions: An Environmentalist Critique of Environmentalism (Durham: Duke University Press, 1992); Lorne Leslie Neil Evernden, The Social Creation of Nature (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992); and Janet Biehl, Rethinking Ecofeminist Politics (Boston: South End Press, 1991). For a very insightful essay about the relationship of western historical narrative to environmentalism, see Carolyn Merchant, "Reinventing Eden: Western Culture as a Recovery Narrative," in Cronon, Uncommon Ground, 132-70.
33. Revisionists include Martin Lewis, Green Delusions: An Environmentalist Critique of Environmentalism (Durham: Duke University Press, 1992); Lorne Leslie Neil Evernden, The Social Creation of Nature (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992); and Janet Biehl, Rethinking Ecofeminist Politics (Boston: South End Press, 1991). For a very insightful essay about the relationship of western historical narrative to environmentalism, see Carolyn Merchant, "Reinventing Eden: Western Culture as a Recovery Narrative," in Cronon, Uncommon Ground, 132-70.
34. Specifically, see Mick McAllister, "Homeward Bound: Wilderness and Frontier in American Indian Literature," in The Frontier Experience and the American Dream: Essays on American Literature, ed. David Mogen, Mark Busby, and Paul Bryant (College Station: Texas A&M University Press,1989), 149-58. By citing this essay I do not single it out for special negative attention, for all of the essays noted later, unless specifically exempted, make complimentary arguments.
35. This insightful possibility was suggested to me by Noël Sturgeon.
36. For a discussion of mysticism and western literature, see especially John R. Milton, The Novel of the American West (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1980). For a recent more skeptical essay about this topic and the Southwest, see Peter Wild, "Sentimentalism in the American Southwest: John C. Van Dyke, Mary Austin, and Edward Abbey," in Reading the West: New Essays on the Literature of the American West, ed. Michael Kowalewski (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 127-4:3.
37. For a discussion of mysticism and western literature, see especially John R. Milton, The Novel of the American West (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1980). For a recent more skeptical essay about this topic and the Southwest, see Peter Wild, "Sentimentalism in the American Southwest: John C. Van Dyke, Mary Austin, and Edward Abbey," in Reading the West: New Essays on the Literature of the American West, ed. Michael Kowalewski (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 127-4:3.
38. See Leslie Marmon Silko, "Landscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination," Antaeus 57 (autumn 1986): 83-94, and "Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective," in English Literature: Opening Up the Canon, ed. Leslie A. Fiedler and Houston A. Baker (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981), 54-72. For a related argument, see Paula Gunn Allen, "The Sacred Hoop: A Contemporary Perspective," in The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in the American Indian Tradition (Boston: Beacon Press, 1986), 54-75.
39. See Leslie Marmon Silko, "Landscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination," Antaeus 57 (autumn 1986): 83-94, and "Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective," in English Literature: Opening Up the Canon, ed. Leslie A. Fiedler and Houston A. Baker (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981), 54-72. For a related argument, see Paula Gunn Allen, "The Sacred Hoop: A Contemporary Perspective," in The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in the American Indian Tradition (Boston: Beacon Press, 1986), 54-75.
40. See Leslie Marmon Silko, "Landscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination," Antaeus 57 (autumn 1986): 83-94, and "Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective," in English Literature: Opening Up the Canon, ed. Leslie A. Fiedler and Houston A. Baker (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1981), 54-72. For a related argument, see Paula Gunn Allen, "The Sacred Hoop: A Contemporary Perspective," in The Sacred Hoop: Recovering the Feminine in the American Indian Tradition (Boston: Beacon Press, 1986), 54-75.
41. Paula Gunn Allen, "The Psychological Landscape of Ceremony" American Indian Quarterly 5 (1979): 7-12. For a more complex argument that still proves the point, see Edith E. Swan, "Laguna Symbolic Geography and Silko's Ceremony," American Indian Quarterly 12:3 (1988): 229-49. Also see Patricia Clark Smith, "Earthly Relations, Carnal Knowledge," in The Desert Is No Lady, ed. Vera Norwood and Janice Monk (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987), 174-95.
