Wallace Stegner and the Western Environment: Hydraulics, Placelessness, and (Lack of) Identity

Wallace Stegner and the Western Environment: Hydraulics, Placelessness, and (Lack of) Identity

This article is chiefly concerned with Wallace Stegner’s ideas of aridity as the key to the understanding of the history and culture of the American West. It first examines the arguments of some major books published in the 1980s that helped strengthen Stegner’s conviction that the West was heading...

Popoln opis

Shranjeno v:
Bibliografske podrobnosti
izdano v:URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ejas,
Glavni avtor: Brøgger, Fredrik Chr.
Format: Article ou chapitre numérique
Jezik:Anglais
Izdano: European journal of American studies 2011
Teme:
American literature
Wallace Stegner
nature writing
the American West
environmentalism
ecology
aridity
Online dostop:Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM
id openedition-oai:revues.org:ejas_9302
record_format openedition
spelling openedition-oai:revues.org:ejas_9302 https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas.9302 urn:doi:10.4000/ejas.9302 en https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/9302 2011-09-27T02:00:00Z info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess article info:eu-repo/semantics/article urn:handle:20.500.13089/fmab https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Wallace Stegner and the Western Environment: Hydraulics, Placelessness, and (Lack of) Identity European journal of American studies European Association for American Studies info:eu-repo/semantics/reference/issn/1991-9336 URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ejas Brøgger, Fredrik Chr. American literature Wallace Stegner nature writing the American West environmentalism ecology aridity This article is chiefly concerned with Wallace Stegner’s ideas of aridity as the key to the understanding of the history and culture of the American West. It first examines the arguments of some major books published in the 1980s that helped strengthen Stegner’s conviction that the West was heading towards environmental disaster due to the rapidly increasing depletion of its rivers and aquifers, a projected ecological crisis that has grown even more acute at the beginning of the 21st century. The subsequent focus of this article, however, is on Stegner’s predominant proposition that the abuse of the arid nature of the West – the rampant disregard of its environmental limitations – is a product of a mindset and a culture that he finds particularly Western. In the course of his analysis, Stegner sees the rootlessness that typified his own family history as a direct reflection of the transientness characteristic of the collective history of the American West, which served to hamper the evolution of a sense of place that in his view is the prerequisite for a genuine stewardship of the land.
collection OpenEdition Journal
language Anglais
format Article ou chapitre numérique
building 0/Bibliothèque numérique/
1/Bibliothèque numérique/OpenEdition Journals/
topic American literature
Wallace Stegner
nature writing
the American West
environmentalism
ecology
aridity
spellingShingle American literature
Wallace Stegner
nature writing
the American West
environmentalism
ecology
aridity
Brøgger, Fredrik Chr.
Wallace Stegner and the Western Environment: Hydraulics, Placelessness, and (Lack of) Identity
description This article is chiefly concerned with Wallace Stegner’s ideas of aridity as the key to the understanding of the history and culture of the American West. It first examines the arguments of some major books published in the 1980s that helped strengthen Stegner’s conviction that the West was heading towards environmental disaster due to the rapidly increasing depletion of its rivers and aquifers, a projected ecological crisis that has grown even more acute at the beginning of the 21st century. The subsequent focus of this article, however, is on Stegner’s predominant proposition that the abuse of the arid nature of the West – the rampant disregard of its environmental limitations – is a product of a mindset and a culture that he finds particularly Western. In the course of his analysis, Stegner sees the rootlessness that typified his own family history as a direct reflection of the transientness characteristic of the collective history of the American West, which served to hamper the evolution of a sense of place that in his view is the prerequisite for a genuine stewardship of the land.
author Brøgger, Fredrik Chr.
author_facet Brøgger, Fredrik Chr.
author_sort Brøgger, Fredrik Chr.
title Wallace Stegner and the Western Environment: Hydraulics, Placelessness, and (Lack of) Identity
title_short Wallace Stegner and the Western Environment: Hydraulics, Placelessness, and (Lack of) Identity
title_full Wallace Stegner and the Western Environment: Hydraulics, Placelessness, and (Lack of) Identity
title_fullStr Wallace Stegner and the Western Environment: Hydraulics, Placelessness, and (Lack of) Identity
title_full_unstemmed Wallace Stegner and the Western Environment: Hydraulics, Placelessness, and (Lack of) Identity
title_sort wallace stegner and the western environment: hydraulics, placelessness, and (lack of) identity
publisher European journal of American studies
publishDate 2011
container_title URI:https://journals.openedition.org/ejas
url https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://doi.org/10.4000/ejas.9302
https://ezproxy.univ-orleans.fr/login?url=https://journals.openedition.org/ejas/9302
_version_ 1877244046894694400

Podobne knjige/članki