Participation Type
Performance
Session Title
Divine Right's Trip Revisited (The Second Time)
Session Abstract or Summary
Gurney Norman opens this session reading from his acclaimed 1972 novel, Divine Right’s Trip. Continuing a dialogue they began at ASA in 2018, the author and Susan L.F. Isaacs will discuss the work. Norman’s thinking was profoundly influenced by Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, whose philosophies drew in part from folk traditions. These perspectives inspired D.R.’s fictional journey—so much so that the original subtitle of Divine Right’s Trip was A Folktale. This presentation addresses whether what may be Appalachia’s first postmodern novel may also be described as “folktale.” In the novel, 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 follow an indirect route from California to Ohio. Leaving Estelle to fend for herself in Cincinnati, D.R. drives home to the Kentucky mountains. There the hero encounters deep crisis in his own consciousness (no surprise, given the quantity of drugs ingested on the trip). Ultimately, however, he finds resolution to his unsettled searching while he cares for his dying uncle, works the earth, and experiences community/communitas (as anthropologist Victor Turner would have put it. Like Campbell, Turner had been a student of Jung.) Norman will discuss Divine Right's Trip and its debt to Campbell and Jung. Isaacs applies contemporary folklore theory to her interpretation of D.R., Estelle, and their obstacles. Both presenters will focus their remarks on the novel's ongoing relevance to the study of Appalachian literature and folklore.
Presentation #1 Title
Divine Right's Philosophical and Folk Roots
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
When Divine Right's Trip first appeared in The Last Whole Earth Catalog (1972), my thinking had been profoundly influenced by Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, whose philosophies drew in part from folk traditions. These perspectives inspired D.R.’s fictional journey—so much so that my original subtitle for the novel was A Folktale. In this presentation, I will explore D.R.'s philosophical and folk roots.
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 and is professor of creative writing at the University of Kentucky.
Presentation #2 Title
Divine Right's Trip: Folk Tradition, Communitas, and the Postmodern
Presentation #2 Abstract or Summary
In the novel, 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 follow an indirect route from California to Ohio. Leaving Estelle to fend for herself in Cincinnati, D.R. drives home to the Kentucky mountains. There the hero encounters deep crisis in his own consciousness (no surprise, given the quantity of drugs ingested on the trip). Ultimately, however, he finds resolution to his unsettled searching while he cares for his dying uncle, works the earth, and experiences community—or as anthropologist Victor Turner would have put it, communitas. Like Joseph Campbell, Turner had been a student of Jung. I will discuss D.R.’s transformation in the context of communitas, folk tradition, and postmodernism.
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.
Divine Right's Philosophical and Folk Roots
When Divine Right's Trip first appeared in The Last Whole Earth Catalog (1972), my thinking had been profoundly influenced by Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, whose philosophies drew in part from folk traditions. These perspectives inspired D.R.’s fictional journey—so much so that my original subtitle for the novel was A Folktale. In this presentation, I will explore D.R.'s philosophical and folk roots.
