The ecological other: Indians, invalids, and immigrants in U.S. environmental thought and literature

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorRay, Sarah Jaquette, 1976-
dc.date.accessioned2010-05-08T01:26:33Z
dc.date.available2010-05-08T01:26:33Z
dc.date.issued2009-09
dc.descriptionxi, 233 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number.en_US
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation argues that a fundamental paradox underlies U.S. environmentalism: even as it functions as a critique of dominant social and economic practices, environmentalism simultaneously reinforces many social hierarchies, especially with regard to race, immigration, and disability, despite its claims to recognize the interdependence of human and ecological well-being. This project addresses the related questions: In what ways does environmentalism--as a code of behavioral imperatives and as a set of rhetorical strategies--ironically play a role in the exploitation of land and communities? Along what lines--class, race, ability, gender, nationality, age, and even "sense of place"--do these environmental codes and discourses delineate good and bad environmental behavior? I contend that environmentalism emerged in part to help legitimize U.S. imperial ambitions and support racialized and patriarchal conceptions of national identity. Concern about "the environment" made anxieties about communities of color more palatable than overt racism. Furthermore, "environmentalism's hidden attachments" to whiteness and Manifest Destiny historically aligned the movement with other repressive ideologies, such as eugenics and strict anti-immigration. These "hidden attachments" exist today, yet few have analyzed their contemporary implications, a gap this project fills. In three chapters, I detail nineteenth-century environmentalism's influence on contemporary environmental thought. Each of these three illustrative chapters investigates a distinct category of environmentalism's "ecological others": Native Americans, people with disabilities, and undocumented immigrants. I argue that environmentalism defines these groups as "ecological others" because they are viewed as threats to nature and to the American national body politic. The first illustrative chapter analyzes Native American land claims in Leslie Marmon Silko's 1991 novel, Almanac of the Dead . The second illustrative chapter examines the importance of the fit body in environmental literature and U.S. adventure culture. In the third illustrative chapter, I integrate literary analysis with geographical theories and methods to investigate national security, wilderness protection, and undocumented immigration in the borderland. In a concluding fourth chapter, I analyze works of members of the excluded groups discussed in the first three chapters to show how they transform mainstream environmentalism to bridge social justice and ecological concerns. This dissertation contains previously published material.en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipCommittee in charge: Shari Huhndorf, Chairperson, English; Louise Westling, Member, English; David Vazquez, Member, English; Juanita Sundberg, Member, Not from U of 0 Susan Hardwick, Outside Member, Geographyen_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1794/10352
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Oregonen_US
dc.relation.ispartofseriesUniversity of Oregon theses, Environmental Studies Program, Ph. D., 2009;
dc.subjectEnvironmental justiceen_US
dc.subjectImmigrationen_US
dc.subjectEcocriticismen_US
dc.subjectEcological otheren_US
dc.subjectDisability studiesen_US
dc.subjectCultural studiesen_US
dc.subjectNative Americansen_US
dc.subjectSilko, Leslie, 1948-en_US
dc.subjectAmerican studiesen_US
dc.subjectGeographyen_US
dc.subjectAmerican literatureen_US
dc.subjectIndians of North America
dc.titleThe ecological other: Indians, invalids, and immigrants in U.S. environmental thought and literatureen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Ray_Sarah_Jaquette_phd2009su.pdf
Size:
3.94 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
thesis
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
Name:
license.txt
Size:
2.21 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download
Name:
Ray_Sarah.pdf
Size:
30.75 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
author's permission
Download

Collections

Theses and Dissertations
Environmental Studies Theses and Dissertations