Participation Type
Paper
Session Title
Session 3.13 Literature and Poetry
Presentation #1 Title
“The World is Ripe, and We’ll Pluck It like an Apple from A Tree”: Female Agency in Ron Rash’s Serena
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
As a work of literary naturalism, Ron Rash’s Serena (2008) portrays the challenges of the Appalachian landscape and the desperate actions two female protagonists take in order to protect what they value. Serena Pemberton is a former Westerner who has moved east. Described alternately as feminine, masculine, and supernatural, Serena attempts to master the Southern Appalachian environment—and the community that depends on it—through the Pemberton Lumber Company. In contrast, Rachel Harmon is a native Appalachian who works her small plot of land in order to provide for herself and her son. This paper argues that Serena’s naturalistic elements are better understood by investigating the competing mythologies of the American West and Southern Appalachia and, by extension, the competing economies of capitalism and agrarianism. Serena, as a Westerner, moves to Appalachia because she desires the ungoverned riches of timber country. With the Western frontier seemingly closed, it is only in Appalachia that Serena can truly abandon her economic and ethical scruples. Rachel, as a native Appalachian, values her community, supports herself and her son, and eventually looks to the West as a refuge from Serena. In Serena, Ron Rash genders the myths of the American West and Southern Appalachia, revealing that women are significant both in the sustenance of Appalachian communities and the destruction of them.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Jessica Christensen is a PhD student in 20th Century American Literature at the University of Tennessee (Knoxville).
“The World is Ripe, and We’ll Pluck It like an Apple from A Tree”: Female Agency in Ron Rash’s Serena
Harris Hall 443
As a work of literary naturalism, Ron Rash’s Serena (2008) portrays the challenges of the Appalachian landscape and the desperate actions two female protagonists take in order to protect what they value. Serena Pemberton is a former Westerner who has moved east. Described alternately as feminine, masculine, and supernatural, Serena attempts to master the Southern Appalachian environment—and the community that depends on it—through the Pemberton Lumber Company. In contrast, Rachel Harmon is a native Appalachian who works her small plot of land in order to provide for herself and her son. This paper argues that Serena’s naturalistic elements are better understood by investigating the competing mythologies of the American West and Southern Appalachia and, by extension, the competing economies of capitalism and agrarianism. Serena, as a Westerner, moves to Appalachia because she desires the ungoverned riches of timber country. With the Western frontier seemingly closed, it is only in Appalachia that Serena can truly abandon her economic and ethical scruples. Rachel, as a native Appalachian, values her community, supports herself and her son, and eventually looks to the West as a refuge from Serena. In Serena, Ron Rash genders the myths of the American West and Southern Appalachia, revealing that women are significant both in the sustenance of Appalachian communities and the destruction of them.
