Social Sciences & Humanities Open 4 (2021) 100158

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Social Sciences & Humanities Open

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Wetland imagery in American novels

Erik Kiviat *

Hudsonia, P.O. Box 5000, Annandale, New York, 12504, USA

ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT

Keywords: Wetlands display general ecological characteristics that are reflected in human culture. Nature and culture, in Cultural ecology turn, are reflected in fiction. Wetlands provide many resources to human society as well as presenting significant Grounded theory hazards, and have been both protected and destroyed; fiction might provide insight into the ambivalent human- Literary ecology wetland relationship. I consulted 200 English-language novels containing wetland imagery, and analyzed in detail Fiction 15 American novels. Using grounded theory, I coded 17 broadly-defined themes associated with wetland images in each novel. In a total of 1117 themes in 4192 printed pages, the commonest themes (55 instances each) were Transition, Place, Refuge, Beauty, Peace, Product, Mosquito, Discord, Danger, Decay, and Sex. Richness and di- versity of themes were high in most novels analyzed. There were few relationships between general character- istics of the novels (e.g., author age or gender, number of pages, positive or negative ending) and the occurrence of particular themes. On the whole-book level, Discord, Danger, Decay, and Sex were correlated with the most other themes. Theme patterns seem related to human ambivalence towards wetlands (i.e., resources vs. hazards), and the prominence of production and decomposition in wetlands.

1. Introduction resources and hazards that wetlands present to humans (Table 1; Kiviat, 2014). Landscape and environment in general influence human culture Wetlands are landscape features that provide ecosystem services out and behavior. Prince (1997, 2), in discussing the relationship of historic of proportion to the area wetlands occupy (Maltby, 1986; Mitsch & Midwestern U.S. settlement to wetlands, said, ‘Cultural values were born Gosselink, 1993), thus their influence on human culture may be magni- of necessity; they were not adopted by societies and economies as fied relative to other habitats. Many major cities are built on filled wet- optional extras’. lands (Giblett, 2016). The destruction and conservation of wetlands, and Fiction reflects the social environment (Griswold, 1981), and pro- the duality of wetland resources vs. wetland hazards (Kiviat, 2014), are vides ‘cultural self-exploration’ (Zapf, 2016). ‘ … fiction, like all artistic important ecologically and culturally. These features of wetlands appear expression, is rooted in historically and culturally specific contexts. We obviously or subtly in American fiction and their analysis may provide assume it can provide a rich source of information about societies …’ insights into the human-wetland relationship that are useful in envi- (Cohen, 2013). Fiction also reflects nature and the elements of the nat- ronmental management. ural world that are important to people (Holman, 1972, 342), albeit Ecocriticism analyzes relationships between literature and nature, through the different lens of each author (Henighan, 1982,15et seq.). and often strives to understand social-ecological systems through a lit- And, ‘A place might inspire fiction, but fiction in turn can shade your erary lens. Much ecocriticism focuses on a single work, an author, a experience of that place’ (Atkins, 2018). The painter Alan Gussow said genre, a country, or occasionally a group of organisms (e.g., birds or landscape artists have a relationship to place because everyone lives cetaceans). Addressing a type of environment or habitat across many somewhere (Gussow & Maxon-Edgerton, 1996). Each author of a novel writings is rare. In this paper I ask how wetlands appear in a sample of lives, works, and plays somewhere in landscapes; the important and U.S. fictional works, and how this wetland imagery is related to human complex relationship of writing to place was elaborated by Buell (2001, concerns and wetland ecosystem function. Chapter 2). Hence landscapes, with their wetlands, should have identi- Wetland ecosystems display a set of ecological characteristics or fiable emblems, images, or ‘themes’ in fiction. In this paper I categorise tendencies, although all are not found in each wetland type or individual those themes (actions or affects), and relate them to wetland ecology. wetland unit (Maltby, 1986). These characteristics correspond to the Neither human culture nor fiction is exact in its relationship to nature,

* Corresponding author: E-mail address: [email protected]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2021.100158 Received 16 November 2020; Received in revised form 22 March 2021; Accepted 14 April 2021 Available online xxxx 2590-2911/© 2021 The Author. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc- nd/4.0/). E. Kiviat Social Sciences & Humanities Open 4 (2021) 100158