42. Paula Gunn Allen, "The Psychological Landscape of Ceremony" American Indian Quarterly 5 (1979): 7-12. For a more complex argument that still proves the point, see Edith E. Swan, "Laguna Symbolic Geography and Silko's Ceremony," American Indian Quarterly 12:3 (1988): 229-49. Also see Patricia Clark Smith, "Earthly Relations, Carnal Knowledge," in The Desert Is No Lady, ed. Vera Norwood and Janice Monk (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987), 174-95.
43. Paula Gunn Allen, "The Psychological Landscape of Ceremony" American Indian Quarterly 5 (1979): 7-12. For a more complex argument that still proves the point, see Edith E. Swan, "Laguna Symbolic Geography and Silko's Ceremony," American Indian Quarterly 12:3 (1988): 229-49. Also see Patricia Clark Smith, "Earthly Relations, Carnal Knowledge," in The Desert Is No Lady, ed. Vera Norwood and Janice Monk (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987), 174-95.
44. Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony (New York: Viking Press, 1977), 201. Future citations to this work will be given parenthetically in the text.
45. Stegner made this claim often, but as early as the 1960s and as late as the 1990s. For a late version see his "Introduction," to Where The Bluebird Sings to the Lemonade Springs: Living and Writing the West (New York: Random House, 1992), xv-xxiii.
46. For more on the narrative-as-sacred, see Jennifer Shaddock, "Mixed Blood Women: The Dynamic of Women's Relations in the Novels of Louise Erdrich and Leslie Silko," in Feminist Nightmares: Women at Odds: Feminism and the Problem of Sisterhood, ed. Susan Ostrov and Jennifer Fleischner (New York: New York University Press, 1994), 106-21.
47. Richard White makes a similar point about the status of Native Americans in American discourse in "Discovering Nature in North America," Journal of American History 79:3 (1992): 874-91.
48. Susan Perez Castillo, "Postmodernism, Native American Literature and the Real: The Silko-Erdrich Controversy," Massachusetts Review: A Quarterly of Literature, the Arts, and Public Affairs 32:2 (1991): 285-94.
49. Aside from Animal Dreams, Kingsolver's novels are The Bean Trees: A Novel (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), Homeland and Other Stories (New York: HarperCollins, 1989); and Pigs in Heaven: A Novel (New York: HarperCollins, 1993); her poetry includes Another America/Otra America (Seattle: Seal Press, 1991); and her nonfiction includes Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983 (Ithaca: New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations Press, 1988).
50. Aside from Animal Dreams, Kingsolver's novels are The Bean Trees: A Novel (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), Homeland and Other Stories (New York: HarperCollins, 1989); and Pigs in Heaven: A Novel (New York: HarperCollins, 1993); her poetry includes Another America/Otra America (Seattle: Seal Press, 1991); and her nonfiction includes Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983 (Ithaca: New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations Press, 1988).
51. Aside from Animal Dreams, Kingsolver's novels are The Bean Trees: A Novel (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), Homeland and Other Stories (New York: HarperCollins, 1989); and Pigs in Heaven: A Novel (New York: HarperCollins, 1993); her poetry includes Another America/Otra America (Seattle: Seal Press, 1991); and her nonfiction includes Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983 (Ithaca: New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations Press, 1988).
52. Aside from Animal Dreams, Kingsolver's novels are The Bean Trees: A Novel (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), Homeland and Other Stories (New York: HarperCollins, 1989); and Pigs in Heaven: A Novel (New York: HarperCollins, 1993); her poetry includes Another America/Otra America (Seattle: Seal Press, 1991); and her nonfiction includes Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983 (Ithaca: New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations Press, 1988).
53. Aside from Animal Dreams, Kingsolver's novels are The Bean Trees: A Novel (New York: Harper & Row, 1988), Homeland and Other Stories (New York: HarperCollins, 1989); and Pigs in Heaven: A Novel (New York: HarperCollins, 1993); her poetry includes Another America/Otra America (Seattle: Seal Press, 1991); and her nonfiction includes Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983 (Ithaca: New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations Press, 1988).
54. The exception is Patti Capel Swartz, "'Saving Grace': Political and Environmental Issues and the Role of Connections in Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Dreams," Interdisciplinary Studies of Literature and Environment 1:1 (1993): 65-79. Because this essay is of such a celebratory bent and thus overlaps with reviewers' praise for Animal Dreams, I do not take it up in my own argument.
