Bad Land Pastoralism in Great Plains Fiction |
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Author:
| Cella, Matthew J. C. |
Foreword by:
| Franklin, Wayne |
Series title: | American Land and Life Ser. |
ISBN: | 978-1-58729-939-1 |
Publication Date: | Apr 2010 |
Publisher: | University of Iowa Press
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Book Format: | Ebook |
List Price: | USD $44.95 |
Book Description:
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At the core of this nuanced book is the question that ecocritics have been debating for decades: what is the relationship between aesthetics and activism, between art and community? By using a pastoral lens to examine ten fictional narratives that chronicle the dialogue between human culture and nonhuman nature on the Great Plains, Matthew Cella explores literary treatments of a succession of abrupt cultural transitions from the Euroamerican conquest of the "Indian wilderness" in the...
More DescriptionAt the core of this nuanced book is the question that ecocritics have been debating for decades: what is the relationship between aesthetics and activism, between art and community? By using a pastoral lens to examine ten fictional narratives that chronicle the dialogue between human culture and nonhuman nature on the Great Plains, Matthew Cella explores literary treatments of a succession of abrupt cultural transitions from the Euroamerican conquest of the "Indian wilderness" in the nineteenth century to the Buffalo Commons phenomenon in the twentieth. By charting the shifting meaning of land use and biocultural change in the region, he posits this bad land--the arid West--as a crucible for the development of the human imagination.