BARNHILL’S SEVEN ELEMENTS IN NATURE WRITING

 

Many, sometimes all, of these elements are found in a work of nature writing. As you read the text, note which elements appear at different places, which ones predominate, and how they relate to each other.

 

1. Accounts of nature

  • Natural history information. This refers not just to historical accounts of nature over time, but information about nature now as well (how heron’s hunt, the particular animals in this habitat, etc.)
  • Descriptions of scenes in nature: the swoop of the hawk, the color of rocks in sunset.

2. Accounts of personal experience in nature. This element can be further analyzed into several variables.

  • Types of experience , such as observation of nature, encounters with animals or plants, working with nature (e.g., as a farmer), and living with others (friends, family, community) in relation to nature.
  • Modes of living. The concern here is the context and basic activity. Major types include living in place (either temporarily, as in Walden, or indefinitely, as with Scott Russell Sanders), rambles in familiar territory, and travel to unfamiliar lands (whether hiking in the Sierras or journeying through Africa ).
  • Social situation: solitude, with companions, with family, or in a community.

3. A philosophy of nature, including views of:

  • the fundamental way nature works
  • the essential relationship between humans and nature
  • the value of nature
  • our ethical responsibility in regards to nature

4. An ecological psychology, or perhaps a natural philosophy of the mind. This aspect consists of reflections on consciousness of nature, as in Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker’s Creek and Barry Lopez’s Arctic Dreams.

 

5. The social experience of nature. Nature writing is not limited to the author’s personal experience of the natural world. It also can concern reflections on the experience of nature within the context of a human society, and the experience of social relations within the context of nature. There are at least three main ways that nature writers discuss the social experience of nature.

  • The community: The most common form involves reflections on relationships to family and local community.
  • History: In addition there are historical reflections of past generations, their relationship to the land, and their impact on the present.
  • Cultural ecology: The social is the focus here as well, but the subject is the relationship of a culture of a people to nature, particularly cultures other than the dominant white society.

6. Ecosocial politics . This element includes critique – reflections on the nature, extent, and causes of negative human impact on the natural world – as well as speculations on the ecosocial ideal. We can analyze these two dimensions into at least three aspects.

  • Critique
    • Bearing witness to the loss and suffering.
    • Analysis of nature, causes, and effects of the loss and suffering.
    • Active resistance to the forces and structures that lead to the loss of suffering.
  • Ecosocial ideals
    • Bearing witness to the beauty and value of nature and to examples of what Barry Lopez calls “living wisely on the land.”
    • Analysis of the nature of the ideal and the path of achieving it.
    • The active work of building a positive alternative

7. Spirituality . This element includes both traditional religious beliefs (e.g., Christianity, Buddhism) and more general difficult-to-define “nature spirituality.” It is related to other elements, since it involves a certain state of mind and emotions (ecopsychology) and religious view of nature (philosophy), and it usually strongly impacts the social and political dimensions. Depictions of personal experience often manifest the spiritual perspective of the author.

 

 

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Last updated: March 14, 2007