Redefining the Self: Depicting Nature and the Construction of Identity in the Poetry of Anne Michaels and John Steffler by Breanna Keeler Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts (English) Acadia University Fall Graduation 2013 © by Breanna Keeler, 2013 ii This thesis by Breanna Keeler was defended successfully in an oral examination on __________________________________ The examining committee for the thesis was: __________________________________ Susan Boddie, Chair __________________________________ Dr. Carrie Dawson, External Reader __________________________________ Dr. Herb Wylie, Internal Reader __________________________________ Dr. Lance LaRocque, Supervisor __________________________________ Dr. John Eustace, Department Head This thesis is accepted in its present form by the Division of Research and Graduate Studies as satisfying the thesis requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (English). __________________________________ iii I, Breanna Keeler, grant permission to the University Librarian at Acadia University to reproduce, loan or distribute copies of my thesis in microform, paper or electronic formats on a non-profit basis. I, however, retain the copyright in my thesis. __________________________________ Author __________________________________ Supervisor __________________________________ Date iv Table of Contents Abstract v Introduction 1 Chapter One Relationships 20 Chapter Two Discourses on Nature 44 Chapter Three History and Memory 81 Conclusion 104 Works Cited 106 v Abstract This thesis utilizes ecocritical and ecofeminist theory to compare the depictions of landscape presented in the poetry of John Steffler and Anne Michaels and examine the consequences of these depictions in terms of the formation of personal identity. Chapter One employs ecofeminist views on the connection between the treatment of women and treatment of nature to provide a framework in which to examine the interpersonal relationships depicted in the poems. Chapter Two explores the discourses on nature that Steffler and Michaels employ in their works. Steffler operates out of a discourse based on dominance and hierarchy in which the self is defined in opposition to nonhuman nature. Michaels, alternatively, works with a discourse based on connection and therefore the self is defined in concert with nonhuman nature in her works. Chapter Three examines the ways that Steffler and Michaels’ narrators interact with history as contained in both human constructions and the nonhuman landscape. In both Steffler and Michaels’ philosophies, history and memory play an important role in creating personal identity. For Steffler, history primarily consists of facts and figures, while for Michaels it primarily consists of narrative. Steffler’s narrators distance themselves from the history they find in nonhuman nature, preferring to engage with and define themselves by way of the history they find in human-made structures. Michaels’ narrators acknowledge history found in human-made structures, but engage far more frequently with history found in nonhuman nature. Ultimately, Michaels creates an alternative to the traditional approach to the human-nonhuman relationship which is demonstrated in Steffler’s works. 1 INTRODUCTION Poetic works about nonhuman nature do not simply reveal the poet’s view of the physical world, for when poets write about nature they are often writing about humans. Both John Steffler and Anne Michaels write poetry which in its depictions of nonhuman nature is also about human nature. Whether directly addressing and depicting particular landscapes — such as Groais Island in Steffler’s The Grey Islands — or writing poetry about other topics, both Steffler and Michaels produce works saturated in natural imagery, and, through this imagery, reveal information about how personal identity is formed in their works. Their poetic works take two opposite approaches to depicting landscape and defining the self through the human relationship with nonhuman nature, and these approaches arise from attitudes toward interpersonal relationships. Steffler attempts to redefine the human relationship with nature, but ultimately remains loyal to what I will call, following Marilyn McKay, “the nomadic concept of territory” which “focuses on wilderness land and the active processes of conquest and penetration” (5) and defines the self in opposition to nature1. The term “nomadic” is freighted with many problematic connotations, particularly when it is considered in postcolonial terms where it is typically used to pejoratively refer to the indigenous people of a colonized country who do not occupy a fixed space that aligns with the European conception of “home.” However, in this thesis, the term is instead being used to speak about the European attitude toward nature, one which is based on conquest and the subduing of nonhuman 1 The understanding of the term “nomadic” that will be used in this thesis is not related to Gilles Deleuze’s well-known sense of the word. Instead, I am adopting this term from art history, and using it to describe a particular way of viewing the nonhuman natural world which focuses on conquest and the subduing of nonhuman nature. 2 nature. Michaels successfully redefines this paradigm, basing the human-nonhuman relationship on connection and interdependence. This thesis will explore the ways in which these two attitudes are established and revealed by way of the depiction of relationships, discourses on nature, and the treatment of history and memory. John Steffler has published six collections of poetry: An Explanation of Yellow (1981), The Grey Islands (1985, 2000), The Wreckage of Play (1988), That Night We Were Ravenous (1998), Helix: new and selected poems (2002), and Lookout (2010). He also published a novel, The Afterlife of George Cartwright, in 1992. Critical attention to Steffler’s work mostly focuses on The Afterlife of George Cartwright, while critics largely ignore his poetry collections. The Grey Islands, his best-known poetic work, has only been addressed in a single article, Adam Beardsworth’s “The Natural’s Not in It: Postcolonial Wilderness in Steffler’s The Grey Islands,” and Alexandra Gilbert’s 2010 Master’s Thesis from Acadia University. In this thesis I will be focusing on The Grey Islands. This book-length poem tells the story of an unnamed speaker who leaves an unfulfilling job as a town planner, sends his wife and children to Toronto for the summer, and travels to the Grey Islands off the coast of Newfoundland, intending to spend his summer in solitude on a now-deserted island in order to search for his personal identity in the context of the wilderness. I will also comment on a selection of poems from Steffler’s other collections that address nature in a similar way and demonstrate the same attitude toward nature and its relationship to personal identity. Steffler’s poetry attempts to move away from the depictions of landscape that, as we will see, traditionally characterize nature writing in order to participate in an 3 ecocritical conversation which avoids both an idealization of nature and an anthropocentric viewpoint that requires the domination of nonhuman nature by humans. Although Steffler achieves a modicum of success in this regard, his work ultimately falls short of a complex ecocritical position. In order to move away from a pastoral ideal, Steffler adopts a position which sees the landscape as something that must be confronted and conquered. However, the self is still defined through place and one’s relationship with it. Steffler says in an interview with Ian Ferrier at the 2007 Words Aloud Spoken Word Festival in Durham, Ontario, that he is particularly interested in the connection between place and the self and intrigued by “the way we have an impact on our environment and the way a particular kind of environment in which people live — both the natural and the human-created environment, cultural environment as well as natural environment — the way that influences our lives” (Steffler, “Steffler Interview”). He reiterates this fascination with place in an interview with Maria Jesús Hernáez Lerena in the Winter 2012 issue of Arc. He tells Lerena that “[p]lace is one of the most fundamental givens that shapes who we are” (83). Consequently his poetry is often an “investigation of place and the history of place” (Steffler, “Steffler Interview”) and the way in which the self is created through these elements. Recognizing a connection between the environment and the self forms an important step toward an ecocritical stance such as the one articulated by Glen Love or Carolyn Merchant2, and Steffler even 2 The understanding of ecocriticism outlined by Glen Love in “Revaluing Nature: Toward an Ecological Criticism” is well-articulated and thus helps inform the ecocritical theory I will be using. Similarly, Carolyn Merchant’s ecofeminist writings, especially The Death of Nature, Radical Ecology, and Earthcare, are central to the understanding of ecofeminism I employ in this study. 4 makes gestures toward the possibility of defining the self in connection with nature, but his poetry remains firmly attached to the nomadic mindset. Attitudes toward the relationship between humans and nonhuman nature stem from attitudes toward the relationship between men and women. Ecofeminism, particularly what Carolyn Merchant calls cultural ecofeminism, argues that “women and nature have been mutually associated and devalued in Western culture” (Merchant,