Mode of Program Participation
Academic Scholarship
Participation Type
Panel
Session Title
Ecocritical Appalachia: Nature and Environment
Session Abstract or Summary
Within recent years, new discussions on Appalachia and Appalachian Studies have emerged that both revisit and revise standard perceptions of the region. Ecocriticism, a nexus of literature, environment, and the literary perceptions of nature, has brought new interpretations to a region often viewed in traditional terms, reinvigorating approaches to the region, its works, and the field of Appalachian Studies.
This panel will bring a range of ecocritical interplay to our understanding of Appalachia through a variety of genres/mediums including historical writings, poetry, and book history. Also, while there are myriad anthologies on genre/area-specific ecocriticism and nature writing, none of these anthologies center on Appalachia. This panel will present the ideas behind the forthcoming two volume ecocritical and environmental writing anthology, a compilation of creative and critical works tentatively titled Appalachian Nature and Appalachian Environment.
By broadening the scope under which Appalachia and its works can be considered, scholars and audiences are better able to interpret Appalachia’s cultural and environmental influences and the ways in which these influences intersect with one another and the global community.
Presentation #1 Title
"High Adventure in a New World": Reading Contemporary Environmental Issues in Appalachia Through the Lens of Gilded Age Travel Writing
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
The Gilded Age, roughly 1876 to 1896 -- the two-decade period following Reconstruction -- saw a burst of economic activity and natural resource extraction in the region now called southern Appalachia. International capital flowed through the bond markets in New York and London, into large scale investments in timber, coal, and other extractive industries. During the same era, popular American illustrated monthly magazines likewise sent a legion of writers and illustrators into the southern mountains. The result was that Harper's, Appleton's, Lippincott's (later The Century Magazine), the Atlantic Monthly, and others produced a large and surprisingly coherent body of travel writing about the region. These travel essays express an ideology, relating to nature, capital, economic development, and human values. In fact, I propose that an interested reader can now detect in this body of writing, with the benefit of hindsight, the seeds of the region's 21st century environmental problems. I propose further that even the logic of anthropogenic global warming can be read in this body of travel writing. I require a projector and computer for a power point presentation.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Kevin E. O'Donnell is a Professor of English in the Department of Literature and Language, and directs the Environmental Studies minor, at East Tennessee State University, in Johnson City. He is the co-author of Seekers of Scenery: Travel Writing from Southern Appalachia, 1840-1900, U of TN Press, 2004, and the author of a number of articles about 19th century magazine writing and environmental history.
Presentation #2 Title
A Sense of Place: The Rhododendron as Regional Identification on the Covers of Appalachian Local Color Literature
Presentation #2 Abstract or Summary
The earliest natural explorers of the Appalachian Region discovered, described, and published accounts of the area’s rich landscape and botanical diversity. These and other naturalists were part of a movement to explore and classify America’s natural landscape.
Many of these botanical treasures, distinct to the Appalachian region, were translated by authors and artists into a symbolic shorthand used to capture a sense of place. The image of a single plant, such as the rhododendron, could serve as a graphic indicator of regional identification of place on the cover of local color literature.
The frequent use of native flora and landscape on book covers served as a standard representation of place, one that was recognizable to the reader in a single glance. This chapter traces the origins and development of the use of the native rhododendron to depict the Appalachian region. Special attention is given to the use of these graphic depictions in book art during the local color literature period of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
A native of Abingdon, Virginia, Stewart Plein is the Rare Book Librarian and Assistant Curator of West Virginia Books and Printed Resources at West Virginia University. She received her BA from Emory & Henry College and her MLIS from the University of South Carolina. Stewart’s research and publishing interests include book history, bookbinding design and Appalachian Studies with a focus on Appalachian local color literature.
Presentation #3 Title
Another Eden: Eco-questioning Poems from Southwest Virginia
Presentation #3 Abstract or Summary
I will share poems that have grown out of my relationship with my adopted landscape and land of Southwest Virginia, with poems that connect personal experiences with natural metaphors based on the beautiful landscape and its flora and fauna in contrast with poems that address threats to the natural environment that haunt me as I question the sustainability of our Appalachian environment, and the human organism within it, over time. For example, "Wild Grapes at Saltville" at the striking contrast a hiking trail and a superfund site, and "Dirge" builds on a conflict over the use of herbicides in a yard. "Another Eden," the title poem, considers the appropriation of a magnificent patch of earth by settlers displacing indigenous persons.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Felicia Mitchell, who has lived in rural Washington County, Virginia since 1987, teaches English and creative writing at Emory & Henry College. Her poems, grounded in the landscape and ecology of her adopted Appalachian home, have appeared in a range of journals including Kestrel, Whirlwind, About Place Journal, and Terrain. A Journal of the Built & Natural Environments. Waltzing with Horses, her first full collection of poems, is available from Press 53. Website: www.feliciamitchell.net.
Presentation #4 Title
Merging Appalachia and Ecocriticism: The Examination of a Sub-genre
Presentation #4 Abstract or Summary
When examining works that analyze literature through an ecocritical lens, many scholarly volumes can be found; anthologies of postcolonial ecocriticism, Asian ecocriticism, and even ecocriticism focused on a variety of ethnicities can be located easily. However, to date there has not been much research in the realm of ecocritically examining the Appalachian landscape and how it is portrayed in works of fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.
Many of us perhaps unknowingly already consider Appalachian writings through an ecocritical lens, as a colleague recently mentioned to me that “Every Appalachian writer is an environmentalist” and I’m certain this applies to Appalachian readers and scholars as well. However, by exploring these texts more formally through ecocriticism, we can carve out a place for Appalachia among the global discourse and show a broader audience what this region can offer to readers and researchers alike.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Hailing originally from Southeastern Ohio, Jessica Cory is currently a lecturer in the English Department at Western Carolina University. At this time, she is editing and co-editing two collections, one of Appalachian Ecocriticism and the other comprised of Appalachian Nature Writing, both currently under review with West Virginia University Press. She has also published creatively in several journals including ellipsis…, Menacing Hedge, and A Poetry Congeries and has presented nationally on Appalachian Trail literature.
"High Adventure in a New World": Reading Contemporary Environmental Issues in Appalachia Through the Lens of Gilded Age Travel Writing
The Gilded Age, roughly 1876 to 1896 -- the two-decade period following Reconstruction -- saw a burst of economic activity and natural resource extraction in the region now called southern Appalachia. International capital flowed through the bond markets in New York and London, into large scale investments in timber, coal, and other extractive industries. During the same era, popular American illustrated monthly magazines likewise sent a legion of writers and illustrators into the southern mountains. The result was that Harper's, Appleton's, Lippincott's (later The Century Magazine), the Atlantic Monthly, and others produced a large and surprisingly coherent body of travel writing about the region. These travel essays express an ideology, relating to nature, capital, economic development, and human values. In fact, I propose that an interested reader can now detect in this body of writing, with the benefit of hindsight, the seeds of the region's 21st century environmental problems. I propose further that even the logic of anthropogenic global warming can be read in this body of travel writing. I require a projector and computer for a power point presentation.