55. George Johnson, New York Times Book Review, July 28, 1991, 28; Joseph A. Cincotti, "Intimate Revelations," New York Times Book Review, September 2, 1990, 2; Keith Graham, "'Ecofeminist' Author Relishes Political Role," Atlanta Constitution, September 21, 1990, 1; Margaret Randall, "Time, Space and Heartbeats," Los Angeles Times Book Review, September 9, 1990, 1; Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Fabric of Grace," The Washington Post Book Review, September 2, 1990, 1 ; Melissa Pritchard, "Saving the Planet," Chicago Tribune, August 26, 1990, 14/1; Jane Smiley, "In One Small Town, the Weight of the World," New York Times Book Review, September 2, 1990: 7/2.
56. George Johnson, New York Times Book Review, July 28, 1991, 28; Joseph A. Cincotti, "Intimate Revelations," New York Times Book Review, September 2, 1990, 2; Keith Graham, "'Ecofeminist' Author Relishes Political Role," Atlanta Constitution, September 21, 1990, 1; Margaret Randall, "Time, Space and Heartbeats," Los Angeles Times Book Review, September 9, 1990, 1; Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Fabric of Grace," The Washington Post Book Review, September 2, 1990, 1 ; Melissa Pritchard, "Saving the Planet," Chicago Tribune, August 26, 1990, 14/1; Jane Smiley, "In One Small Town, the Weight of the World," New York Times Book Review, September 2, 1990: 7/2.
57. George Johnson, New York Times Book Review, July 28, 1991, 28; Joseph A. Cincotti, "Intimate Revelations," New York Times Book Review, September 2, 1990, 2; Keith Graham, "'Ecofeminist' Author Relishes Political Role," Atlanta Constitution, September 21, 1990, 1; Margaret Randall, "Time, Space and Heartbeats," Los Angeles Times Book Review, September 9, 1990, 1; Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Fabric of Grace," The Washington Post Book Review, September 2, 1990, 1 ; Melissa Pritchard, "Saving the Planet," Chicago Tribune, August 26, 1990, 14/1; Jane Smiley, "In One Small Town, the Weight of the World," New York Times Book Review, September 2, 1990: 7/2.
58. George Johnson, New York Times Book Review, July 28, 1991, 28; Joseph A. Cincotti, "Intimate Revelations," New York Times Book Review, September 2, 1990, 2; Keith Graham, "'Ecofeminist' Author Relishes Political Role," Atlanta Constitution, September 21, 1990, 1; Margaret Randall, "Time, Space and Heartbeats," Los Angeles Times Book Review, September 9, 1990, 1; Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Fabric of Grace," The Washington Post Book Review, September 2, 1990, 1 ; Melissa Pritchard, "Saving the Planet," Chicago Tribune, August 26, 1990, 14/1; Jane Smiley, "In One Small Town, the Weight of the World," New York Times Book Review, September 2, 1990: 7/2.
59. George Johnson, New York Times Book Review, July 28, 1991, 28; Joseph A. Cincotti, "Intimate Revelations," New York Times Book Review, September 2, 1990, 2; Keith Graham, "'Ecofeminist' Author Relishes Political Role," Atlanta Constitution, September 21, 1990, 1; Margaret Randall, "Time, Space and Heartbeats," Los Angeles Times Book Review, September 9, 1990, 1; Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Fabric of Grace," The Washington Post Book Review, September 2, 1990, 1 ; Melissa Pritchard, "Saving the Planet," Chicago Tribune, August 26, 1990, 14/1; Jane Smiley, "In One Small Town, the Weight of the World," New York Times Book Review, September 2, 1990: 7/2.
60. George Johnson, New York Times Book Review, July 28, 1991, 28; Joseph A. Cincotti, "Intimate Revelations," New York Times Book Review, September 2, 1990, 2; Keith Graham, "'Ecofeminist' Author Relishes Political Role," Atlanta Constitution, September 21, 1990, 1; Margaret Randall, "Time, Space and Heartbeats," Los Angeles Times Book Review, September 9, 1990, 1; Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Fabric of Grace," The Washington Post Book Review, September 2, 1990, 1 ; Melissa Pritchard, "Saving the Planet," Chicago Tribune, August 26, 1990, 14/1; Jane Smiley, "In One Small Town, the Weight of the World," New York Times Book Review, September 2, 1990: 7/2.
