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Title: The Virgin.
Creator: Kaplan, Vanessa Michele., Florida Atlantic University, Payne, Johnny
Abstract/Description: The romantic and naturalistic schools of literature have long been pitted against each other by talented theorists best on divorcing freedom (romantic) from determinism (naturalistic) and using literature to promote the extreme they decide is either morally good (freedom) or effectively caused (determinism). In Negligence in the Garden, the characters are faced with deciding if they are free to determine the courses of their lives, or if their lives are set in motion by endless chains of...
Show moreThe romantic and naturalistic schools of literature have long been pitted against each other by talented theorists best on divorcing freedom (romantic) from determinism (naturalistic) and using literature to promote the extreme they decide is either morally good (freedom) or effectively caused (determinism). In Negligence in the Garden, the characters are faced with deciding if they are free to determine the courses of their lives, or if their lives are set in motion by endless chains of cause and effect. Their world is the place where romanticism meets naturalism. They discover that through acting free, they can become free, but that the importance of understanding where they might stand in relation to any string of cause and effect is also of the utmost importance in determining how to use their freedoms.
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Date Issued: 2003
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/12974
Subject Headings: Romanticism, Naturalism in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Mother's forgotten garden.
Creator: Zimmerman, Cory Daniel., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: The thesis proposed for my M.F.A. in creative writing is a collection of conceptual American short stories written in a variety of forms that properly suit their respective subjects. Like a handful of miscellaneous wild seeds scattered over a tilled garden, the goal of the project is to represent the wild asymmetry of Nature via a collection of unlikely companions. For this reason, the conceptual form of each story often takes root in scientific or symbolic representations of Nature (i.e....
Show moreThe thesis proposed for my M.F.A. in creative writing is a collection of conceptual American short stories written in a variety of forms that properly suit their respective subjects. Like a handful of miscellaneous wild seeds scattered over a tilled garden, the goal of the project is to represent the wild asymmetry of Nature via a collection of unlikely companions. For this reason, the conceptual form of each story often takes root in scientific or symbolic representations of Nature (i.e. sine and cosine curves, the yin-yang, etc.). The plot of loose soil holding these collective experiments together is their earthy thematic focus-namely, the way in which Nature has been systematically backgrounded by western ideology. On occasion, a story's conceptual focus may stray from these ecofeminist principles, but only for the purpose of leveling a more critical or satirical eye upon common American ideologies.
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Date Issued: 2008
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/186303
Subject Headings: Symbolism in literature, Nature in literature, Short stories, American
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Reclaiming Wonder.
Creator: Barreneche, Ingrid M., Broderick, Amy S., Florida Atlantic University, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of Visual Arts and Art History
Abstract/Description: I believe art can offer an antidote to our numbness and rekindle a sense of childlike wonder. Reclaiming Wonder is an installation in which I aim to explore the possibility of evoking the curiosity of childhood in the viewer’s mind and transporting him or her into a dreamlike atmosphere to wander about in wonder through the use of the senses of sight, touch, and hearing.
Date Issued: 2017
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004863, http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00004863
Subject Headings: Semiotics and literature., Wonder in children., Philosophy of nature., Nature study., Discourse analysis., Symbolism in literature., Spiritual life.
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: An ecocritical and metaphorical analysis of "Cereus Blooms at Night".
Creator: Kaleel, Rhonda A., Florida Atlantic University, Furman, Andrew
Abstract/Description: Nature is an important symbol in Cereus Blooms at Night by Shani Mootoo. The metaphorical comparisons are interlaced within the colonial usurpation which fuels the novel into becoming an ecocritical statement, because without the health of the environment, both human and non-human species alike decay and die because of colonial encroachment. Shani Mootoo illustrates the ecological clash between the wetlands and the tropics through an intricate narrative involving people who are dominated by...