Table 1 2. Methods General ecological characteristics of wetlands, and corresponding resources and hazards for human culture (from Kiviat, 2014). As a field biologist analyzing a system with a large number of diverse Ecological characteristic Resources or benefits Hazards or challenges images, I have chosen to explore the imagery quantitatively with tech- niques often used in my subject area. This is strictly an exploratory study Water levels near ground Water supply; Access for Flooding; Difficulty of surface shallow draft boats boat access for the purpose of creating hypotheses rather than for extrapolation to a Soft substrates Protection from Travel difficulties; larger population, thus a random sample was not required (Etikan et al., intruders Miring of humans, 2016). I found novels with wetland imagery opportunistically, by livestock, equipment browsing public and private libraries and stores, scanning reviews, Fertile soils Cultivable soils; Competition for soil Wild plant resources resources? searching digital resources, and asking other readers. If a novel was set in Semi-aquatic mammals with Furs, meat Reservoirs of human a geographic region with much wetland, or had an allusion to water or water-resistant fur (e.g., pathogens & parasites wetland in the title or the cover illustration, I particularly scanned the muskrat, beaver, mink) text for wetland imagery (identified by the indicators in Table 2), and I High productivity of Food; Fodder & grazing; Boat & foot travel also looked at many novels not obviously suggestive of wetlands. I vascular vegetation that is Construction & craft difficulties; Hazard to commonly dense, tough, materials; Protection skin, eyes; Poor visibility selected novels irrespective of length, genre, author or book reputation, harsh, slow-decomposing from intruders through vegetation audience (e.g., age, gender), and writing style (literary or commercial). Sheltered creeks & pools Sheltered travel routes; Getting lost in maze of Grounded theory is a method of analysing texts that includes Recreation; Refuge from waterways; Navigating storms & enemies trackless swamps High spatiotemporal Variable microhabitats Unpredictable resources Table 2 & heterogeneity due to for biota promote plant hazards Indicators of wetland in fiction. (Based in part on Mitsch and Gosselink [1993], interaction of & animal diversity, as well as my extensive field experience.) sedimentation, allow harvest by microtopography, water exploiting distributions Indicator Explanation Examples fluctuation, plants in space & time category Storm surges & salinity Concentrate or kill Hazards to shelter, Wetland type Term for a wetland or type Marsh, saltmarsh, swamp, intrusions certain resource species cultivation, wild of wetland mangrove, bayou, bog, fen, resources peatland, morass, mire, quagmire, Local abundance of Discourages intruders Fly-vectored diseases slough, wet meadow mosquitoes & other biting (malaria, etc.); Nuisance Agricultural Identified by crop, water Cranberry bog, rice paddy flies to people & domestic wetland level, etc. animals Wetland Wetland game, fish, furs, For sale or subsistence: Cattails, Concentrations of fish, birds, Food; Recreation Nuisance or dangerous products useful plants, sphagnum, or fish, game, alligators, furbearer other animals species (predatory, other organisms or pelts, scientific specimens, pets venomous, disease- materials consumed or sold transmitting) Wetland plant Name of obligate wetland Cattail, reed, bulrush, tule, rush, High humidity, ground fogs, Refuge from outsiders Post-harvest food losses?; taxon species, or facultative bald cypress, buttonbush, sedge, storm winds Travel dangers wetland species where salt cedar, saltbush Ice Cut for refrigeration; Interferes with boat wetland confirmed by May improve access on travel; Forces fauna out context (see Lichvar et al., foot of human reach; 2012; USDA 2018) Damages structures; Ice Mosquito Wetland-associated Mosquitoes, biting midges jams in spring cause mosquitoes or other biting (Ceratopogonidae), flies and flooding, physical flies horse flies (Tabanidae) damage Wetland Animal taxon found almost Obligate: limpkin, rails, marsh animal exclusively in wetland wren. Facultative: northern habitat; for facultative leopard frog, northern water wetland animal, wetland snake, American alligator, and nature is not the only influence on culture and fiction (Henighan, confirmed by context common snapping turtle, 1982). Wetlands, according to Prince (1997, 337; also see Thoreau, 1906, American bittern, common 43), are perceived, discussed, and depicted through the individual filters gallinule, common muskrat Surface waters Shallowly flooded or ‘Salt creek’, tidal creek, ditch, pool of our minds. Moreover, although fiction affects readers' thinking (Leavy, saturated at least 2016), different readers experience a given novel differently (Man- seasonally, allowing ganello et al., 2010; Radway, 1984). Recent works by Giblett (2016) and emergent plant growth Gearey et al. (2020) discuss wetland-literature-psychology interactions Sediments, Word or phrase indicating Peat, muck, mud, quagmire, ‘pluff soils soil saturated near surface mud’, ‘mud banks’ of creek, alkali in detail. fl fi or shallowly ooded at least sink Changing attitudes towards wetlands in America, mostly via non c- seasonally; ambiguous tion and with the approach of the humanities, were analyzed by Wilson & terms (e.g., ‘mud’) Moritz (1996) and Howarth (1999). Recently, the influence of wetlands confirmed by context on literature in Iceland was analyzed by Huijbens and Palsson (2009) and Composite Landscape features evoking Shallow waters choked with indicator wetland vegetation in England by Gearey et al. (2020); see also Wilson (2006) on wetlands Place Name of specific wetland Everglades, Okefenokee Swamp, and culture in the southern U.S., and Brick (1981) on swamps. A keyword area Great Dismal Swamp, Newark search of the Journal of Ecocriticism revealed that a few authors have Meadows, Limberlost Swamp, the examined the role of wetlands in specific novels (e.g., Irvine, 2014; Big Bog, Great Swamp (multiple O'Connor 2013; Sipley, 2011). In this paper, as a wetland ecologist, I localities), Drowned Lands fi (multiple), Tulare Lake analyze the human relationship to wetlands as expressed in ction. Wetland- Confirmed by details and Mississippi Delta - Louisiana coast; Worldwide, wetlands are both protected and destroyed, and in the U.S. dominated context South Florida; Georgia or Carolina the degree to which wetlands and their ecosystem services are protected region Sea Islands; South Carolina or regulated is an acrimonious topic. This study of novels illustrates and Lowcountry; Eastern Shore (); Bay; Jersey analyzes the pervasive dualism of the human relationship with wetlands Shore. through the lenses of ecocriticism and ecology.

