GUARDING THE WILD: A PLACED CRITICAL INQUIRY INTO LITERARY CULTURE IN MODERN NATIONS DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for The Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Eric L. Ball, B.S., M.S., M.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 2003 Dissertation Committee Approved by Professor Gregory Jusdanis, Adviser Professor Patrick B. Mullen ____________________________ Adviser Professor H. Lewis Ulman Department of Greek and Latin Professor Georgios Anagnostu Copyright by Eric L. Ball 2003 ABSTRACT Scholars in humanistic disciplines have been focusing on “place” in response to issues like environmental degradation and globalization. Literary ecocritics have undertaken place-centered studies in order to address issues important to local communities and ecological sustainability. Such projects, however, have not considered important assumptions about place (and their consequences) inherent in the historically constituted category of “literature” itself. This dissertation addresses this issue by developing a historically grounded place-based theory of literary critical interpretation and by demonstrating its practice. I begin developing theory by drawing on humanistic geography for an adequate theory of place in social and ecological terms. I engage with literary and folkloric research demonstrating that modern literary categories, critical practices, and assumptions have their roots in, and continue to reflect the concerns of, projects dealing with national identity. My goal is to develop a perspective capable of analyzing simultaneously, and in relation to each other, canonical national literature and widely ignored local literatures hitherto categorized as “mere folklore.” In order to put theory into practice, and to continue developing and refining the theory, I then turn to critical interpretation of texts relevant to one particular place: Crete. Utilizing techniques from literary criticism and folklore (by viewing oral poetry in context as performance), I examine Greek novels together with Cretan oral poetry. I analyze how these texts refer to, and compete with, one another regarding such issues as modernization, preservation of local traditions, local wilderness conservation, and local agriculture. The climax of this analysis focuses on oral poetry collected ethnographically in Crete. I argue that it promotes an explicitly ecological ethic of the wild that strives to synthesize “the best” of modernity and local folk traditions. ii The significance of this research is that it will contribute a historically grounded, theoretically-argued framework for treating social and ecological issues to literary critics, folklorists, and other humanists concerned with the social and ecological well-being of local communities. In addition, my examination of the Greek case will provide concrete examples of how local literary practices, often considered unimportant or uninteresting, can, in fact, become important vehicles for debate on such issues. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My work in this dissertation is a reflection of ideas, issues, and concerns that have preoccupied me in one way or another for the better part of my life, thereby making it impossible for me to acknowledge all the individuals who have contributed something or another to its synthesis. I must restrict myself, therefore, to acknowledging the following individuals who contributed either most directly or most recently to its emergence as a written scholarly document. Both as my adviser and as the head of the Modern Greek Program of the Department of Greek and Latin at OSU, Gregory Jusdanis provided me with just the right mix of encouragement, references to consult, and favorable material conditions. I benefited immensely from the numerous independent studies he allowed me to pursue on such unusual topics as ethografia and the mandinadha. On multiple occasions, he also made it easy for me to keep working hard in the face of disappointments with his unprecedented and unwavering support. Gregory always made me keep my writing honest and direct. He deserves an award for his turnaround time on manuscripts, too. I am likewise indebted to the more recent faculty arrival to OSU’s Modern Greek Program, Georgios Anagnostu. I am especially grateful to all the post-seminar and other peripatetic discussions we had, pushing issues all the way over the banks of the Olentangy. It was during his seminar on identity, too, that I finally began to fully realize (and articulate) what scholarly research and writing in the humanities should really aspire to achieve. Greece and the USA are separated by more than a whole ocean but in Columbus, Ohio, Modern Greek Studies and the English Department are thankfully separated by no more than 17th Avenue because that is where my other two mentors are from. Patrick Mullen was my teacher in the area of folklore studies from the start. His course on material culture is what got me thinking about iv cookbooks for something other than just cooking. His folklore methodology seminar formed no less than the foundation of my M.A. thesis on the mandinadha as “placed literature” that led straight into the development of a theory of “placed criticism.” On countless occasions, his brief comment on something here or his terse observations about something there left me thinking and re-thinking until I finally began to recognize (often months later) the immeasurable significance of what he said. An English department as large as OSU’s should be ashamed to be equipped with but one professor who is an expert in ecocriticism. Luckily, H. Lewis Ulman’s dedication and generosity make up in quality for what OSU lacks in quantity. From classrooms to conferences, his enthusiasm and support were a constant inspiration. How far would I have gotten without his graduate seminar in ecocriticism? Especially important was the fact that he brought to my attention the extant place-based work of ecocritics. His advice early on that my work should not only be theory-driven, but also theory-generating, was invaluable when it came to formulating the scope and purpose of my work. As far as my OSU experience goes, I would be remiss if I did not also acknowledge my indebtedness to the inimitable graduate seminars of one of OSU’s most lucid and responsible teachers, Eugene Holland. I am also grateful to many scholars who have since moved on from OSU. I thank Don Krug, who left Columbus for Columbia (The University of British Columbia, that is) for discussing with me about place and education, and the implications of one for the other. I am grateful for having the intellectual support of Vassilis Lambropoulos and Artemis Leontis, now at the University of Michigan. I also thank Panayiotis Roilos (Harvard University) for overseeing an independent study I did on the Cretan mandinadha. If it was not for William Vitek of Clarkson University, the letters we exchanged when I was living in Crete, and the discussions we had when I returned from there, who knows if I would have even figured out that place was the unifying element that would bring many of my life’s concerns v and intellectual interests into focus. Such focus was without question necessary for my academic “success.” His unrelenting encouragement and the example he sets are a constant source of inspiration. This is no place to express my infinite (uncountable, like the irrational reals) personal and intellectual gratitude to Alice Lai and Pericles Kondos. I am grateful to Dimitris Kritsotakis for the Cretan wine and tsikoudhia, the “perdhikes,” and for rolling the phyllo for the wild greens pies on Easter. To Georgios Tserdanelis and Hsiao-Ping Chen for theoretical discussions on just about every topic imaginable, usually over garlic, wine, or coffee. Without Crete, and without my encounters with remarkable Cretans, there would be no dissertation. vi VITA August 6, 1970 Born—South Glens Falls, NY 1992 B.S. Mathematics, Clarkson University, Potsdam, NY 1993 M.S. Applied Mathematics, The University of Chicago, IL 1995 A.B.D. Applied Mathematics, The University of Chicago, IL 1998-1999 University Fellow, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 1999 M.A. Modern Greek, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 1999-2003 Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of Greek and Latin, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Greek and Latin vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Abstract.........................................................................................…...................................... ii Acknowledgments..........................................................................................................…….. iv Vita................................................................................................…...................................... vii Chapters: 1. Introduction...............................................................................……................................... 1 2. Placed Criticism................................….....................................…........................................ 29 3. The Nature of National Culture............................................................................................ 62 4. The Nature of Regional Culture............................................................................................ 104 5. Place, Identity, Awareness.................................................................................................... 140 6. Guarding the Wild.....................................…......................................................................