Jacob, Jonathan (Westminster College)
Faculty Advisor: Pu, Xiumei (Westminster College, Environmental Studies)
This presentation examines two bodies of environmental literature--environmental writing spanning from the late nineteenth century to contemporary times by indigenous and non-indigenous writers in the United States--to ponder several questions: where do these two bodies of literature converge and resonate with one another? How do these convergences bear on current debates and efforts for ecological, environmental, and (inter)cultural healing? Existing comparative analysis of these two bodies of literature often focuses on identifying the differences and their subsequent cultural manifestations (Cronon, 1995; Buell, 1996; Buell 2005; Garrard; 2011). In this presentation, I go in a different direction by examining complex resonances that emerge from these bodies of literature around the understandings of nature, place, self, and community. Bringing these resonances to light and examining their nuances and complexities could be a step toward imagining a cross-cultural perspective on eco-cultural healing so urgently needed in our time. This presentation is based on a summer research project in which I examined twelve books and novels by indigenous and non-indigenous American environmental writers (six from each body of literature), using an approach of pairing one work from each body of literature for individual analysis, then using those pairs to synthesize a larger, cross-cultural perspective. In this presentation, I will highlight analyses of three of these pairings, while my larger conclusions will be representative of ideas gleaned from all six of the pairs.