2 E. Kiviat Social Sciences & Humanities Open 4 (2021) 100158 identifying categories (themes) and coding the presence or absence of in English. For the sample set, I selected novels opportunistically, but each theme in a text (Bernard, 2006; see also Mohammad, 2011). The without bias of genre (Writer’s Digest, 2021), author characteristics, coded data are then analyzed for patterns. This approach is analogous to locale, or other major defining categories. Only one novel was selected comparing biological species lists (e.g., of trees or birds) from different for each author, and no more than one or two novels from a specific place sites. One can look at the presence-absence or abundance of each species (e.g., the Everglades). For consistency, I performed all the theme iden- at a site, and in relation to other characteristics. tification, coding, and analysis. There were no lower or upper bounds on Grounded theory stipulates that the list of themes be developed from the numbers of wetland images (themes) per novel, in part because the the texts under study rather than a priori. I arrived at a provisional list of absence or scarcity of such imagery is as informative as its abundance; themes in reading a large number of novels containing wetland images, however, the sample set is skewed towards the upper range. I excluded then refined the list iteratively while coding data from the 15-novel from the sample set novels whose characters were exclusively animals, or sample set (see below). This resulted in a list of 17 broadly-defined for which the geographic setting could not be discerned. Approximately themes (Table 3) related to the wetland imagery, and I coded the pres- 200 additional novels, by authors of various nationalities and set any- ence of those themes page-by-page in each novel. where worldwide, were consulted subjectively for comparison with the Many studies of texts using grounded theory have employed a second sample set. Subjective use of examples is a widespread practice in ecoc- coder working independently as a check on the accuracy and consistency riticism (e.g., Buell, 1995, 2001). of the primary coder. I forewent this form of quality control in favor of Because I was more likely to discover wetland imagery in a novel that doing all coding myself, and reviewing it myself in a form of proof- had a larger number of wetland images (or ratio of wetland images to reading. Identifying the wetland images, and coding themes, required a total pages), I am cautious in analysing theme density rather than the deep understanding of wetland ecology garnered from 50 years of relative frequencies of different themes and the relationship of the im- studying the natural history and human ecology of wetlands including ages to their textual context. I used three approaches to analyze wetland many of those in which the novels were set (e.g., the Everglades), as well imagery: 1. By coding and quantitatively processing the occurrences of as observing how people and wetlands interrelate. Acting as sole coder themes at the whole-book level; 2. By subjectively assessing co- allowed me to code subtle imagery with consistency across more than occurrence of themes on a page-level; and 3. By subjectively gauging 4000 pages of text. the gestalt of the imagery in the whole novel. I coded themes in a sample set of 15 novels by U.S. authors, each To identify wetland imagery, I used a definition of wetlands in which novel set solely or predominantly in the conterminous U.S. All novels bryophytic, herbaceous, or woody emergent plants were prominent, and were written for adult or teenage readers, and all were originally written there was a water level near the ground surface at least seasonally (Table 2, above; see Mitsch & Gosselink, 1993,22et seq.). This definition Table 3 did not include all shallow water habitats or habitats with submergent Categories (themes) for coding cultural-behavioral association to wetlands. vegetation and no emergent plants, but did encompass relatively small Themes were deduced by iterative reading of the studied texts. pools or channels within emergent-dominated habitats. I excluded trivial wetland mentions such as a street named after a wetland type or specific Coding category Expression in fiction (theme) wetland, a reference to an individual belonging to a wetland-associated human group, or the use of wetland similes and metaphors in text not Transition Wetland mentioned in shifting from one mood or scene to another or in a break in landscape (ecotone); stage-setting at related to actual wetlands. Wetland themes were counted (and compared beginning of a scene; wetland as travel corridor to other factors) page by page, because pages had clearer boundaries and Place Real locality place name of specific wetland or wetland- similar sizes than scenes or paragraphs. Within a page, I coded multiple dominated landscape categories that appeared. Thus, each sampling unit (novel) was repre- Refuge Avoiding or escaping poverty, military, law enforcement; sented by the numbers of times each theme appeared on different pages. escaping religious, social approbation, aggressive, fi competitive, dangerous, attacking, persecuting humans; How categories are de ned for coding affects the results of analysis hiding place, hideout (Manganello et al., 2010). It would be possible to code imagery differ- Desolation Wildness, wilderness; loneliness; expanse without human ently by grouping images and language into thematic categories differ- presence; featureless landscape ently (e.g., combining Peace and Beauty), and another coder might assign Beauty Beautiful; scenic Peace Peacefulness; serenity; healing; introspection; friendship some wetland images to different themes; however, decisions had to be Plant Wetland flora or vegetation (excludes crop plants, or made to accomplish analysis and there is no firm guide. Griswold (1981) harvested wild plants) noted that data on the content of novels were intrinsically messy. Product Wetland organisms collected or harvested for food, shelter The alternative to the subjective technique of associating themes with materials, sale, cultivation wetland images would be electronic coding in which a computer program Maze Maze of waterways or trails; water route; concealed travel; efficient transport; getting lost or fear of; confused; confusing searches for certain words or phrases (Roberts, 1997). Although this landscape; rejection; mystery technique may be more consistent, it would overlook unanticipated or Mosquito Nuisance or danger of mosquitoes (usually) or other blood- indirect references to wetlands, or unexpected descriptions, and thus feeding invertebrates in wetland context miss many nuances of the writing. Disposal Dumping garbage, car, live or dead pet (not human corpse); disposing of evidence of crime, illegal drugs; pollution I also compiled general characteristics of the novels and authors, Drowning Sinking or getting stuck in sediments; drowning due to boat comprising author birth year, novel publication year, author age at capsizing; drowning in floodwaters; miring of person, publication, author gender, protagonist gender (female, male, or both), livestock, vehicle, train, or construction equipment total pages in novel, and ending (positive or happy vs. negative or sad). I fi Discord Strife; family dysfunction; ghting; arguing; physical violence coded the setting by U.S. state, the wetland type as Marsh (non-wooded), or abuse other than murder; deception Danger Fear; adventure; new experiences & landscapes; venomous Swamp (wooded), or Both, and the wetland as Tidal or Nontidal. I asked animals; large predators; ; enemies; great discomfort four authors informally what wetland images meant in their novels. Decay Death; decay; excreta; foul odours; grief, mourning; murder, Rank correlations (for comparing two numerical variables) and for attempted murder; disposal of murder victim categorical variables either Mann-Whitney tests (for variables with two Sex Sex, sexuality; reproduction, birth; life; profusion; lushness; states) or Kruskal-Wallis ANOVAs (for variables with three states) were courtship; flirting (see Hobbs & Gallup [2011] re this theme) Conservation Destruction of wetlands, real estate development or logging performed with Statistica version 13.3. I used α ¼ 0.05 for the correla- harming wetlands; drainage, filling; restoration, conservation tions and α ¼ 0.1 for the analyses of categorical variables. For significant of wetlands correlations, I examined scatterplots to identify meaningful relationships (Chambers 1983,76et seq.). These tests are intended only to discern

3 E. Kiviat Social Sciences & Humanities Open 4 (2021) 100158 relationships within the sample set, and not for extrapolation to a larger population of novels. The significant results may be used to generate hypotheses for further study with larger, random samples. Simpson's Diversity Index 1-D was calculated in Excel using the formula from Zaiontz (2018). 1-D is a diversity index with higher numbers indicating greater diversity of themes; this index measures the probability that two theme-occurrences selected at random will represent different themes.

3. Results

Generally, the sample set constituted somewhat long novels by mature authors (Table 4), and fairly numerous and diverse wetland themes. The median birth year of the 15 authors in the sample set was 1948 (range 1872–1958), the median year of publication 1991 (1927–2013), and median author age at publication 46 (30–69). The median number of pages was 263 (132–499), and the median ratio of pages with wetland themes to total pages 0.124 (0.015–0.359). The median total themes was 57 (10–223). Median themes per page was 0.225 (0.038–1.014). Median theme richness (number of themes in a – – Fig. 1. Medians, quartiles, and observed ranges for the numbers of theme oc- novel) was 12 (7 17). Median Simpson's 1-D was 0.866 (0.626 0.910). ¼ fl currences per novel (n 15 novels). The number above each box plot represents Themes related to con ict, fear, death, crime, and sex were promi- the total occurrences of that theme in the entire sample set. nent. The commonest themes (total in sample set, including multiple themes on a page) were, in decreasing order of abundance, Danger, Maze was related to Wetland Type (Swamp > Marsh > Both; p ¼ Discord, Place, Decay, Sex, and Product, all with >70 page-occurrences. 0.065). Plant was related to Tidal-Nontidal (Nontidal ¼ Both > Tidal; p ¼ The rarest were Drowning, Disposal, and Conservation. The central ten- 0.084). Product was similarly related to Tidal-Nontidal (Nontidal > Both dency and dispersion of the 17 themes across 15 novels are shown in > Tidal; p ¼ 0.013). Locale (combined into three regions) was related to Fig. 1. Themes that occurred 55 or more times in the total of themes for Conservation (Southeast > West > North; p ¼ 0.096). In the sample set, 9 all 15 novels in the sample set are enumerated for each novel in Table 5. novels had ‘Happy’ or positive endings and 6 had ‘Sad’ or negative In the following summary, the statistical comparisons of variables are endings. Ending was not related statistically to any other variable. at the level of whole novels, rather than at the page level. Analysis of the Among all possible pairs of the 17 themes, there were 27 pairs with various summary properties of the themes generally indicates positive correlations significant at the 0.05 level, all correlations positive correlations among the number of pages with wetland themes, that (Table 6). Three themes (Desolation, Maze, Conservation) were not number divided by Total Pages, the total numbers of themes (including correlated with any other themes. Of the 27, Decay, Discord, Danger, multiple themes on a page), Theme Richness (variety of themes), Total Mosquito, Sex, and Beauty (in decreasing order) were correlated with the Themes per Page, and Theme Diversity (1-D). most other themes. The six strongest correlations (rho 0.68) show the I used the Mann-Whitney test or the Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA to strongest graphical patterns (most linear, fewest outliers, less scatter): analyze relationships between categorical variables (Author Gender, Peace – Discord 0.68, Transition – Decay 0.69, Danger – Mosquito 0.73, Protagonist Gender, Wetland Type, Tidal-Nontidal, and Ending) and Danger – Decay 0.74, Discord – Decay 0.80, and Discord – Danger 0.86. numerical variables (Year Author Born, Year Published, Age at Publica- tion, Total Pages) and with the 17 themes and the indices derived from 4. Discussion the themes. There were 10 male and 5 female authors. Male authors were more likely than female to include a Drowning theme (p ¼ 0.028). Pro- Wetlands occupy a noteworthy minority place in American novels, tagonist genders comprised 3 male, 7 female, and 5 both. Discord was but this role is challenging to characterize. ‘Romantic nature description, related to Protagonist Gender (Female > Both > Male; p ¼ 0.086). Decay like all description of nature in all literatures, should be examined for its showed a similar pattern in relation to Protagonist Gender (p ¼ 0.055).

