What we Leave Behind: Exploring Multiple Environmental Legacies in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Gardens in the Dunes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.60162/swamphen.2.10593Keywords:
Ecocriticsm, bioregionalism, environmental justice, Native American studies,Abstract
Leslie Marmon Silko's novel Gardens in the Dunes (1996) is unlike her earlier novels both in its reliance to a considerable degree on straegies of the traditional European realist novel and in its inclusion of a variety of global locations. Once again, it is a deeply political novel concerning abuses of indigenous peoples at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. But it is also a novel about gardens and in this essay I approach its issues from an ecocritical perspective, exploring its depiction of a range of gardening and horticultural practices and its valuing of ancient legacies. I attempt to evaluate the ability of the Gardens in the Dunes to offer a visionary view of sustainable agriculture.Downloads
Published
2013-04-10
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Essays
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