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“Terry Tempest Williams and the Literature of Engagement”
David Landis Barnhill
An Outline
Basic conceptions of nature writing
Roorda : narratives of retreat
Slovic : explorations of our consciousness of nature
> Barnhill : nature writing is often more than this, and such views can marginalize nature writing
A literature of engagement: three types
Interactive involvement with nature , as opposed to mere contemplation or exploitive use.
- nature has intrinsic value
- nature is seen as a subject rather than mere object
- there is a recognized relationship between nature and humans
- the earth has agency and impacts people
Social engagement. Nature and society are interconnected, with nature seen in the context of society, society seen in the context of nature.
- family
- community
- cross-cultural
Political engagement.
- ecosocial critique and activism in response
- ecosocial ideals and activism in response
Terry Tempest Williams and the literature of engagement
Interactive involvement with nature
- Robert Finch’s criticismof wilderness writing: “escapist literature and a trivial exercise”
- Nature as “relatives” and having agency (marking her)
- Erotics of place : physical intimacy and reciprocity: “how do we make love to the land?”
Social engagement
- Family : “We knew that our relationship to the land was our relationship to each other.”
- Community : “Nature writing . . . can be a literature of hope and faith and how we might move within our communities to heal our severed relations.”
- Cross-cultural : “Swimming in cross-cultural waters”
Ecosocial critique
- Witnessingto the destruction. “As a writer, I believe that it is our task, our responsibility, to hold the mirror up to social injustices that we see and to create a prayer of beauty.”
- Fear offeelings. “Without feeling. Perhaps these two words are the key, the only way we can begin to understand our abuse of each other and our abuse of the land.”
- Political : hollow patriotism, big business, and globalization
- Coyote Clan’s activism: writing, lobbying, civil disobedience
Ecosocial ideals
- In response to patriarchal power, collaborative vulnerability
- In response to alienation, exposure
- In response to deadened feelings, passion and being fully present
- In response to the current political climate, the open space of democracy
- Active participation
- An ongoing project
- Untidy and uncertain
- Vigilant attention
- Refusal to accept the unacceptable
- Inclusive, egalitarian, and grassroots
- Democracy as a conversation
- Requires respect, humility, and patience
- A holistic, embodied democracy
- Ecological communitarianism
- Activism : community building and speaking out
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