Table 4 Novels in sample set. Locale ¼ U.S. state, North ¼ unspecified northernmost states (combined into Southeast, West, and North for analysis); Wetland type (Marsh, Swamp, Both); T ¼ Tidal, N ¼ Nontidal, B ¼ Both.

Author Title Year Publication Total Age at Author Protagonist Primary Wetland Tidal or author year pages publication gender gender locale type nontidal born

Barr Endangered Species 1952 1998 306 46 F F GA M T Boyle East is East 1948 1990 364 42 M MF GA B B Erdrich Tracks 1954 1988 226 34 F B North S N Faulkner Mosquitoes 1897 1927 288 30 M B LA S N Gentile The Lurking 1946 1989 261 43 M F NJ S N Grey Forlorn River 1872 1927 220 55 M F CA M N Harris ‘Geechee Girls 1952 2013 233 61 F F GA S N Hiaasen Skinny Dip 1953 2004 355 51 M B FL M B Lott Reed's Beach 1958 1993 342 35 M F NJ M T Paulsen The River 1939 1991 132 52 M M North B N Potter Island of Dreams 1940 1991 499 51 F B GA M T Powell Edisto Revisited 1952 1996 145 44 M M SC B B Rothenberg The Bulrush Murders 1948 1991 249 43 F F CA M N Shames Mangrove Squeeze 1951 1998 309 47 M F FL S T Willeford The Shark-infested Custard 1919 1992 263 69 M M FL M N

4 E. Kiviat Social Sciences & Humanities Open 4 (2021) 100158

Table 5 The most frequent wetland themes in the sample set (each 55 total occurrences for n ¼ 15 novels) (See Table 3 for definitions of themes.).

Author Title Transition Place Refuge Beauty Peace Product Mosquito Discord Danger Decay Sex

Barr Endangered Species 124500682367 Boyle East is East 7 9 8 4 4 20 12 9 12 17 8 Erdrich Tracks 100001004334 Faulkner Mosquitoes 70222457944 Gentile The Lurking 10330301330 Grey Forlorn River 4 64 0 14 14 12 0 27 18 10 34 Harris ‘Geechee Girls 8182831121154 Hiaasen Skinny Dip 8195436204226306 Lott Reed's Beach 80010000042 Paulsen The River 000212112810 Potter Island of Dreams 000327003513 Powell Edisto Revisited 10330900126 Rothenberg The Bulrush Murders 40611313962 Shames Mangrove Squeeze 4 2 16 11 4 0 1 10 6 7 2 Willeford The Shark-infested Custard 13100000200

Table 6 Spearman correlation coefficients (rho) among themes. Italicized correlations are significant at p < 0.05; bold italics in the lower half of the matrix indicate pairs with the strongest trends (see text). Desolation, Maze, and Conservation are omitted because there were no significant correlations with other themes. The numerals following theme names represent the numbers of other themes correlated at p < 0.05.

Transition Place Refuge Beauty Peace Plant Product Mosquito Disposal Drowning Discord Danger Decay Sex (1) (3) (3) (5) (2) (3) (1) (6) (1) (3) (7) (7) (8) (5)

