Proquest Dissertations

UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY Endangered Borders: Environmental Activism in Three Works of Canadian Creative Non-Fiction by Kathryn Willms A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH CALGARY, ALBERTA JANUARY, 2008 © Kathryn Willms 2008 Library and Bibliotheque et 1*1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-38069-7 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-38069-7 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par Plntemet, prefer, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans loan, distribute and sell theses le monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non sur support microforme, papier, electronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la these ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privee, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont ete enleves de cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. Canada ABSTRACT In this thesis, I examine discourses of activism and environmentalism in three works of Canadian autobiographical creative non-fiction, Ric Careless's To Save the Wild Earth: Field Notes from the Environmental Frontline, Alexandra Morton's Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us, and Sid Marty's Leaning on the Wind: Under the Spell of the Great Chinook. Language and texts play an integral role in determining our relationship with the natural world and each other. Using these texts as guides, I explore the danger of the nature/culture binary and suggest that narrations of the natural environment are inextricably linked to social processes and the exercise of power. I argue that only through a new definition and creation of community can environmental activism avoid perpetuating the very economic, political and cultural discourses that contribute to environmental destruction and truly achieve its goal of "saving the earth." 111 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First of all, I would like to acknowledge the inspiration, support and patience of my supervisor, Dr. Pamela Banting. I would like to thank my committee members - Dr. Tom Wayman and Dr. George Colpitts - for their hard work and spirited engagement with my ideas. I would also like to thank the Department of English at the University of Calgary for its continuing support. I would like to acknowledge SSHRC for its much- appreciated assistance. I presented portions of this thesis at various conferences and the feedback was invaluable to this process. I would like to thank Free Exchange, the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, the Popular Culture Association/American Culture Association, and the Literary Eclectic for giving me the opportunity to present my research. I would like to thank Kara, Oliver and Charlotte for looking after us so often; your generosity is amazing and so appreciated. I would like to acknowledge the amazing ongoing support and sensitivity of my wonderful family throughout this process. Mom, Dad, Dave, Liz, Mike, Rebecca, and Gabrielle, you are now allowed to ask how it is going. IV DEDICATION I would like to dedicate this thesis to two of my favourite people: My brilliant aunt and namesake, Dr. Kathryn Skau (or "AK" if you prefer). I have no words for how much your love and encouragement have meant over the years. And Chris Sinclair, the love of my life and the reason this is finished today. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Approval Page ii Abstract iii Acknowledgments iv Dedication v Table of Contents vi INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE 11 Notes from the Environmental Bottom Line: Valuations of Nature in Ric Careless's To Save the Wild Earth: Field Notes from the Environmental Frontline CHAPTER TWO 36 Surface Tensions: An Activist Vision in Alexandra Morton's Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us CHAPTER THREE 64 Blowing Down the Fences: Activism in Sid Marty's Leaning on the Wind: Under the Spell of the Great Chinook CONCLUSION 94 Works Cited 104 vi 1 Introduction Each of the environmental texts studied in this thesis - Ric Careless's To Save the Wild Earth: Field Notes From the Environmental Frontline, Alexandra Morton's Listening to Whales: What the Orcas Have Taught Us and Sid Marty's Leaning on the Wind: Under the Spell of the Great Chinook-is, in part, an activist manifesto. As such, the elusive and eliding term "activism" is of critical importance to this thesis. The word activism has too often gone unquestioned and undefined in the environmental movement. Within the movement's larger narratives, belief systems and communities, its meaning is continually constructed and legitimized by the context in which it is employed. At present, environmentalism is often viewed as a discourse that exists in opposition to the dominant locations of power in Western society, particularly in opposition to the excesses of capitalist and consumerist culture. In this construction, environmentalism is narrated as a marginalized discourse, which must, in the face of powerful opponents, focus on protecting its political victories rather than theorizing or questioning its underlying ideologies (an admittedly unappealing process given the eagerness of its opponents to exploit any self-consciousness or perceived weakness). As environmental discourse enters mainstream consciousness, it can no longer (if it ever could) be defined as a marginalized discourse. The legitimization and popularity of the movement both confirms the successes of some of environmentalism's discourses and ideologies and demands a serious self- critique in order to keep environmentalism healthy and relevant within rapidly changing political and environmental climates. In his essay "American Literary Environmentalism as Domestic Orientalism," David Mazel argues that environmentalism is "not solely a 2 resistance to power but also an exercise of it" (143). Environmental writers and critics who still wish to prevent serious critical engagement with their underlying assumptions and ideologies increasingly attempt to cut off such inquires with hyperbolic claims of imminent environmental catastrophe. While the possibility of such a catastrophe surely exists, Glen A. Love in 'Revaluing Nature: Toward an Ecological Criticism" demonstrates the dangers of this strategy in his analysis of Leo Marx's engagement with American nature writing: "unfortunately, he continues to underestimate its significance, seeing it only as another in a set of competing political ideologies. Marx does not consider whether the very real loomings of ecological catastrophe preclude pastoral's classification as just another value system" (234). Love refuses to engage with the obviously political nature of environmental writing and invokes the threat of catastrophe in an attempt to stifle criticism that might challenge his and other's ethical stances. In Love's configuration, other value systems are less significant than environmentalism. Not only does this ignore the fact that millions of people around the world are more immediately threatened through systems of racism and colonialism (and it is these systems that are creating environmental destruction in many poor countries through oil and gas exploration and development, genetic engineering of crops, and out-sourced manufacturing), it falsely insinuates that nature writing and environmentalism are involved in moral issues, rather than political ones. I agree with Mazel that the job of the ecocritic should be to ask questions of the environmental and ecocritical movements, questions that speak to their "deeper politics": "What has counted as the environment, and what may count? Who marks off the conceptual boundaries, and under whose authority, 1 See Garret Keizer's distinction between "moral" and "political" issues on page 97. 3 and for what reasons? Have those boundaries and that authority been contested, and if so, by whom? With what success, by virtue of what strategies of resistance?" (143). Because environmentalism acts on behalf of a natural world with no (human) voice or neutral translator to evaluate or challenge the work of its human interlocutors, the movement itself must constantly survey the ideology in which it is lodged (in a productive way, unlike the survey that might be conducted by its detractors) and conduct a close examination of its terms and the actions it supports. Edward Abbey's seductively simple assertion that "We need no more words on the matter. What we need now are heroes. And heroines. About a million of them. One brave deed is worth a thousand books" (152) is a strong rhetorical statement, tapping into grandiose Western notions of bravery and heroism, but it is also naive and misguided. Traditionally, the hero is a character of tragedy, a man who performs great deeds in the face of adversity, "the triumphant image of what man can be" (Meeker 157). However, Joseph W.

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