The Forest as Contested Landscape in Barbara Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer

Abstract

Barbara Kingsolver’s novel, Prodigal Summer, portrays conflicting perspectives on forest use and suggests that understanding and integrating different points of view can lead to more nuanced, sustainable approaches to land management. Kingsolver writes the novel from three distinct perspectives, and also stages debates between conflicting views within each narrative perspective. That narrative structure, which emphasizes multiplicity and different ways of seeing, sheds light on the dynamics of contested landscapes. While most of the criticism on the novel focuses on the setting of the farm, we turn our attention to the forest, specifically, as a landscape where different stakeholders have conflicting ideas about protection, management, and timber extraction. Each point of view, individually, displays the limitations of assessing the forest landscape from a singular vantage point, and ultimately benefits from an engagement with other ways of seeing.

芭芭拉·金索尔的小说浪子夏天描绘了对森林利用的矛盾观点，并暗示理解和整合不同的观点可以导致对土地管理采取更加细致、可持续的方法. Kingsolver从三个不同的视角来写这部小说，并且在每个叙事视角中，也分阶段在相互矛盾的观点之间进行辩论. 这种强调多样性和不同观察方式的叙事结构揭示了有争议的风景的动态. 虽然小说的大部分批评都集中在农场的设置上，但我们将注意力转向森林，特别是森林，因为森林是一个不同利益相关者对保护、管理和木材开采有相互矛盾的想法. 每个观点都分别显示了从单一角度评估森林景观的局限性，并最终受益于与其他观察方式的接触.

La novela Prodigal Summer, de Barbara Kingsolver, retrata las perspectivas conflictivas sobre el uso del bosque, y sugiere que el entender e integrar diferentes puntos de vista puede conducir a enfoques más matizados y sostenibles para el manejo de la tierra. Kingsolver escribe la novela desde tres diferentes perspectivas, y también pone en escena debates entre visiones conflictivas dentro de cada perspectiva de la narración. Esa estructura narrativa, que enfatiza la multiplicidad y las diversas maneras de ver las cosas, arroja luz sobre la dinámica de paisajes disputados. En tanto que la mayoría de las críticas de la novela se enfocan en el marco de la granja, nosotros volvemos nuestra atención hacia el bosque, específicamente, como paisaje donde diferentes interesados tienen ideas encontradas acerca de la protección, manejo y extracción de madera. Cada puntode vista, individualmente, despliega las limtaciones de evaluar el paisaje del bosque desde un singular punto de observción, y en últimas se beneficia del compromiso con otros modos de ver las cosas.

Key Words:

• Appalachia
• contested forest
• land use
• multifunctional landscape
• narrative perspective

关键词:

• 阿巴拉契亚
• 有争议的森林
• 土地利用
• 多功能景观
• 叙事视角

Palabras clave:

• Apalaches
• bosque disputado
• paisaje multifuncional
• perspectiva de la narrativa
• uso del suelo

Notes

1. See, for example, Priscilla Leder’s, “Contingency, Cultivation, and Choice”; Suzanne Jones’s, “The Southern Family Farm as Endangered Species”; Alistair Fraser’s “The Rural Geographies of Barbara Kingsolver’s Prodigal Summer; and Kristin Van Tassel’s “Ecofeminism and a New Agrarianism.”

2. See Latour’s, We have never been modern (1993).

3. The debate around wilderness has a long and complex history. For more on that topic, see The Great New Wilderness Debate, eds. J. B. Callicott and M. P. Nelson (1998), an anthology that includes both historical and contemporary perspectives on the concepts, practices, and policies surrounding wilderness.

4. Leopold’s famous assertion in A Sand County Almanac (1989) comes after he has seen “the face of many a newly wolfless mountain” and reflects on the impacts of the decline of the wolf population on the ecosystem. He concludes, “The cowman who cleans his range of wolves does not realize that he is taking over the wolf’s job of trimming the herd to fit the change. He has not learned to think like a mountain” (12). The cowman, here, corresponds to Eddie, who hunts coyotes with the intent of protecting his herd.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anne McConnell

ANNE MCCONNELL is a Professor in the English Department at West Virginia State University, Institute, WV 25112. E-mail: [email protected]. She has authored two books of literary criticism: Approaching Disappearance (Dalkey Archive Press, 2013) and Stepping Off the Edge (Dalkey Archive Press, forthcoming in 2020). Her work focuses on contemporary literature from France, Spain, Latin America, and the United States. She currently teaches world literature, literary criticism, and writing at West Virginia State University.

Thomas Saladyga

THOMAS SALADYGA currently teaches courses in physical and environmental geography at Concord University, Athens, WV 24712. E-mail: [email protected]. His research utilizes dendrochronology (tree-ring science) and Geographic Information Systems to examine forest ecosystem stability and resilience in the context of changing climate, land use, and/or management strategies.