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Myth and Environment in Recent Southwestern Literature
Healing Narratives
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2014
Summary
The romantic perception of the American Southwest as a wild and dangerous frontier where heroic settlers prove their endurance has often responded to a common human desire to escape from the pressures of civilization and experience an “authentic” relationship with nature. This idealized notion about life in the Southwest, however, has contributed the subjugation of the indigenous populations and the natural world while helping rationalize the conquest of both. In Myth and Environment in Recent Southwestern Literature, Theda Wrede brings contemporary Southwestern American literature under the microscope to examine the ways in which the mythic narrative has influenced attitudes toward the land in the region. Focusing on popular novels by Corrmac McCarthy, Barbara Kingsolver, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Denise Chávez, Wrede explores the psychology behind the myth and discusses the ways in which the four authors deploy the mythic narrative, interrogate its validity, and offer visions for alternative modes of inhabiting the Southwest. In combining ideas from a culturally sensitive ecofeminist theory, psychoanalysis, postcolonial studies, and literary studies, the study offers an innovative conceptual framework for discussions about environmental responsibility in the twenty-first century. Finally, it also encourages its readers to partake in the process of mythogenesis by imagining “sustainable” narratives to help rescue the promise of the Southwest for the new millennium.
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Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2014
ISBN-Print
978-0-7391-8495-0
ISBN-Online
978-0-7391-8496-7
Publisher
Lexington, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
133
Product type
Book Titles
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Contents No access
Acknowledgments No access
Introduction No access Pages 1 - 6
1 The Myth and Contemporary Reappraisals of the Southwest No access Pages 7 - 32
2 Renewal and Regression in Cormac McCarthy’s Western All the Pretty Horses No access Pages 33 - 50
3 Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal Dreams No access Pages 51 - 70
4 “It’s a Matter of Transitions” No access Pages 71 - 96
5 Liminality in Denise Chávez’s The Last of the Menu Girls No access Pages 97 - 118