Transition 1.00 0.36 0.45 0.08 0.25 0.24 0.26 0.32 0.20 0.16 0.48 0.34 0.69 0.33 Place 0.36 1.00 0.34 0.57 0.38 0.11 0.21 0.33 0.26 0.36 0.66 0.62 0.63 0.51 Refuge 0.45 0.34 1.00 0.35 0.20 0.56 0.07 0.52 0.42 0.42 0.44 0.41 0.58 0.17 Beauty 0.08 0.57 0.35 1.00 0.48 0.25 0.16 0.30 0.42 0.27 0.60 0.57 0.61 0.56 Peace 0.25 0.38 0.20 0.48 1.00 0.16 0.17 0.25 0.07 0.15 0.68 0.52 0.41 0.33 Plant 0.24 0.11 0.56 0.25 0.16 1.00 0.33 0.66 0.44 0.67 0.22 0.30 0.44 0.03 Product 0.26 0.21 0.07 0.16 0.17 0.33 1.00 0.13 -0.06 0.04 0.36 0.31 0.39 0.62 Mosquito 0.32 0.33 0.52 0.30 0.25 0.66 0.13 1.00 0.22 0.53 0.53 0.73 0.54 0.25 Disposal 0.20 0.26 0.42 0.42 0.07 0.44 -0.06 0.22 1.00 0.62 0.33 0.15 0.38 -0.16 Drowning 0.16 0.36 0.42 0.27 0.15 0.67 0.04 0.53 0.62 1.00 0.23 0.18 0.26 -0.19 Discord 0.48 0.66 0.44 0.60 0.68 0.22 0.36 0.53 0.33 0.23 1.00 0.86 0.80 0.62 Danger 0.34 0.62 0.41 0.57 0.52 0.30 0.31 0.73 0.15 0.18 0.86 1.00 0.74 0.60 Decay 0.69 0.63 0.58 0.61 0.41 0.44 0.39 0.54 0.38 0.26 0.80 0.74 1.00 0.61 Sex 0.33 0.51 0.17 0.56 0.33 0.03 0.62 0.25 -0.16 -0.19 0.62 0.60 0.61 1.00 reflection of man's relation to the whole natural world …’(Henighan, 4.1. Author and general novel characteristics 1982, 13). However, the relationship between environment and culture is complex and not necessarily well organized or interpretable. Thus I I categorized the geographic setting of a novel by U.S. state (or ‘North’ expected the reflection of wetland ecology in fiction to be ‘messy’, and where locale was unspecified but apparently in that region). Many not reducible to a simple concordance between the actions, attitudes, and American novels that mention wetlands are set in South Florida, coastal feelings described and the wetland habitats or organisms depicted. Georgia (including Okefenokee Swamp), or coastal Louisiana. Although I analyzed 15 novels (the sample set) in detail, and examined many there might have been a bias in finding novels with wetland imagery others qualitatively, in an exploratory study. The opportunistic sampling because I came to expect novels set in those regions to feature wetlands, scheme did not permit hypothesis testing, but allowed generation of the preponderance of Georgia, Louisiana, and Florida settings is ideas about the relationship between wetlands and fiction that could evidently real and indicates a literary fascination with the extensive potentially be tested in a larger, random sample. In general, I expected a wetlands of those states. Harris (2012) characterized the culture and loose but heuristic relationship between wetland themes in novels and landscapes of Florida as liminal, and the wetlands themselves as liminal cultural-ecologic characteristics of wetland landscapes (Table 1). My by virtue of being neither water nor land (see also Miller [1989, 78]). The purpose is not to compare novels with wetland images to novels without, East Coast barrier islands are also a common setting for novels with or to determine how much or how often wetlands are portrayed, but pri- wetland imagery, from Georgia north to at least New Jersey (e.g., Reed's marily to assess how wetlands are portrayed, and their roles, in novels. Beach [Lott, 1993], The Mermaid Chair [Kidd, 2005], Edisto Revisited Despite the wetland images, the novels contained few ecological de- [Powell, 1996], Endangered Species [Barr, 1998], Island of Dreams [Potter, tails. The Bulrush Murders (Rothenberg, 1991), written by an amateur 1991], The Prince of Tides [Conroy, 1986]). However, an alternate botanist, presented a little more detail. Forlorn River (Grey, 1974) had explanation is possible, that the ocean beaches and other features of the many picturesque descriptions but only identified a few plants; likewise, islands attract storytelling and the extensive nearby wetlands creep into The Prince of Tides (Conroy, 1986) waxed florid about the barrier islands the tales. In fact, the novels mentioned (except The Prince of Tides) had and salt marshes, but without much natural history detail. There was fewer wetland images than I expected given the real landscapes with vast greater detail about animals and plants in The Marsh King's Daughter salt marshes, interdunal swales, and interior swamps. In Endangered (Dionne, 2017). The more frequent occurrences of Plant and Product in Species (Barr, 1998) the wetland images appeared mostly in dramatic nontidal compared to tidal marshes may be a factor of the tidal marshes contexts and were sparse until the violent climax; wetlands seemed to in the regions where these novels were set having low plant diversity, serve as literary italics that emphasize the tension in the interactions e.g., large areas are dominated by one or a few species. among characters. The relatively few relationships between author