61. George Johnson, New York Times Book Review, July 28, 1991, 28; Joseph A. Cincotti, "Intimate Revelations," New York Times Book Review, September 2, 1990, 2; Keith Graham, "'Ecofeminist' Author Relishes Political Role," Atlanta Constitution, September 21, 1990, 1; Margaret Randall, "Time, Space and Heartbeats," Los Angeles Times Book Review, September 9, 1990, 1; Ursula K. Le Guin, "The Fabric of Grace," The Washington Post Book Review, September 2, 1990, 1 ; Melissa Pritchard, "Saving the Planet," Chicago Tribune, August 26, 1990, 14/1; Jane Smiley, "In One Small Town, the Weight of the World," New York Times Book Review, September 2, 1990: 7/2.
62. Plumwood begins Feminism and the Mastery of Nature by way of this specific discussion. On the ecofeminist tendency to romanticize American Indian cultures, see Greta Gaard, "Ecofeminism and Native American Cultures: Pushing the Limits of Cultural Imperialism," in Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature, ed. Greta Gaard (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993), 295-314. For a sophisticated inquiry into this terrain, but one focused more on literature, see Patrick D. Murphy, Literature, Nature, and Other: Ecofeminist Critiques (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995).
63. Plumwood begins Feminism and the Mastery of Nature by way of this specific discussion. On the ecofeminist tendency to romanticize American Indian cultures, see Greta Gaard, "Ecofeminism and Native American Cultures: Pushing the Limits of Cultural Imperialism," in Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature, ed. Greta Gaard (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993), 295-314. For a sophisticated inquiry into this terrain, but one focused more on literature, see Patrick D. Murphy, Literature, Nature, and Other: Ecofeminist Critiques (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1995).
64. See Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, especially "Feminism and Ecofeminism," 19-40. For the standard reference on the (male) gendering of science, see Carolyn Merchant The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1980).
65. See Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, especially "Feminism and Ecofeminism," 19-40. For the standard reference on the (male) gendering of science, see Carolyn Merchant The Death of Nature: Women, Ecology, and the Scientific Revolution (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1980).
66. Plumwood, Feminism and the Mastery of Nature, 19-40, esp. 27.
67. Merchant has considered with provocative implications the links between what I call western optimism and environmentalists' own positivism in "Reinventing Eden."
68. For a history of ecofeminist activism, see Charlene Spretnak, "Ecofeminism: Our Roots and Flowering," in Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism, ed. Irene Diamond and Gloria Feman Orenstein (San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 1990), 3-14. Note that the majority of contributors to this book live and work in California. Some of the most prominent of witches, like Starhawk and Z. Susanna Budapest, have long lived, worked, and practiced in Oakland. Scholars like Carolyn Merchant, Donna Haraway, Annette Kolodny, and Val Plumwood also make their scholarly "homes" in western spaces.
69. The novel is dedicated to the late Ben Linder, an American agronomist ambushed by Contras. He had been assisting farmers in their attempts to reorient the economy away from one based on export and cash crops, like cattle, toward one which would feed Nicaragua's peoples and establish its self-sufficiency.
70. Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams: A Novel (New York: HarperCollins, 1990), 4. Future citations to this work will be given parenthetically in the text.
71. Graham, "'Ecofeminist' Author Relishes Political Role," 1.
72. The case in point is a lecture delivered to promote Pigs in Heaven in Iowa City, Iowa, during the summer of 1994.
73. Barbara Kingsolver, interview by David Gergen, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Public Broadcasting System, November 24, 1995. The interview coincided with the release of Kingsolver's essay collection High Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now or Never (New York: HarperCollins, 1995).
74. Barbara Kingsolver, interview by David Gergen, The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Public Broadcasting System, November 24, 1995. The interview coincided with the release of Kingsolver's essay collection High Tide in Tucson: Essays from Now or Never (New York: HarperCollins, 1995).
75. See Matthew Gilber, "The Moral Passion of Barbara Kingsolver," Boston Globe, July 23, 1993, 25. Also see interview with Kingsolver in Donna Perry, Backtalk: Women Writers Speak Out (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1993).
