Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
“The Highest Law”: Stewardship and Activism in Wilma Dykeman’s Non-Fiction
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
In “Who Owns This Land,” Wilma Dykeman quotes Henry David Thoreau, who says in an 1855 journal entry, “The highest law gives a thing to him who can use it.” Dykeman elaborates that her land has many users--the flora and the fauna--besides herself. Her awareness demonstrates the importance that Dykeman placed on her role as a steward of her property. The role of stewardship is prominent in Dykeman’s non-fiction works, including Dykeman’s newly-discovered memoir Family of Earth: A Southern Mountain Childhood, The French Broad, and Neither Black nor White. Dykeman’s philosophy of activism emphasizes the written word as catalyst to stewardship. She said in an interview “What has usually stirred societies, historically, to action? We had any number of reports about slavery, but it was Uncle Tom’s Cabin that lit the fuse…” Narrative can cause change, and Dykeman saw her words as her way to contribute, her action.
Dykeman’s writing about ecology and conservation are well known, but her works also demonstrate strong feelings about stewardship in humankind. The manuscript of Family of Earth, discovered after her death in 2006 and published by her sons helps to contextualize Dykeman’s belief in stewardship and her later activism. The manuscript was probably written during World War II and details her life until her father’s death in her fourteenth year. These vignettes of her childhood illuminate the person she would become especially in regard to stewardship.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Rhonda Knight is Professor of English at Coker College in Hartsville, SC. She received her Ph.D. in English from Binghamton University, where she specialized in medieval literature. Knight has published several articles on national identity in medieval England. She has also published on the long-running British TV series Doctor Who. She recently taught a seminar class on Appalachian Literature and has presented on the works of Lee Smith and Grace Lumpkin.
“The Highest Law”: Stewardship and Activism in Wilma Dykeman’s Non-Fiction
In “Who Owns This Land,” Wilma Dykeman quotes Henry David Thoreau, who says in an 1855 journal entry, “The highest law gives a thing to him who can use it.” Dykeman elaborates that her land has many users--the flora and the fauna--besides herself. Her awareness demonstrates the importance that Dykeman placed on her role as a steward of her property. The role of stewardship is prominent in Dykeman’s non-fiction works, including Dykeman’s newly-discovered memoir Family of Earth: A Southern Mountain Childhood, The French Broad, and Neither Black nor White. Dykeman’s philosophy of activism emphasizes the written word as catalyst to stewardship. She said in an interview “What has usually stirred societies, historically, to action? We had any number of reports about slavery, but it was Uncle Tom’s Cabin that lit the fuse…” Narrative can cause change, and Dykeman saw her words as her way to contribute, her action.
Dykeman’s writing about ecology and conservation are well known, but her works also demonstrate strong feelings about stewardship in humankind. The manuscript of Family of Earth, discovered after her death in 2006 and published by her sons helps to contextualize Dykeman’s belief in stewardship and her later activism. The manuscript was probably written during World War II and details her life until her father’s death in her fourteenth year. These vignettes of her childhood illuminate the person she would become especially in regard to stewardship.