5 E. Kiviat Social Sciences & Humanities Open 4 (2021) 100158 characteristics and novel imagery suggest that the fictional environment nature vs. culture in the non-fictional analysis of Levi-Strauss (1969) The was more influenced by cultural attitudes towards wetlands than by Raw and the Cooked and Marx (1964) The Machine in the Garden. Thoreau author characteristics such as age or gender. (1906, 1951) contrasted the wildness of swamps in mid-1800s, rural Certain novels set in, or adjacent to, extensive wetlands were domi- eastern Massachusetts with human society in the towns. Giblett (1996) nated by wetland themes. Among these were Skinny Dip (Hiaasen, 2004), opined that wetlands represented the feminine or matriarchy and up- East is East (Boyle, 1990), and The Marsh King's Daughter (Dionne, 2017) lands the masculine or patriarchy. Nonetheless, the wetland landscape of in which wetlands played such a prominent role that wetland themes Florida was considered ambiguous and liminal by Harris (2012). I believe seem to ‘spill over’ and permeate many aspects of the story, complicating the ambivalence of wetland imagery is related to wetlands as combined the interpretation of the relationship of wetland images to the fictional birth-and-death (production and decomposition), harsh and lush vege- themes. This may be simply because wetland is omnipresent in the real tation, risky muck, watery maze, and dangerous animals. This ‘wild and world settings. The Themes per Page value is very high in Forlorn River tame’ duality is related to the cultural ecology of wetlands: they present (Grey, 1974) which features lacustrine and riverine marshes in the both hazards and resources (Kiviat, 2014). Howarth (1999) described the northeastern California portion of the Great Basin, where wetlands are duality and wildness represented by wetlands. Alkali sinks in southern sharply set off from an arid landscape and are especially important to California were viewed as desolate by Rothenberg (1991) in The Bulrush wildlife, livestock, and people. Murders. The (now mostly filled) Newark Meadows of northeastern New Jersey were the desolate setting of Ruby's Husband (Harland, 1869), 4.2. Themes psychologically reminiscent of the British moors and marshes in fiction by Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle, and Daphne du Maurier. Discord, Danger, Decay, and Sex, as a suite of themes that often co- Reimold et al. (1980) related unpredictability and mystery to wetlands in occurred at the level of the novel, suggest the aspects of wetland ecol- the British fiction by three authors, and Brick (1981, 273) emphasized ogy they represent may be the most influential. How do the images and the perceived confusion, disorder, and chaos of wetlands. The ambiva- themes in the novels studied accord with the ecological characteristics, lence of attitudes towards wetlands is analogous to ambivalence towards and resources or hazards, associated with wetlands (Table 1)? the sea (see Corbin, 1994) and towards mountains (Macfarlane, 2003). Sex: One of the most obvious fictional associations of wetlands and Refuge. Wetlands, and wetland-dominated regions, provide refuge to sex was the sexual rendezvous spot isolated in an expansive salt marsh in humans much as wetlands do for plants and animals escaping predation, The Mermaid Chair (Kidd, 2005). I interpret the images of sex and competition, and other stressors (Kiviat, 2014). Human refuge in wet- reproduction, broadly defined, as related to the lush production of plant lands takes many forms, even the psychological retreat of the modern and animal life in many kinds of wetlands. Willeford (1993, 78) likened urban dweller (articulated by Vileisis, 1997, 2). A refuge is often on an the scent of a woman that was sexually attractive to the protagonist to island surrounded or isolated by wetland. Large islands among or ‘primeval swamp’ and ‘mangroves at low tide’, among other similes. bordered by wetlands, or hidden small islands in wetlands (occasionally Sexual behavior was prominent in Mosquitoes (Faulkner, 1927), Skinny wetlands on islands) occur in many novels. East is East (Boyle, 1990), Dip (Hiaasen, 2004), and Afterworld (Walden, 2013). The Sex theme was Island of Dreams (Potter, 1991), Endangered Species (Barr, 1998), and frequent in Forlorn River (Grey, 1974), expressed as romantic attraction Edisto Revisited (Powell, 1996) were predominantly set on barrier islands rather than sex acts per se. O'Connor (2013) equated the taboo human of South Carolina or Georgia. In The Mermaid's Chair (Kidd, 2005), set on vagina to the treacherous bog in fiction by the Irish writer Edna O'Brien. a large island, illicit sex took place on a small island in a tidal marsh. The Decay. Decomposition in wetlands is evident in the accumulation of protagonist in The Marsh King's Daughter (Dionne, 2017) lived with her plant detritus and the odours of organic sediments, at least partly parents on an island in a vast wetland. Karen Dionne (pers. comm., 2018) explaining the frequent decay themes. Sediment odours were mentioned stressed the isolation of the wetland-surrounded island as germane to the in Birds of America (McCarthy, 1971, 61) as a ‘slightly noisome pond’. psychological isolation of the tale. In the end of Skinny Dip (Hiaasen, McCullers (1936, 39) in Ballad of the Sad Cafe said, ‘ … the wind carried 2004), the villain fleeing through sawgrass marsh found shelter on a the rotten smell of the swamp’ and ‘ … the evil odor from the swamp’. hammock (a small, wooded island in the otherwise graminoid-dominated Boyle (1990, 146) in East is East was more graphic with ‘the stinking Everglades proper). Treasure Island (Stevenson, 1963) had a swamp on festering cesspool of a marsh’. In a more ecological description in ‘Gee- the island from which the protagonist spied on the pirates. Towards the chee Girls, Harris (2013, 224) said, ‘The brackish water … gave off a end of The Prince of Tides, the protagonist's brother committed environ- richer smell of decay, marsh mud, and salt’. Mouldering houses occurred mental terrorism from a hideout on a small island in the salt marsh, and occasionally in proximity to wetlands, for example, on the island in the three siblings had a final loving reunion there (Conroy, 1986). Gone-away Lake (Enright, 1957). Murder or attempted murder, included Mangrove Squeeze (Shames, 1998) was set on Key West, a large island, in Decay, was emblematic of many novels that prominently featured with its own, semi-isolated culture. Two homeless men lived in a wetlands, including The Bulrush Murders (Rothenberg, 1991), Mangrove hotdog-shaped, abandoned, food truck in a mangrove swamp, and the Squeeze (Shames, 1998), Skinny Dip (Hiaasen, 2004), The Marsh King's female protagonist hid from her would-be murderers there. In Ballad of Daughter (Dionne, 2017), and many additional mystery or crime novels. the Sad Cafe (McCullers, 1936) and Half of Paradise (Burke, 1965), illegal Sipley (2011) equated the desolate marshes of Dickens' Great Expectations whiskey stills were hidden in wetlands. Wetlands provided refuge from a (in England) with crime, and explained the analogy by the resistance of domineering mother in A Girl of the Limberlost (Porter, 1991); from the marshes to industrialization. criminals in The Bulrush Murders (Rothenberg, 1991); and for a renegade Beauty and Peace. People are often attracted by the beauty and from society in Skinny Dip (Hiaasen, 2004) and an outcast in Women of peacefulness of wetlands (see Smardon, 1983), and many novels sang Granite (Jennings, 1992). One of the best-defined refuges was in Ladd of these aspects of wetlands. This peaked in Conroy’s (1986, various pages) the Big Swamp (Matschat, 1954, 39): ‘Okefenokee is more than a swamp, views of the salt marsh in Prince of Tides. Other examples were East is East Mamma. It's a refuge where people can go and live for nothing – the land (Boyle, 1990), Mangrove Squeeze (Shames, 1998), Skinny Dip (Hiaasen, and game are free, anyway. Georgia doesn't need the islands, so she 2004), and ‘Geechee Girls (Harris, 2013). Beauty and Peace overlapped doesn't care if people settle on them’. Islands, in a more general sense, are and some images were difficult to assign to one or the other theme. romantic and represent escape and idylls (Wright, 1989). Desolation. Wetlands were usually depicted as wild places in contrast Concealment of valuables in wetland is another form of refuge, albeit with tamed civilization (Tables 2–3). For example, the marshes between rare in novels and ethnography. Three instances in the sample set are: the mouths of the Thames and Medway estuaries, in Dickens’ Great Ex- jewelry intended as a gift (Conroy, 1986, Prince of Tides); money and pectations, were contrasted with urban London and resisted industriali- saleable specimens (Porter, 1991, A Girl of the Limberlost); and burying zation (Sipley, 2011). These comparisons are analogous to the duality of barrels of illegal whiskey (McCullers, 1936, Ballad of the Sad Cafe). The