Show moreNature is an important symbol in Cereus Blooms at Night by Shani Mootoo. The metaphorical comparisons are interlaced within the colonial usurpation which fuels the novel into becoming an ecocritical statement, because without the health of the environment, both human and non-human species alike decay and die because of colonial encroachment. Shani Mootoo illustrates the ecological clash between the wetlands and the tropics through an intricate narrative involving people who are dominated by their environments and cultures, or lack thereof, which create great chasms to overcome. Through critical nature symbols such as the town of Paradise versus the wetlands, the cereus plant, the bugs, the birds, and the cat, important ecocritical connections can be made as to the survival of the characters and the island.
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Date Issued: 2005
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/13205
Subject Headings: Mootoo, Shani,--1957---Cereus blooms at night, Nature in literature, Philosophy of nature in literature, Ecocriticism, Ecology in literature, Literature and science--Caribbean Area
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Let them run wild: childhood, the nineteenth-century storyteller, and the ascent of the moon.
Creator: Czerny, Val., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Drawing from literary criticism, ecological philosophy, psychoanalysis, and the wisdom of the female principle - or what Paula Gunn Allen perceives as "Her presence," the "power to make and relate"- this interdisciplinary study challenges dominant assumptions that habitually prevail in western cultural thinking. Let Them Run Wild investigates alternative, "buried" articulations which emerge in nineteenth-and early twentieth-century narratives that especially engage an audience of both...
Show moreDrawing from literary criticism, ecological philosophy, psychoanalysis, and the wisdom of the female principle - or what Paula Gunn Allen perceives as "Her presence," the "power to make and relate"- this interdisciplinary study challenges dominant assumptions that habitually prevail in western cultural thinking. Let Them Run Wild investigates alternative, "buried" articulations which emerge in nineteenth-and early twentieth-century narratives that especially engage an audience of both children and adult readers. Recognizing the fictions inherent in linear-driven thought, these articulations celebrate narrative moments where reason is complicated and reconjectured, where absence is affirmed as presence, and where tale-tellers disappear behind the messages they relate. By spotlighting legendary characters, Chapter One, "The Jowls of Legend," explains how "wild consciousness" resists legendary status. Chapters Two and Three discuss the interweaving journey of the wild arabesque in the Arabian Nights and untamed desire within Anne's transformative language in L.M. Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables. Chapter Four, examining the death drive in Frank Norris's The Octopus, describes how it is reconceived in E. Nesbit's The Railway Children. Lastly, the Epilogue explores Juliana Ewing's "Lob Lie-By-the-Fire," tracing the manifestation of the female principle through its most wild activity - not hindered by gender - of service rendered through mystery and adventure. Wild consciousness advances through the collective identity of what Frederic Jameson has called the "political unconscious"and commissions older, better approximations of ideology through willing, spontaneous service., It acknowledges Homi K. Bhabha's articulation of "cultural hybridity," while, simultaneously, it directs such hybrid constructions of history, space, and negotiation outward toward a wild feminist critic Elaine Showalter has characterized as the "wild zone," customarily understood as a borderland space, is further reinterpreted as a borderless, expressive, timeless calling forth of receptive minds to engage in wildly compassionate, nonsensical acts and cunning, non-heroic feats in order to transform the inert, polemic systems that define our western collective mind. In short, this study refigures what Vandana Shiva identifies as cultural "patents on life," where "civilization" becomes small - a mere idea in a forest's deep heart.
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Date Issued: 2009
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/209982
Subject Headings: Symbolism in literature, Ecofeminism and literature, Philosophy of nature in literature, Narrative (Rhetoric), Criticism and literature, Storytelling in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Re-thinking green: ecofeminist pedagogy and the archetype of the witch in young adult literature.
Creator: Barton, Jessica Gray, Hinshaw, Wendy, Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This project examines the presence and significance of ecofeminism and pedagogy within contemporary Young Adult literatures, particularly girls’ ecofantasy literatures. Specifically, I examine the role and representations of the female body in nature and any real or perceived connections between them. To accomplish this, I bring the theories of several feminist, ecofeminist, and environmental studies scholars together with my primary texts, Green Angel and Green Witch by Alice Hoffman, to...
