Mode of Program Participation
Community Organizing and Educational Programming
Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
Title: “Conflict and Resolution: Cold Mountain and Eco-Environmentalism in Charles Frazier’s Anti-War Fiction”
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Abstract: When Charles Frazier’s disillusioned Confederate soldier Inman steps through his hospital window to begin his long and dangerous journey home to Cold Mountain, he understands that this journey will be the “axel” of his life. Wounded both in body and soul, Inman’s “journey” is far more than a war-weary odyssey homeward; it is his coming to terms with a deeper understanding of the connection the land and those who “tenant” it and the relationship of the two in terms of survival. That understanding is Inman’s roadmap for discerning our human place in this physical world, an understanding that counters the disharmony of the man-made conflict and destruction that augers chaos and despair, and symbolized in the destructive conflicts that humans create among themselves. This paper will explore that journey toward enlightenment, both as evinced in Inman’s trek home to North Carolina and in his love Ada’s parallel journey of discovery. The profound moral and environmental lesson of this uncommon anti-war novel by Charles Frazier is the moral imperative he portrays in our honoring and respecting the Earth we live on and each other as human beings.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Sylvia Bailey Shurbutt is past president of Appalachian Studies Association and 2016 Conference Chair. She is author of books about writing and about literature. She has published widely and has given conference papers here and abroad, this past August at the Wordsworth Conference in Grasmere, UK. She is editor of the Anthology of Appalachian Writers and Director of the 2017 NEH Summer Institute Voices from the Misty Mountains (2013 and 2016)..
Title: “Conflict and Resolution: Cold Mountain and Eco-Environmentalism in Charles Frazier’s Anti-War Fiction”
Abstract: When Charles Frazier’s disillusioned Confederate soldier Inman steps through his hospital window to begin his long and dangerous journey home to Cold Mountain, he understands that this journey will be the “axel” of his life. Wounded both in body and soul, Inman’s “journey” is far more than a war-weary odyssey homeward; it is his coming to terms with a deeper understanding of the connection the land and those who “tenant” it and the relationship of the two in terms of survival. That understanding is Inman’s roadmap for discerning our human place in this physical world, an understanding that counters the disharmony of the man-made conflict and destruction that augers chaos and despair, and symbolized in the destructive conflicts that humans create among themselves. This paper will explore that journey toward enlightenment, both as evinced in Inman’s trek home to North Carolina and in his love Ada’s parallel journey of discovery. The profound moral and environmental lesson of this uncommon anti-war novel by Charles Frazier is the moral imperative he portrays in our honoring and respecting the Earth we live on and each other as human beings.