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Maori of New Zealand hid valuable objects in wetlands for safekeeping dangers (Haslam, 2003,8–15; Miller, 1989,3;Geary 2020). Larger (Phillips, 2002). wetlands commonly sheltered outlaws, pirates, brigands, and moon- Another kind of refuge preserves antiquated or anachronistic tradi- shiners. Large predators have also always been a threat to humans tions. Enright (1957) in Gone-away Lake portrayed two elderly persons, (Quammen, 2003), and extensive American wetlands often are the hiding dressing and speaking as they had 50 years earlier, and living in a cluster places of venomous snakes, alligators, black bears, and Florida panthers. of mouldering houses on a lake turned into marsh. This history resembles The danger of southern wetlands became symbolized by the alligator the history and prehistory preserved in the sediments of wetlands (Glasgow, 1991). A mythical swamp beast was presented in The Lurking themselves (e.g., Godwin, 1981; Menotti & O'Sullivan, 2012). (Gentile, 1989) as a human-eating ‘Jersey Devil’ from the wetlands of the Transition. Wetland images often serve as transition, interlude, New Jersey Pine Barrens. A -like creature, terrifying and later context-setter, atmosphere, warning, dramatic tension, or demarcation friendly, in a southern swamp was featured in the children's story Mon- between settings, although they do not precede every scene of discord or sters and Oil Wells Don't Mix (Hays, 1976). In An Echo in the Bone, danger, and presumably other factors are involved in the selection of Gabaldon (2009) had the protagonist fleeing an attacking venomous transitional images. In Birds of America (McCarthy, 1971), mention of the snake in the swamp. Danger includes adventure, featured in connection distant Mekong Delta wetlands preceded two moments of great strife in with wetlands in Forlorn River (Grey, 1974), Gone-away Lake (Enright, Paris: physical violence at a street demonstration and verbal violence at a 1957), Hudson Bay Express (set in Canada; Davis, 1942), The Secret Raft dinner party. However, in Prince of Tides (Conroy, 1986), the scenes of (Krantz, 1965), The Red Doe (Mayrant, 1953), The River (Paulsen, 1991), greatest violence were not associated with wetland images; rather, the and Treasure Island (British author, Stevenson, 1963). expansive salt marshes were associated with peace and beauty. In Reed's Drowning. Although drowning and miring in wetlands are common in Beach (Lott, 1993) the salt marsh was a boundary between two worlds, , I found few mentions in novels. The protagonist's misbehaving crossed by road several times as the couple grieving for their dead son father died by miring in a swamp pool in A Girl of the Limberlost (Porter, gradually found peace with themselves. Wetlands were the setting for the 1991). A boy almost died mired in a soft spot in a marsh, in Gone-away family tensions in Two Half Brothers, or Separating Out (Boffey, 2014), Lake (Enright, 1957). Soft soils (peat, muck, silt, occasionally quicksand) notably the dramatic encounters between the brothers who eventually are a hazard to both real and fictional people. resolved their conflicts by parting ways (Peter Boffey, pers. comm.). The Discord. About half of the sample set portrayed cultural or social Transition theme is not only related to the real ecotones between wetland friction: South and North, urban and rural, Black and white and Asian, and upland, but also to how wetlands divide the landscape (e.g., as a Native American and EuroAmerican. Mental illness was featured in firebreak or a barrier to the movement of upland organisms). ‘Geechee Girls (Harris, 2013) and The Prince of Tides (Conroy, 1986), and Place. Some novels referred to real wetland localities, e.g., Okefeno- murder, kidnap, rape, and terrorism in The Prince of Tides, Skinny Dip kee Swamp (Boyle, 1990), Limberlost Swamp (Porter, 1991), the Ever- (Hiaasen, 2004), Endangered Species (Barr, 1998), Island of Dreams glades (Hiaasen, 2004; Shames, 1998), Great Dismal Swamp (Gabaldon, (Potter, 1991), Mangrove Squeeze (Shames, 1998), The Bulrush Murders 2009). The high outlier for Place (64; Fig. 1) was in Grey (1974), Forlorn (Rothenberg, 1991), Tracks (Erdrich, 1988), The Lurking (Gentile, 1989), River; I identified wetlands by the oft-repeated names of three real places: Forlorn River (Grey, 1974), and East is East (Boyle, 1990). Outside the Forlorn River (Lost River), Tule Lake, and Clear Lake. These water bodies sample set, crime and illness are also prominent in novels with wetland were either described as partly wetland in the novel, or are discernible as imagery, among them The Case of the Hook-billed Kites (Borthwick, 1983), wetland in the real world. Many fictional references to real, named, Slow Dancing with the Angel of Death (Chappell, 1996), Lilith (Salamanca, wetland places benefit from their legendary reputations. 1961), and Ballad of the Sad Cafe (McCullers, 1936). Conflict is generally Mosquito. Real wetlands often produce mosquitoes and other biting common in fiction and wetland-rich settings may make good backdrops. flies (e.g., Batzer et al., 1999), and wetlands in fiction would scarcely be Fictional discord could also be related to the resources-hazards duality of complete or realistic without mosquitoes. In some novels (e.g., Mosqui- wetlands. toes, Faulkner, 1927), mosquitoes provided dramatic tension. In others Disposal. This theme peaked in Skinny Dip (Hiaasen, 2004) which (e.g., The River, Paulsen, 1991), mosquitoes were a realistic threat. featured an antihero covering up phosphorus pollution from a large farm Plant. Cordgrass (Spartina) and cattail (Typha) were the most-noted draining into the Everglades. In Mangrove Squeeze (Shames, 1998), a man taxa. Phragmites (Chappell, 1996, 146), Scirpus and Allenrolfea (Rothen- was paid to dispose of a car and a body in a tidal wetland. Laurence berg, 1991, various pages), and marsh-marigold (Caltha palustris), blue Shames (pers. comm.) said he liked to use wetlands for that purpose in his flag iris (Iris sp.), alder (Alnus), and swamp (red) maple (Acer rubrum) novels. Dumping diverse wastes in wetlands is an old and widespread (Dionne, 2017,11et seq.) were among other species mentioned. Wetland practice in the real world, as observed by anyone with more than casual plants are an obvious connection to the environment and are commonly wetland experience. the first things noticed by a layperson, naturalist, or scientist encoun- Conservation. Destruction or conservation of wetlands appeared in tering wetland. some novels (e.g., Chappell, 1996; Grey, 1974; Hiaasen, 2004; Porter, Product. Products were harvested from wetlands in some novels, for 1991; Rothenberg, 1991). Many novels with wetland images, however, subsistence or sale. The kinds included specimens, pets, game birds, fish, lacked this theme. Hiaasen's Skinny Dip mentioned wetland destruction timber, and marsh plants. Wetlands produce many things useful to peo- and conservation numerous times. In the end of Tracks (Erdrich, 1988), a ple, and wetland products are of central importance in wetland-based logging operation destroyed the lakeside forest. In Slow Dancing with the cultures (Kiviat, 2014). Angel of Death (Chappell, 1996), a marsh was preserved because of the Maze. The seemingly featureless or confusing landscapes of many occurrence of an endangered bird. The government drainage of Tule Lake wetlands, complex networks of tidal creeks or braided streams, and (California) for agriculture was mentioned several times by Grey (1974). trackless swamp forests evoke mystery and the threat of getting lost. Lois Walden (pers. comm.) in Afterworld, set in Louisiana, described the Maze themes appeared in Gone Away Lake (Enright, 1957), Prince of Tides personified ‘Swamp’ as representing life, persistence, and the antidote to (Conroy, 1986), East is East (Boyle, 1990), Skinny Dip (Hiaasen, 2004), human destruction of nature, the latter represented by personified Slow Dancing with the Angel of Death (Chappell, 1996), The Body in the Bog ‘Sugar’. Wetland conservation has been a major subject of public dis- (Page, 1996), and The Case of the Hook-billed Kites (Borthwick, 1983), cussion since the mid-1900s, and locally much earlier. among others. Boats, especially small craft, figured prominently in the Correlations between themes. Six correlations have rho 0.68 and sample set as mode of travel to, into, or through wetlands, the channels of relatively strong patterns in scatterplots. Danger – Decay, Discord – which facilitated travel as well as hindering it. Decay, and Discord – Danger logically seem to represent co-occurrence of Danger. Culturally, wetlands have often been considered the home of negative qualities or perceptions of wetlands. Mosquito – Danger is also a evil spirits, sin, , monsters, weirdness, disease, and other logical relationship, as mosquitoes are indeed dangerous as disease