Show moreThis project examines the presence and significance of ecofeminism and pedagogy within contemporary Young Adult literatures, particularly girls’ ecofantasy literatures. Specifically, I examine the role and representations of the female body in nature and any real or perceived connections between them. To accomplish this, I bring the theories of several feminist, ecofeminist, and environmental studies scholars together with my primary texts, Green Angel and Green Witch by Alice Hoffman, to examine the depiction of the female body in nature through interconnectedness and reciprocity between human and non-human nature, green transformations, and the archetype of the witch.
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Date Issued: 2013
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA0004004
Subject Headings: Ecofeminism in literature, Feminist theory, Nature in literature, Hoffman, Alice -- Green witch -- Criticism and interpretation, Hoffman, Alice -- Green angel -- Criticism and interpretation, Human body -- Social aspects
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Mind the Gap: Overcoming Dualities in Motor City, USA.
Creator: Houser, Tai Lynden, Blakemore, Steven, Florida Atlantic University
Abstract/Description: Contemporary thinking, bound as it is to a dualistic paradigm, inherently privileges one side of the duality over the other. Feminists - most notably in this dissertation, Val Plumwood - argue that we must overcome these privileged dualities and reconstruct a way of knowing that recognizes difference while not granting privilege to one side or the other. Dualities result from the modernist and postmodernist desire to name and control. One of the reasons that we cannot transcend this desire is...
Show moreContemporary thinking, bound as it is to a dualistic paradigm, inherently privileges one side of the duality over the other. Feminists - most notably in this dissertation, Val Plumwood - argue that we must overcome these privileged dualities and reconstruct a way of knowing that recognizes difference while not granting privilege to one side or the other. Dualities result from the modernist and postmodernist desire to name and control. One of the reasons that we cannot transcend this desire is because we have lost our connection to our environment. Examining novels and films set in Detroit, Michigan, as well as coming to terms with that city's history, will allow us to find places where clairvoyant messengers can commune with the environment and offer us an insight into ways of overcoming the radical "othering" ofduality. This project begins by examining the literary history of urban fiction in the United States and pointing to the tradition of duality and some of its surface problems. Then, the project begins to construct a history of Detroit that exposes the complex layers of duality that have informed the city's growth and ultimately led to the 1967 riots. Next, the argument suggests the importance of fiction and film in understanding modern dualities. The first fictive example, Maureen, from Joyce Carol Oates's novel them is an example of a potential clairvoyant. However, bound as she is to a postmodern existence, Maureen experiences her "other'' but fails to provide a didactic example of non-dualistic thinking. Ultimately, postmodernism and postmodern/post riot Detroit only mystify and compound the problems associated with modern dualities. Likewise, Jeffrey Eugenides transgendered hero/ine Calliope (Middlesex) experiences her natural "other" and allows us to call into question the traditional binaries we use to create our understandings of gender. Both characters retell their experience and re-present their bodies in an attempt to bridge dualities and overcome their "otherness." Finally, the dissertation finds a representation of contemporary Detroit, Eminem's 8 Mile, and argues that violence and shame are at the root of dualities and ultimately distract us from overcoming both fictional and real examples of the oppressive "othering" which results from a culture steeped in dualistic thinking.
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Date Issued: 2008
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000984
Subject Headings: Detroit (Mich)--In literature, Detroit (Mich)--History--21st century--Criticism and interpretation, Symbolism in literature, Postmodernism--Psychological aspects, Philosophy of nature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The Concept of Nature in American Transcendentalism: Emerson and Thoreau appropriating Kant.
Creator: Unger, Ulrike, Augustyn, Prisca, Florida Atlantic University
Abstract/Description: The objective of this study is to compare Emerson's and Thoreau's concepts of nature as they are informed by Immanuel Kant. In particular, this study examines Emerson's Nature, The Transcendentalist, The Divinity School Address, The Conservative; and Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Walden; or, Life in the Woods and The Maine Woods to analyze how their ideas of nature are anchored in Kant's three Critiques. Emerson and Thoreau develop Kant's ideas and both arrive at an...
