When the Puritans arrived in the New World to carry out the colonization they saw as divinely mandated, they were confronted by the American wilderness. Part of their theology led them to view the natural environment as "a temple of God" in which they should glorify and serve its creator. The larger prevailing theological view, however, saw this vast continent as "the Devil's Territories" needing to be conquered and cultivated for God's Kingdom. These contradictory designations gave rise to an ambivalence regarding the character of this land and humanity's proper relation to it. Loving...
When the Puritans arrived in the New World to carry out the colonization they saw as divinely mandated, they were confronted by the American wildernes...
Prominent author and cultural critic Wendell Berry is well known for his contributions to agrarianism and environmentalism, but his commentary on education has received comparatively little attention. Berry has been eloquently unmasking America's cultural obsession with restless mobility for decades, arguing that it causes damage to both the land and the character of our communities. Education, he maintains, plays a central role in this obsession, inculcating in students' minds the American dream of moving up and moving on.
Drawing on Berry's essays, fiction, and poetry, Jack R....
Prominent author and cultural critic Wendell Berry is well known for his contributions to agrarianism and environmentalism, but his commentary on e...
The nineteenth-century roots of environmental writing in American literature are often mentioned in passing and sometimes studied piece by piece. Scribes of Nature: Writing the Environment in Nineteenth-Century American Literature brings together numerous explorations of environmentally-aware writing across the genres of nineteenth-century literature. Like Lawrence Buell, the authors of this collection find Thoreau's writing a touchstone of nineteenth-century environmental writing, particularly focusing on Thoreau's claim that humans may function as -scribes of nature.- However, these studies...
The nineteenth-century roots of environmental writing in American literature are often mentioned in passing and sometimes studied piece by piece. Scri...
Combines textual analysis and cultural criticism to explain how Wendell Berry's literary forms encourage readers to practice virtues of renewal. While the written word alone cannot enact change, Bilbro asserts that Berry's poetry, essays, and fiction can inspire people to, as Berry writes, "practice resurrection".
Combines textual analysis and cultural criticism to explain how Wendell Berry's literary forms encourage readers to practice virtues of renewal. While...
