Book dossier

Nature writing

by Don Scheese

Nature writing is one of the most vibrant genres in contemporary American literature. At its heart is the pastoral impulse: the desire of the writer to retreat from the modern world in order is to find a simpler, more harmonious way of life, closer to nature. In this book - the first comprehensive interdisciplinary study of the genre - Don Scheese traces its evolution from the pastoralism evident in the natural history observations of Aristotle and the poetry of Virgil to current major American writers. Scheese's analysis documents the emergence of the genre, in its modern form, as a response to the industrial revolution in 19th-century America. The American transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau melded disparate elements - spiritual autobiography, observation of nature, cultural criticism, and travel writing - to create new literary form that would be extended and further developed by 20th-century authors such as Aldo Leopold, Edward Abbey, and Annie Dillard. Scheese's close readings of key texts by Thoreau, John Muir, Mary Austin, Leopold, Abbey, and Dillard demonstrate how each writer's works exemplify the pastoral tradition and celebrate a "spirit of place" in the United States. In his reading of these texts, Scheese incorporates fieldwork, actual pilgrimages to the places inhabited by each writer. This eclectic methodology synthesizes two important critical approaches: ecocriticism and narrative scholarship. Scheese's personal observations of natural settings sharpen the reader's understanding of the dynamics between author and locale. His study is further informed by ample use of illustrations. Images in landscape art represent tensions identified in the writing and help the reader envision both the textual and the physical worlds. Scheese's multilevel approach makes Nature Writing: The Pastoral Impulse in America an invaluable reference and guide to further study of the relationship between literature and the environment.