Show moreThe objective of this study is to compare Emerson's and Thoreau's concepts of nature as they are informed by Immanuel Kant. In particular, this study examines Emerson's Nature, The Transcendentalist, The Divinity School Address, The Conservative; and Thoreau's A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Walden; or, Life in the Woods and The Maine Woods to analyze how their ideas of nature are anchored in Kant's three Critiques. Emerson and Thoreau develop Kant's ideas and both arrive at an unlimited nature which is not bound to objects of form. While Emerson focuses on human nature in the organism, Thoreau is concerned with organic nature in particular.
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Date Issued: 2008
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000971
Subject Headings: Emerson, Ralph Waldo,--1803-1882--Criticism and interpretation, Thoreau, Henry David,--1817-1862--Criticism and interpretation, Kant, Immanuel,--1724-1804--Criticism and interpretation, Transcendentalism in literature, Nature in literature, Symbolism in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Naturalist tendencies in three novels by Edith Wharton.
Creator: Mullins, Marjorie L., Florida Atlantic University, McGuirk, Carol
Abstract/Description: Although Edith Wharton once said she considered herself a writer of novels of manners, she exhibits naturalist tendencies in her writing. She shows the potential of both heredity and environment to ensnare and suppress the individual in his or her quest for self-determination. In The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence, Wharton reflects upon the changes that caused society to enforce its rules all the more strongly in an attempt to maintain its stability. In Ethan Frome she develops one...
Show moreAlthough Edith Wharton once said she considered herself a writer of novels of manners, she exhibits naturalist tendencies in her writing. She shows the potential of both heredity and environment to ensnare and suppress the individual in his or her quest for self-determination. In The House of Mirth and The Age of Innocence, Wharton reflects upon the changes that caused society to enforce its rules all the more strongly in an attempt to maintain its stability. In Ethan Frome she develops one of the generally accepted themes of naturalism: the waste of human potential because of the forces of society. In these novels Wharton moves beyond the usual realism found in much of her fiction and places her characters in naturalist roles.
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Date Issued: 1996
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/15270
Subject Headings: Wharton, Edith,--1862-1937--Criticism and interpretation., Naturalism in literature., Literature and society--United States., American fiction--20th century--History and criticism.
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Nature's Place in Zora Neale Hurston's "John Redding Goes to Sea," "Magnolia Flower," and "Sweat".
Creator: Redman, F. Russell, Stover, Johnnie, Florida Atlantic University
Abstract/Description: Zora Neale Hurston is recognized as an important American literary figure, but the majority of her fiction is overshadowed by the critical attention given to her most popular novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Just as her short stories remain relatively ignored by critics, little is written about her thoughts regarding nature and the human relationship with the natural environment. This thesis draws upon the recent growth of ecocriticism and ecofeminist literary criticism in an attempt to...
Show moreZora Neale Hurston is recognized as an important American literary figure, but the majority of her fiction is overshadowed by the critical attention given to her most popular novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God. Just as her short stories remain relatively ignored by critics, little is written about her thoughts regarding nature and the human relationship with the natural environment. This thesis draws upon the recent growth of ecocriticism and ecofeminist literary criticism in an attempt to interpret Hurston's environmental thought as manifested in three of her early short stories, "John Redding Goes to Sea," "Magnolia Flower," and "Sweat." In this study, I show that even in her early short stories, Hurston's fiction is ripe with imagery and narrative that blend the natural with the cultural while effectively illustrating and engaging the interconnectedness between social inequality and environmental degradation in the South.
