Reading the Landscape: Race, Gender, and Capital in Western Constructions of Nature
Location
Science Center, K209
Document Type
Presentation
Start Date
4-24-2015 2:45 PM
End Date
4-24-2015 3:45 PM
Abstract
How do American constructions of “nature” and “naturalness” perpetuate social injustice? How do Western nature narratives like the fall from Eden, the white male pioneer, and the unemployed environmentalist privilege certain identities, marginalize others, and produce a value system that seeks to use nature as a tool for the production of capital? Key principles of this construction derive from Enlightenment and Romantic ideologies: the concepts of wilderness, purity, and the sublime are still the dominant elements of contemporary nature writing. Can we invent a new nature writing to better reflect the realities of our relationship with the natural world?
Recommended Citation
Kaplan, Asher, "Reading the Landscape: Race, Gender, and Capital in Western Constructions of Nature" (04/24/15). Senior Symposium. 31.
https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/seniorsymp/2015/presentations/31
Major
English
Advisor(s)
Nicholas Jones, English
Project Mentor(s)
Natasha Tessone, English
April 2015
Reading the Landscape: Race, Gender, and Capital in Western Constructions of Nature
Science Center, K209
How do American constructions of “nature” and “naturalness” perpetuate social injustice? How do Western nature narratives like the fall from Eden, the white male pioneer, and the unemployed environmentalist privilege certain identities, marginalize others, and produce a value system that seeks to use nature as a tool for the production of capital? Key principles of this construction derive from Enlightenment and Romantic ideologies: the concepts of wilderness, purity, and the sublime are still the dominant elements of contemporary nature writing. Can we invent a new nature writing to better reflect the realities of our relationship with the natural world?
Notes
Session 2, Panel 12 - The Production of Space: Studies of Physical and Discursive Boundaries
Moderator: Susan Colley, Delaney Professor of Mathematics