The Geographical Imagination of Annie Proulx
Rethinking Regionalism
EDITED BY ALEX HUNT
LEXINGTON BOOKS A division of ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS, INC. Lanham • Boulder • New York • Toronto • Plymouth, UK Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction The Insistence of Geography in the Writing of Annie Proulx Alex Hunt I
ORIENTATIONS
The Influence of theAnnales School on Annie Proulx's Geographical Imagination Stephanie Durrans 11
Proulx and the Postmodern Hyperreal Margaret E. Johnson 25
Drinking the Elixir of Ownership: Pilgrims and Improvers in the Landscapes of Annie Proulx's That Old Ace in the Hole and The Shipping News Christian Hummelsund Voie 39
Postnational United States Regional Hinterlands: Proulx's Ethnic Working-Class Communities in Accordion Crimes Douglas Werden 51
GEOGRAPHIES
Born Under a Bad Sign: The Question of Geographical Determinism in the Hardscrabble Northern Borderlands of Heart Songs and Other Stories Hal Crimmel 63
The Corpse in the Stone Wall: Annie Proulx's Ironic New England Kent C. Ryden 73
"All the qualities o' th' isle": The Shipping News as Island Myth Paul Chafe 87
VII viii Table of Contents
Annie Proulx's Wyoming: Geographical Determinism, Landscape, and Caricature O. Alan Weltzien 99
Westward Proulx: The Resistant Landscapes of Close Range: Wyoming Stories and That Old Ace in the Hole Elizabeth Abele 113
DIRECTIONS
Landed Bodies: Geography and Disability in The Shipping News Jennifer Denise Ryan 127
The Location of Immigration: Itinerant Communities and Cultural Hybridity in Annie Proulx's Accordion Crimes Bonnie Roos 141
Brokeback Mountain as Progressive Narrative and Cinematic Vision: Landscape, Emotion, and the Denial of Domesticity Christopher Pullen 15 5
Capitalism vs. Localism: Economies of Scale in Annie Proulx's Postcards and That Old Ace in the Hole Wes Berry 169
The Ecology of Narrative: Annie Proulx's That Old Ace in the Hole as Critical Regionalist Fiction Alex Hunt 183
Afterword Red Desert: The History of a Place, and Annie Proulx as Environmental Historian Dan Flores 197
Bibliography 201
Index 211
Contributors 215