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Date Issued: 2008
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000953
Subject Headings: Hurston, Zora Neale--John Redding goes to sea--Criticism and interpretation, Hurston, Zora Neale--Magnolia flower to sea--Criticism and interpretation, Hurston, Zora Neale--Sweat--Criticism and interpretation, Nature in literature, Human ecology in literature
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Earth, water, and black bodies: elements at work in Toni Morrison's literary landscape.
Creator: Anderson, Pauline P., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: This project focuses on the natural elements earth and water as presented in the works of African American author Toni Morrison. The primary texts analyzed are Sula, Song of Solomon, and Beloved. In the first two novels, Morrison alludes to the abuse of black bodies by drawing parallels between the destruction of trees and the negative effects of urbanization. I argue that environmental destruction and urbanization parallels the disenfranchisement and killing of black bodies. Water in Beloved...
Show moreThis project focuses on the natural elements earth and water as presented in the works of African American author Toni Morrison. The primary texts analyzed are Sula, Song of Solomon, and Beloved. In the first two novels, Morrison alludes to the abuse of black bodies by drawing parallels between the destruction of trees and the negative effects of urbanization. I argue that environmental destruction and urbanization parallels the disenfranchisement and killing of black bodies. Water in Beloved connotes bondage because of its historical link to the Triangular Trade. However, considering Morrison's frequent mention of water and the fugitives' constant need to drink, I argue that ingesting water symbolizes a need for psychological freedom. All of the novels that I have analyzed emphasize the complex connections between African Americans and nature.
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Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3356892
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, African Americans in literature, African American philosophy, Human ecology in literature, Nature in literature, Ecocriticism
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: A Prayer for the Earth: Discovering a New Cosmological Vision through a Reading of Linda Hogan's Power and Gregory Maguire's Wicked from an Ecofeminist, EarthCentered and Spiritual Perspective.
Creator: McCabe, Casey Elizabeth, Caputi, Jane, Florida Atlantic University
Abstract/Description: Linda Hogan's Power and Gregory Maguire's Wicked are two works of literature that encompass a process of raising and transforming consciousness about humans' relationships with each other and with the Earth and elemental energies. Both can be considered prayers to and for the world. The goal of this thesis is to highlight and explore themes of spirituality, ecofeminism, environmental justice, anti-colonialism, indigenous philosophies regarding sense of place, human and animal rights, and...
Show moreLinda Hogan's Power and Gregory Maguire's Wicked are two works of literature that encompass a process of raising and transforming consciousness about humans' relationships with each other and with the Earth and elemental energies. Both can be considered prayers to and for the world. The goal of this thesis is to highlight and explore themes of spirituality, ecofeminism, environmental justice, anti-colonialism, indigenous philosophies regarding sense of place, human and animal rights, and feminist critical theories of race and gender through the artistic, creative and powerful writing of these authors. These works both reflect and participate in ongoing processes of political and spiritual change away from patriarchal, Eurocentric and imperial culture. By applying concepts including F. Marina Schauffler's "Ecological Conversion" and Gloria Anzaldua's "Mestiza Consciousness," I will show how the novels' characters, though very differently, encompass these transformations of consciousness.
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Date Issued: 2008
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FA00000938
Subject Headings: Hogan, Linda,--1964---Power--Criticism and interpretation, Maguire, Gregory--Wicked--Criticism and interpretation, Ecofeminism, Human ecology in literature, Philosophy of nature, Ecology--Moral and ethical aspects
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Space, place, and identity in Yevgeny Zamyatin's We and J.G. Ballard's The Drowned World.
Creator: Mandell, Megan., College for Design and Social Inquiry, School of Public Administration
Abstract/Description: Intimate spaces play a key role in the development of human identity, constructing identity through an internalized experience of the house itself. Building on Bachelard's theories in The Poetics of Space, I argue that characters in Yevgeny Zamyatin's We and J.G. Ballard's The Drowned World gain a new awareness of self after experiencing nature as a substitute for the house. The emergence of a new identity occurs because nature offers protection from the forces that inhibit both D-503 and...
