Participation Type
Performance
Session Title
Divine Right’s Trip Revisited, The Hero Journeys from Cincinnati to the Kentucky Homeplace
Session Abstract or Summary
Perfomance time total for Norman and Isaacs: 1 hr. and 15 minutes
Gurney Norman opens this session reading from his acclaimed 1972 novel, Divine Right’s Trip. The author and Susan L.F. Isaacs will discuss the work, in which two free spirits--D.R. and his partner, Estelle--journey across the United States from California to Eastern Kentucky in their VW bus named Urge. They will focus on episodes in Cincinnati and D.R.’s unanticipated segue to his family homeplace in Eastern Kentucky. There, David Ray "Divine Right" Davenport has an extreme psychotic break while in the depths of an abandoned Kentucky coal mine. The novel uses themes and symbols drawn from the Appalachian landscape—such as the "mine" as metaphor for a crisis of the protagonist's "mind"--to render what Joseph Campbell calls the "universal hero journey." Norman will discuss Divine Right's Trip and its debt to Campbell's famous study of mythology, Hero with a Thousand Faces. Isaacs views Norman’s folk motifs through feminist and ethnographic lenses. Contemporary folklore theory also lends understanding to her interpretation of D.R., Estelle, and their obstacles. Natives of Eastern Kentucky and Cincinnati respectively, Norman and Isaacs will also offer autobiographical perspectives on the novel’s time and place. Both presenters will focus their remarks on the novel's ongoing relevance to the study of Appalachian literature and folklore.
Presentation #1 Title
Reading Divine Right,The Hero's Journey
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Perfomance time total for Norman and Isaacs: 1 hr. and 15 minutes
Gurney Norman will read from his novel, focusing on the main character D.R.’s unanticipated journey to his family homeplace in Eastern Kentucky, and his subsequent transformation. The author will discuss the novel’s debt to Joseph Campbell's famous study of mythology, Hero with a Thousand Faces, as well as Jungian psychology. A native of Eastern Kentucky, Norman will also offer autobiographical perspectives on the novel’s time and place, as well as discussing the ongoing relevance of Divine Right’s Trip to the study of Appalachian literature and folklore.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Gurney Norman grew up in the southern Appalachian mountains. In 1971, his novel Divine Right's Trip was published in The Last Whole Earth Catalog, an encyclopedic tome that influenced a generation. He has received the Weatherford Award, the Helen M. Lewis Community Service Award, and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters degree (Berea College). He served as the 2009-2010 Kentucky poet Laureate. He is professor of creative writing at the University of Kentucky.
Presentation #2 Title
“Gurney Norman’s Divine Right’s Trip: The Journey from Liminality to Awareness”
Presentation #2 Abstract or Summary
Perfomance time total for Norman and Isaacs: 1 hr. and 15 minutes
Susan L.F. Isaacs will discuss Divine Right’s Trip with author, Gurney Norman. In the novel, D.R. and his partner, Estelle, journey across the United States from California to Eastern Kentucky. In Cincinnati, D.R.’s sister points him toward the homeplace where their uncle is dying. D.R. heads home, inadvertently abandoning Estelle in Cincinnati’s Greyhound station. Personal crises—and copious quantities of drugs—land D.R. in an abandoned coal mine where he has a psychotic break. Isaacs views Norman’s work through feminist and ethnographic lenses. Contemporary folklore theory lends understanding to her interpretation of the novel and its ongoing relevance to the study of Appalachian literature and folklore. A Cincinnati native who has lived in Eastern Kentucky for over sixteen years, Isaacs will also offer autobiographical perspectives on the novel’s time and place.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Susan L.F. Isaacs is an independent scholar and writer with a Ph.D. in Folklore and Ethnography (University of Pennsylvania). She served as professor of English, teaching folklore and Appalachian studies, at Union College (Kentucky) for sixteen years. She has received fellowships from the Smithsonian Institution, Fulbright Scholar Program, and the Winterthur Museum, as well as from arts and humanities councils in Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Conference Subthemes
Migration, Environmental Sustainability
Reading Divine Right,The Hero's Journey
Perfomance time total for Norman and Isaacs: 1 hr. and 15 minutes
Gurney Norman will read from his novel, focusing on the main character D.R.’s unanticipated journey to his family homeplace in Eastern Kentucky, and his subsequent transformation. The author will discuss the novel’s debt to Joseph Campbell's famous study of mythology, Hero with a Thousand Faces, as well as Jungian psychology. A native of Eastern Kentucky, Norman will also offer autobiographical perspectives on the novel’s time and place, as well as discussing the ongoing relevance of Divine Right’s Trip to the study of Appalachian literature and folklore.
