English Literature & Creative Writing
Event Title
The Evolution of Membership: Community and Ecology in Wendell Berry and Barbara Kingsolver
Document Type
Oral Presentation
Location
Indianapolis, IN
Subject Area
English Literature & Creative Writing
Start Date
13-4-2018 11:00 AM
End Date
13-4-2018 11:45 AM
Sponsor
Laurie Dashnau (Houghton College)
Description
Visions for environmental stewardship appear throughout the fiction of Wendell Berry and Barbara Kingsolver. In the face of perhaps irreversible change to community structure and landscapes, Berry’s vision returns to the value of connections between humans and the rituals of physical farm work; Kingsolver’s vision revolves around the interconnectedness of human and natural communities. Berry and Kingsolver diverge on the implications of stewardship in rural Appalachian communities as a result of their differing ideas about what it means to belong in these communities.
A persistent longing for what Berry calls “membership” pervades the work of both writers: characters strongly desire to belong. In Berry’s fiction, membership is a static structure eroded by modern technology. Homecoming, then, consists of a return to the bedrock of continuity: old traditions and ways of life are sacred. In Kingsolver, homecoming is dynamic: rather than returning to a baseline, characters forge new structures. This evolving relationship between human communities and natural landscapes can create conflict, but also provides flexibility in the face of inevitable change. The implications of these structures are evident in the two writers’ differing views about education: Berry rejects standardized education in favor of an education grounded in one’s own place, while Kingsolver portrays education as a source of creative stewardship amidst change. I intend to explore the roles that education plays in shaping the relationships between people and rural Appalachian land in Berry’s and Kingsolver’s fiction. I will also explore further implications that these writers’ visions have for stewardship.
The Evolution of Membership: Community and Ecology in Wendell Berry and Barbara Kingsolver
Indianapolis, IN
Visions for environmental stewardship appear throughout the fiction of Wendell Berry and Barbara Kingsolver. In the face of perhaps irreversible change to community structure and landscapes, Berry’s vision returns to the value of connections between humans and the rituals of physical farm work; Kingsolver’s vision revolves around the interconnectedness of human and natural communities. Berry and Kingsolver diverge on the implications of stewardship in rural Appalachian communities as a result of their differing ideas about what it means to belong in these communities.
A persistent longing for what Berry calls “membership” pervades the work of both writers: characters strongly desire to belong. In Berry’s fiction, membership is a static structure eroded by modern technology. Homecoming, then, consists of a return to the bedrock of continuity: old traditions and ways of life are sacred. In Kingsolver, homecoming is dynamic: rather than returning to a baseline, characters forge new structures. This evolving relationship between human communities and natural landscapes can create conflict, but also provides flexibility in the face of inevitable change. The implications of these structures are evident in the two writers’ differing views about education: Berry rejects standardized education in favor of an education grounded in one’s own place, while Kingsolver portrays education as a source of creative stewardship amidst change. I intend to explore the roles that education plays in shaping the relationships between people and rural Appalachian land in Berry’s and Kingsolver’s fiction. I will also explore further implications that these writers’ visions have for stewardship.