Show moreIntimate spaces play a key role in the development of human identity, constructing identity through an internalized experience of the house itself. Building on Bachelard's theories in The Poetics of Space, I argue that characters in Yevgeny Zamyatin's We and J.G. Ballard's The Drowned World gain a new awareness of self after experiencing nature as a substitute for the house. The emergence of a new identity occurs because nature offers protection from the forces that inhibit both D-503 and Keran's individual growth ; it offers the safety of the house that neither character is allowed in a private home : D-503 because of the panoptic space of the One state and Kerans due to the nature of the changing circumstances of the environment and his own biology that force him to accept his role as a "new" human and the jungle as "home".
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Date Issued: 2013
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/fcla/dt/3362559
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Gender identity in literature, Nature in literature, Dystopias, Totalitarianism
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: A humdrum aha!: John Clare's mundane sublime.
Creator: Pell, Dana Odwazny., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Following the work of Sara Houghton-Walker and Edward Strickland, this thesis theorizes the "mundane sublime" as encountered in romanticist John Clare's poetry. Instead of being oriented upward, as with Longinus's elevatory sublime, Clare's mundane sublime brings the subject downward to earth. While the sublime of the Burkean tradition begins with terror, I claim that the mundane sublime emerges out of love for that which is commonplace. Still revelatory, it may be further characterized by an...
Show moreFollowing the work of Sara Houghton-Walker and Edward Strickland, this thesis theorizes the "mundane sublime" as encountered in romanticist John Clare's poetry. Instead of being oriented upward, as with Longinus's elevatory sublime, Clare's mundane sublime brings the subject downward to earth. While the sublime of the Burkean tradition begins with terror, I claim that the mundane sublime emerges out of love for that which is commonplace. Still revelatory, it may be further characterized by an engagement with ecosystems, eternity, divinity, and nature as a whole. Clare's style scaffolds images resulting in a profusion of detail that arrests the mind and allows it to reflect on its own position in nature. As Clare's mundane sublime takes up simple natural objects and posits an ecological interconnectedness, it implies a more environmentally responsible relationship to one's surroundings, making it increasingly relevant for green studies.
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Date Issued: 2012
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/3355875
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Symbolism in nature, Poets, English, Criticism and interpretation, Sublime, The, Criticism and interpretation, Sublime, The, in literature, Criticism and interpretation
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: The compass of human will in realism and fantasy: a reading of Sister Carrie and The King of Elfand's Daugher.
Creator: Stone, Tracy., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: As realist and naturalist writers at the turn of the twentieth century adopted a scientific spirit of objectivity, they reflected the emphasis many contemporary scientific studies laid on the forces of the natural world in shaping the character, behavior, and ultimate destiny of man. In this literary mood of "pessimistic determinism," fantasy literature began to experience a resurgence, providing a marked contrast to naturalism's portrayal of the impotence of man to effect change in his...
Show moreAs realist and naturalist writers at the turn of the twentieth century adopted a scientific spirit of objectivity, they reflected the emphasis many contemporary scientific studies laid on the forces of the natural world in shaping the character, behavior, and ultimate destiny of man. In this literary mood of "pessimistic determinism," fantasy literature began to experience a resurgence, providing a marked contrast to naturalism's portrayal of the impotence of man to effect change in his circumstances. I examine fantasy's restoration of efficacy to the human will through a study of two representative works of the opposing genres: Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie and Lord Dunsany's The King of Elfland's Daughter. As I demonstrate, the former naturalistic novel emphasizes the impotence of its characters in the face of powerful natural world, while the latter contemporary fantasy novel uniquely showcases man's ability to effect change in his world and his destiny.
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Date Issued: 2009
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/221950
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Realism in literature, Naturalism in literature, Literature and science, Life change events in literature, Fantasy fiction, English, Criticism and interpretation
Format: Document (PDF)

Title: Constituting community: expanding perceptions of community in Rawlings's Cross Creek and Thoreau's Walden.
