Exploring Agrarian Community in Twenty and Twenty-First Century American Literature
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University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--English English 2021 Wisdom From the Collard Field: Exploring Agrarian Community in Twenty and Twenty-first Century American Literature Robert M. Gorum University of Kentucky, [email protected] Author ORCID Identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7309-3576 Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2021.184 Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Gorum, Robert M., "Wisdom From the Collard Field: Exploring Agrarian Community in Twenty and Twenty- first Century American Literature" (2021). Theses and Dissertations--English. 127. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/english_etds/127 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the English at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--English by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. 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Gorum, Student Dr. Randall Roorda, Major Professor Dr. Michael Trask, Director of Graduate Studies WISDOM FROM THE COLLARD FIELD: EXPLORING AGRARIAN COMMUNITY IN TWENTY AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE ________________________________________ DISSERTATION ________________________________________ A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Robert Matthew Gorum Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Randall Roorda, Associate Professor of English Lexington, Kentucky 2021 Copyright © Robert Matthew Gorum 2021 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7309-3576 ABSTRACT OF DISSERTATION WISDOM FROM THE COLLARD FIELD: EXPLORING AGRARIAN COMMUNITY IN TWENTY AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE This dissertation surveys agrarian literature written by American writers since World War II. It compares the Southern Agrarians of Vanderbilt University and New Agrarians such as Wendell Berry, Wes Jackson, and Gene Logsdon to examine their understanding of place and home. I begin my inquiry with a personal frame story of time I have spent in and around the sustainable agriculture movement. Drawing on various forms of literature, including memoirs, cookbooks, novels, reportage, and other scholarship, I explore American ideals since World War II relating to the production and consumption of food. I begin my opening chapter with a reassessment of the Southern Agrarians of Vanderbilt University as a starting off point in a defense of small-scale agriculture, organic farming, and the local food movement as antidotes for the excess of industrial capitalism. I put three members of the erstwhile group in conversation with green critics Lawrence Buell and Murray Bookchin as a way to wring emancipatory power from their argument and assess what can be reclaimed in the twenty-first century. In my second chapter, I question the New Agrarian call to stay home, examining the idea of drudgery in farming by comparing Paul Shephard’s Nature and Madness to Wendell Berry, Gene Logsdon, Wes Jackson, and Joel Salatin’s defense of agriculture. The chapter continues with examples of small-scale agricultural practices that exemplify a more correct relationship with nature, such as seed saving, by exploring the traditional practices of Gary Nabhan, Janisse Ray, Bill Best, before turning to Ruth Ozeki’s All Over Creation. My last chapter continues with an assessment of various people in the contemporary agrarian movement in a discussion of privilege, equity, and accessibility. Next, I look to agrarian traditions of the past by appraising what was lost in the Great Migration through Harriette Arnow’s The Dollmaker and Edna Lewis’s cookbook, The Taste of Country Cooking before concluding the chapter with a discussion of present-day Detroit. KEYWORDS: Sustainable Agriculture, Agrarianism, Ecocriticism, American Studies, Food Studies Robert Matthew Gorum (Name of Student) 05/07/2021 Date WISDOM FROM THE COLLARD FIELD: EXPLORING AGRARIAN COMMUNITY IN TWENTY AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE By Robert Matthew Gorum Randall Roorda Director of Dissertation Michael Trask Director of Graduate Studies 05/07/2021 Date DEDICATION To Louie and Harold, for starting the conversation at our chapel in the fields. And to my wife Claire, for the encouragement, support, and love. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would first like to thank my advisor, Randall Roorda, for helping me stick this out. I would not have gotten this done without your guidance and patience, and I’m eternally grateful for your open-minded support. Thank you for the conversations, advice, laughs, and pilsners. We’re retiring from academia at the same time! Thank you to the rest of my committee: Michael Trask and Erik Reece for truly vital recommendations and questions, and Mark Williams for the ecological, horticultural, and agricultural insights as well as the invaluable time on the organic farm. Thank you to my graduate school friends and colleagues. I’d like to especially thank Claudio Pesenti for the solidarity, soccer, shared meals, beer, and laughs. I’m grateful for our friendship and your perspective and insights on life. Thanks to my running buddies, Nick Trubee and Jim Johnson. Logging miles all over Kentucky helped my writing immensely, and I’m grateful for the shared suffering, doughnuts, and conversations about anything other than books. Another special shout-out to the ladies of Voyage Strength Studio, especially Amy Waugh, for welcoming a straight, white, male distance running cardio-junkie into your community. And thank you to Bryon and Liz Arena for the shared meals, laughs, spinal adjustments, and bourbon! Many work friends and colleagues outside of academia also helped me see this through. Thanks to the crew at J&H Lanmark, especially Woody, Galen, Aaron, and John T., and the O.G. crew from the previous iteration of John’s Run/Walk Shop. Both iii communities reinforced my academic studies and vice-versa. Thanks to Katie for the shared meals, rides, and friendship, and thank you especially to Geoffrey Blair and Jason Britt at UK HealthCare for your support and understanding. A huge thank you to my NOLS-ie friends and their wonderful spouses: Chris, Amy, Chris, and Garland. I’m grateful for what brought us together and even more grateful for our friendships. And cheers to other friends for conversations and laughs, especially Hank, Matt, Spence, Donny, and Jonathan. I also want to acknowledge and thank teachers and mentors along the way. Thank you to Alan Belsches, Robin Gunther, Jacqueline Trimble, the late Frank Buckner, and Bob and Cathy Corley. Without your advice, encouragement, and recommendations, I never would have pursued graduate school in the first place. Thank you to my extended family, especially my in-laws, Stan and Marcia Hart, for the cookies, meals, lake time, parenting help, and patient advice. And thanks to my mom, Margaret, for never saying no to a book purchase and paying me $1 for every Accelerated Reader point I acquired in the 7th grade (a particularly good year for both my bank account and reading comprehension). Thank you to Father Louie Skipper: I’m incredibly grateful for your continual mentorship, patience, and joyful advice. The seed for this project was truly planted by you and Harold McLemore. And thanks to Harold for the conversation, the music, and the time on the farm. Selling collards and shooting the shit was the best job I’ll ever have. iv Finally, I’d like to thank my wife Claire, and my two children, Merrill and Charlie. I’m in awe of my wife’s ability to balance and excel in all things while I spent countless hours at the library or the Co-op. This is your dissertation as much as it is mine, and I owe you an enormous debt for the encouragement, advice, and truly incredible support. And to Merrill and Charlie: thanks for adding richness, joy, and humor to my life. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................