Refiguring the Map of Sorrow: Nature Writing and Autobiography (Under the Sign of Nature: Explorations in Ecocriticism)

212 Pages·2001·0.96 MB·English

by  Mark Christopher Allister

Refiguring the Map of Sorrow
Under the Sign of Nature:
Explorations in Ecocriticism
 . ,
 ,
  ,

 
Lawrence Buell, John Elder, Scott Slovic
  
Michael P. Cohen, Richard Kerridge, Gretchen Legler,
Ian Marshall, Dan Peck, Jennifer Price, Kent Ryden,
Rebecca Solnit, Hertha D. Sweet Wong
Refiguring the
Map of Sorrow
Nature Writing and
Autobiography
 
University Press of Virginia
Charlottesville and London
The University Press of Virginia
© by the Rector and Visitors of the
University of Virginia
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
First published 
        
   -- 
Allister, Mark Christopher.
Refiguring the map of sorrow : nature writing and autobiography / Mark Allister.
p. cm. — (Under the sign of nature)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN ---(alk. paper) — ISBN ---(pbk. : alk. paper)
. American prose literature—th century—History and criticism.
. Autobiography. . Authors, American—Biography—History and criticism.
. Natural history—United States—Historiography. . Naturalists—
Biography—History and criticism. . Nature in literature. I. Title.
II. Series.
PS.AA
′.—dc 
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
1 Writing the Self through Others 11
2 Living the Questions, Writing the Story 34
Sue Hubbell’s A Country Year
3 An Unnatural History Made Natural 58
Terry Tempest Williams’s Refuge
4 When All the World Is Cancerous 81
Bill Barich’s Laughing in the Hills
5 Constructing a Self on the Road 101
William Least Heat-Moon’s Blue Highways
6 A Pilgrimage to Fashion a Zen Self 125
Peter Matthiessen’s The Snow Leopard
7 Making a Home on the Range 145
Gretel Ehrlich’s The Solace of Open Spacesand Western
Myths
Epilogue: “We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live” 169
Notes 173
Bibliography 183
Index 193

Acknowledgments
Reading and writing about autobiographies has given me great ap-
preciation for the innumerable chain of events necessary to get a per-
son to a particular point in a life, such as acknowledging the debts in-
curred in the writing of a book. My first such debt, for obvious and
less obvious reasons, is to my parents, George and Shirley Allister.
This book was years in the making, and over those years I have
been helped by numerous people. Malcolm Griffith, Mark Patterson,
and Chris Anderson provided ideas and support at early stages, Carol
Holly, John Barbour, and John Eakin at later stages. My sister and
brother-in-law, Daphne and Don Rosenblitt, patiently explained psy-
choanalytic theory to me. Don Scheese turned the direction of the
project at a crucial time, helping me to understand better the true sub-
ject of this book and encouraging me when I needed it. I am grate-
ful to St. Olaf College for their support in the form of a summer re-
search grant and a sabbatical leave.
Earlier versions of two chapters appeared elsewhere. I would like
to thank the editors of Southern Illinois University Press for permis-
sion to reprint “Writing Documentary as a Therapeutic Act: Bill
Barich’s Laughing in the Hills,” from Literary Nonfiction: Theory, Criti-
cism, Pedagogy, edited by Wayne C. Anderson (© by the Board of
Trustees, Southern Illinois University); and I would like to thank Dr.
James B. M. Schick, editor in chief of the Midwest Quarterly,for per-
mission to use “Living the Questions, Writing the Story: Sue
Hubbell’s A Country Year” (vol. , no. []: ‒).
No writer could have a better editor than Boyd Zenner at the Uni-
versity Press of Virginia. She responded promptly at every step of the
process, and I appreciate deeply her warmth and goodwill. I owe
Acknowledg- much thanks to the two readers for the press: John Tallmadge and
ments Scott Slovic gave the manuscript the careful reading a writer can only
hope for, and their lengthy critiques helped me immensely. Thanks
also to my copy editor, Dennis Marshall, and Sue Oines at St. Olaf
viii College for help with the manuscript.
Creation of this book took years, in part, because my life as a fa-
ther is more important than my life as a scholar, and I would like to
acknowledge my wonderful children, Betsy and Nat, who are and al-
ways will be my best creations. And greatest thanks to my wife, Jan,
who listens to my ideas, asks me to explain again what isn’t clear, and
then uses her professional copyediting skills, her knowledge of liter-
ature, and her experience to make my writing into something far bet-
ter than it was.
Refiguring the Map of Sorrow