Uneven Land: Nature and Agriculture in American WritingUniversity of Nebraska Press, 1999 - 207 pages Uneven Land explores the ambiguous conceptual position of agriculture and nature in American literature during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Focusing on the work of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Hamlin Garland, Frank Norris, William Ellsworth Smythe, and Liberty Hyde Bailey, Stephanie L. Sarver reveals a range of views about agriculture, its value to the individual, and its relationship to nature. Sarver proposes that agricultural practices require a relationship with nature that is simultaneously material and spiritual as well as economic and social. Emerson interprets the relationship between the farmer and nature in several ways, confirming that the farmer enjoys a privileged connection to nature. Garland and Bailey continue in Emerson’s tradition but present the farmer’s relationship to nature as always compromised by the commercial character of farming. In contrast, Norris and Smythe minimize the individual spiritual experiences of nature in farming. They abstract agrarian land, suggesting that the farm is a stage on which human dramas are enacted. Out of this study emerges a complex picture of America’s uncertain relationship with nature and agriculture. |
Contents
Cultivating an Uneven Land | 20 |
Nature and the Midwestern Farm | 46 |
The Epic of California Agriculture | 75 |
Copyright | |
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acknowledges activity actual agrarian agriculture American animals argues arid awareness Bailey Bailey's beauty become believed bring century character concept concerned connection considers created criticism crop culture defined Derrick describes develop discussion Dyke early earth Ecology economic efforts Emerson enjoy entities environment environmental exist experience farm farmer fields figure focus force Garland human idea ideal identifies individual influence interpretation invokes irrigation labor land larger later literary literature living look material means Michigan move movement nature nonhuman nonhuman nature Norris Norris's notion novel observes Octopus offers philosophical physical plants position practice Presley problems provides railroad realm reflects regard region relation relationship represents result reveals scene scientific seems setting shift Smythe Smythe's social society speaks spiritual stories suggests surrounding symbol throughout tion transformation tree ture understanding United vision West writing York