7 E. Kiviat Social Sciences & Humanities Open 4 (2021) 100158 vectors. It is harder to interpret Peace – Discord, which fits with the Acknowledgements ambivalent attitudes towards wetlands and the real duality of resources and hazards. I can only speculate about the Transition – Decay rela- I am grateful for comments on my presentation from Society of tionship that it reflects decay as a transition between life and death. Wetland Scientists 2018 conference attendees, for the responses of the authors I polled about their writing, and to the other persons who sug- 5. Conclusions gested novels or ideas for consideration during the 25 year genesis of this study. Peter Boffey commented on a draft of this paper. Elaine Colandrea, My analysis of wetland imagery in American novels indicates the- my wife, accompanied me with pack and paddle into many wetlands. The matic relationships of human actions and affect to ecological character- Bard College Stevenson Library was essential to this endeavor. Lea Stickle – istics of wetlands. Wetland ecology presents both resources and hazards assisted with style and format. This paper is a Hudsonia Bard College to human cultures and individuals, and this duality engenders an Field Station Contribution. ambivalent attitude towards wetlands (Kiviat, 2014; Wilson, 2006). Thus, Discord and Danger are prominent themes associated with wetland References images. Decay and Sex themes seem related to the abundant decompo- sition and production, or death and life, respectively, in wetlands. (* ¼ novels in coded sample set) Atkins, W. (2018). A journey into Pip's world of ‘Great Expectations’. New York Times (11 Darkness, night, confusion, treacherous sediments, dangerous animals, November), TR7. sickness, decay, and death emerged from Brick’s (1981) analysis of the Barr, N. (1998). Endangered species. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. * ‘swamp’ in literature, and he equated this to the genre of Gothic fiction Batzer, D. P., Rader, R. B., & Wissinger, S. W. (1999). Invertebrates in freshwater wetlands of North America: Ecology and management. New York: John Wiley & Sons. which he considered appealing to the imagination. Wetland images are Bernard, H. R. (2006). Research methods in anthropology (4th ed.). Maryland, USA: also evidently used as literary devices to set scenes, transition from one Altamira Press. environment to another, and provide dramatic tension. Perhaps this is Boffey, P. (2014). Two half brothers, or separating out. Published by the author. related to the often sharp boundaries between wetlands and other en- Borthwick, J. S. (1983). The case of the hook-billed kites. New York, USA: Penguin Books. Boyle, T. C. (1990). East is East. New York, USA: Penguin Books. * vironments, especially those drier places more readily habitable by Brick, A. R., Jr. (1981). The virgin swamp: A chorography of a primeval environment in the humans. In novels, wetlands often function as refuges for people or New World. PhD thesis. Cornell University. certain behaviors, including displaced and marginalized human groups Buell, L. (1995). The environmental imagination. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. & Buell, L. (2001). Writing for an endangered world. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University. (e.g., Van Assche, Bell, Teampau, 2012), analogous to how some Burke, J. L. (1965). Half of paradise. New York, USA: Hyperion. wetland species that tolerate the ecologically harsh environment (e.g., Chambers, J. M., Cleveland, W. S., Kleiner, B., & Tukey, P. A. (1983). Graphical methods & flooding, anaerobic soils) find refuge from competition or other adverse for data analysis. New York: Chapman Hall. fi Chappell, H. (1996). Slow dancing with the angel of death. New York, USA: Fawcett Gold interspeci c interactions. Medal. Perceptions of local people are relevant to management policy (e.g., Cohen, M. (2013). Introduction: Anthropological aspects of the novel. In M. Cohen (Ed.), Torres-Lima, Conway-Gomez, & Buentello-Sanchez, 2018) and conser- Novel Approaches to Anthropology: Contributions to Literary Anthropology. Lanham, & Maryland: Lexington Books. vation scientists need to understand emic viewpoints (Van Assche, Bell, Conroy, P. (1986). Prince of Tides. Toronto, Canada: Bantam Books. Teampau, 2012). Questions can be asked about how representation of Corbin, A. (1994). The lure of the sea. Berkeley: University of California Press. Transl. from wetlands in fiction affects readers’ attitudes towards wetlands, either by French; first published 1988. Davis, R. (1942). Hudson Bay Express. New York, USA: Holiday House. communicating negative associations or educating readers to wetland Dionne, K. (2017). The Marsh King's daughter. New York, USA: G.P. Putnam’s Sons. beauty and resources. Different persons, of course, hold different atti- Dobbie, M., & Green, R. (2013). Public perceptions of freshwater wetlands in Victoria, tudes towards wetlands, and how people perceive wetlands may differ Australia. Landscape and Urban Planning, 110, 143–154. from how wetlands are managed (Dobbie & Green, 2013). Analysis of Enright, E. (1957). Gone-away lake. New York, USA: Harcourt, Brace and World. Erdrich, L. (1988). Tracks. New York, USA: Harper & Row. * imagery in fiction could further our understanding of public attitudes and Etikan, I., Musa, S. A., & Alkassim, R. S. (2016). Comparison of convenience sampling and resistance to conservation and management of wetlands. Sociopolitically purposive sampling. American Journal of Theoretical and Applied Statistics, 5,1–4. ambivalent attitudes to nature are partly based in current and historic Faulkner, W. (1927). Mosquitoes. New York, USA: Dell Publishing Co. * Gabaldon, D. (2009). An echo in the bone. New York, USA: Bantam Books. ecological realities of predation, competition, disease, and Gearey, M., Church, A., & Ravenscroft, N. (2020). English wetlands. Switzerland: Springer physical-chemical constraints on human activities and wellbeing. Nature. This experimental examination of literary ecology suggests some Gentile, G. (1989). The lurking. New York, USA: Charter Books. * Giblett, R. (1996). Postmodern wetlands: Culture, history, ecology. Edinburgh, UK: additional studies beyond analysis of a larger, random sample of novels. Edinburgh University Press. It would be interesting to compare fictional imagery of wetlands, forests, Giblett, R. (2016). Cities and wetlands: The return of the repressed in nature and culture. mountains, deserts, and other environments. Another offshoot would be London, UK: Bloomsbury Publishing. Glasgow, V. L. (1991). A social history of the American alligator. New York, USA: St. a comparison of wetland imagery in American and British novels. 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