76. See Matthew Gilber, "The Moral Passion of Barbara Kingsolver," Boston Globe, July 23, 1993, 25. Also see interview with Kingsolver in Donna Perry, Backtalk: Women Writers Speak Out (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1993).
77. On the relationship between postmodernism and ecothought, see David Pepper, "Green Politics as Postmodern Politics," Eco-Socialism: From Deep Ecology to Social Justice (New York: Routledge,1993); and Max Oelschlaeger, "Cosmos and Wilderness: A Postmodern Wilderness Philosophy," in The Idea of Wilderness. For a related discussion, see SueEllen Campbell, "The Land and Language of Desire: Where Deep Ecology and Post-Structuralism Meet," in Western American Literature 24:3 (1989): 199-212.
78. On the relationship between postmodernism and ecothought, see David Pepper, "Green Politics as Postmodern Politics," Eco-Socialism: From Deep Ecology to Social Justice (New York: Routledge,1993); and Max Oelschlaeger, "Cosmos and Wilderness: A Postmodern Wilderness Philosophy," in The Idea of Wilderness. For a related discussion, see SueEllen Campbell, "The Land and Language of Desire: Where Deep Ecology and Post-Structuralism Meet," in Western American Literature 24:3 (1989): 199-212.
79. On the relationship between postmodernism and ecothought, see David Pepper, "Green Politics as Postmodern Politics," Eco-Socialism: From Deep Ecology to Social Justice (New York: Routledge,1993); and Max Oelschlaeger, "Cosmos and Wilderness: A Postmodern Wilderness Philosophy," in The Idea of Wilderness. For a related discussion, see SueEllen Campbell, "The Land and Language of Desire: Where Deep Ecology and Post-Structuralism Meet," in Western American Literature 24:3 (1989): 199-212.
80. For discussions of community in Kingsolver's recent Pigs in Heaven, see Dierdre Donahue, "Books About Human Bonds and Barriers," USA Today, July 15, 1993, D1; and Megan Rosenfeld, "Novelist in Hog Heaven," Washington Post, July 14, 1993, D1.
81. For discussions of community in Kingsolver's recent Pigs in Heaven, see Dierdre Donahue, "Books About Human Bonds and Barriers," USA Today, July 15, 1993, D1; and Megan Rosenfeld, "Novelist in Hog Heaven," Washington Post, July 14, 1993, D1.
82. For discussions of community in Kingsolver's recent Pigs in Heaven, see Dierdre Donahue, "Books About Human Bonds and Barriers," USA Today, July 15, 1993, D1; and Megan Rosenfeld, "Novelist in Hog Heaven," Washington Post, July 14, 1993, D1.
83. Temple makes a similar point in the introduction to Open Spaces, City Places.
84. For a history of the emerging rhetoric of difference see Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith, eds., All the Women are White, All the Blacks are Men, But Some of Us are Brave (Old Westbury, N.Y: Feminist Press, 1982); or Gloria Anzaldúa, ed., Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Color (San Francisco: Aunt Lute Foundation Books, 1990).
85. For a history of the emerging rhetoric of difference see Gloria T. Hull, Patricia Bell Scott, and Barbara Smith, eds., All the Women are White, All the Blacks are Men, But Some of Us are Brave (Old Westbury, N.Y: Feminist Press, 1982); or Gloria Anzaldúa, ed., Making Face, Making Soul/Haciendo Caras: Creative and Critical Perspectives by Feminists of Color (San Francisco: Aunt Lute Foundation Books, 1990).
86. On "wilderness" as a consumer phenomenon, see Jennifer Price, "Looking for Nature at the Mall: A Field Guide to the Nature Company," in Cronon, Uncommon Ground, 186-204.
87. I draw directly from Cronon's argument in "The Trouble with Wilderness."
88. For a concise revisionist agenda, see Martin, "New With Added Ecology?"
89. Oelschaeger, The Idea of Wilderness, 10.
90. See Alfred W. Crosby, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986); and Wendy Harcourt, ed., Feminist Perspectives on Sustainable Development ( London: Zed Press, 1994).
91. See Alfred W. Crosby, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986); and Wendy Harcourt, ed., Feminist Perspectives on Sustainable Development ( London: Zed Press, 1994).