Creator: Curran, Julianne., Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, Department of English
Abstract/Description: Both Thoreau and Rawlings call attention to humanity's need to expand its perceptions and interpretations of what it means to be a part of a community in Walden and Cross Creek, respectively. Building on the established idea of what it means to be incorporated into a human community, each author also implores his or her readers to extend the perceived boundaries of what comprises a "community" to include the natural world. Ultimately, both texts point to the need for the establishment of what...
Show moreBoth Thoreau and Rawlings call attention to humanity's need to expand its perceptions and interpretations of what it means to be a part of a community in Walden and Cross Creek, respectively. Building on the established idea of what it means to be incorporated into a human community, each author also implores his or her readers to extend the perceived boundaries of what comprises a "community" to include the natural world. Ultimately, both texts point to the need for the establishment of what Aldo Leopold calls a land ethic, which requires the re-drawing of communal boundaries to include the land with man as a citizen rather than a conqueror of Nature. Thoreau and Rawlings demonstrate how an individual can start to expand his or her conception of community to move closer to Leopold's ideal by recounting the different experiences they have with human society and nature while living at Walden Pond and in Cross Creek, Florida. However, each author uses different approaches. Thoreau concentrates primarily on reflecting upon improving his individual self in order to eventually improve his Concord community. Rawlings, on the other hand, makes a greater effort to reflect upon her interactions with the people of Cross Creek in addition to her interactions with Nature in order to strengthen her bonds with these things. Such a difference causes Rawlings to be read as presenting a re-vision of Thoreau's ideas about the relationship between humankind, one's community, and Nature. While the kinds of experiences Thoreau and Rawlings encounter might be different, in the end it is their emphasis on the importance of an individual's relationship to the community-one that includes both humans and Nature-that resonates with readers.
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Date Issued: 2010
PURL: http://purl.flvc.org/FAU/2683121
Subject Headings: Criticism and interpretation, Criticism and interpretation, Symbolism in literature, National characteristics, American, in literature, Nature, Effect of human beings on
Format: Document (PDF)

Nature in literature (6)	+ -
Criticism and interpretation (5)	+ -
Symbolism in literature (5)	+ -
Human ecology in literature (3)	+ -
Ecocriticism (2)	+ -

Naturalism in literature (2)	+ -
Philosophy of nature (2)	+ -
Philosophy of nature in literature (2)	+ -
African American philosophy (1)	+ -
African Americans in literature (1)	+ -
American fiction--20th century--History and criticism. (1)	+ -
Criticism and literature (1)	+ -
Detroit (Mich)--History--21st century--Criticism and interpretation (1)	+ -
Detroit (Mich)--In literature (1)	+ -
Discourse analysis. (1)	+ -
Dystopias (1)	+ -
Ecofeminism (1)	+ -
Ecofeminism and literature (1)	+ -
Ecofeminism in literature (1)	+ -
Ecology in literature (1)	+ -
Ecology--Moral and ethical aspects (1)	+ -
Effect of human beings on (1)	+ -
Emerson, Ralph Waldo,--1803-1882--Criticism and interpretation (1)	+ -
Fantasy fiction, English (1)	+ -
Feminist theory (1)	+ -
Gender identity in literature (1)	+ -
Hoffman, Alice -- Green witch -- Criticism and interpretation (1)	+ -
Hoffman, Alice -- Green angel -- Criticism and interpretation (1)	+ -
Hogan, Linda,--1964---Power--Criticism and interpretation (1)	+ -
Human body -- Social aspects (1)	+ -

Beloved. (1)	+ -
Cross Creek. (1)	+ -
Drowned world. (1)	+ -
Sister Carrie. (1)	+ -
Song of Solomon. (1)	+ -

Sula. (1)	+ -
Walden. (1)	+ -
We. (1)	+ -

Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters (8)	+ -
Florida Atlantic University (8)	+ -
Department of English (7)	+ -
Anderson, Pauline P. (1)	+ -
Augustyn, Prisca (1)	+ -

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