University of Louisville ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository Electronic Theses and Dissertations 8-2010 Rachel Carson and nature as resource, object and spirit : identification, consubstantiality, and multiple stakeholders in the environmental rhetoric of the conservation in action series. Cynthia E. Britt University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.library.louisville.edu/etd Recommended Citation Britt, Cynthia E., "Rachel Carson and nature as resource, object and spirit : identification, consubstantiality, and multiple stakeholders in the environmental rhetoric of the conservation in action series." (2010). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 154. https://doi.org/10.18297/etd/154 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ThinkIR: The University of Louisville's Institutional Repository. This title appears here courtesy of the author, who has retained all other copyrights. For more information, please contact [email protected]. RACHEL CARSON AND NATURE AS RESOURCE, OBJECT, AND SPIRIT: IDENTIFICATION, CONSUBSTANTIALITY, AND MULTIPLE STAKEHOLDERS IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL RHETORIC OF THE CONSERVATION IN ACTION SERIES By Cynthia E. Britt B.A., Western Kentucky University, 2000 M.A., Western Kentucky University, 2003 A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Louisville in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of English University of Louisville Louisville, Kentucky August 2010 ----------------------~------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- RACHEL CARSON AND NATURE AS RESOURCE, OBJECT, AND SPIRIT: IDENTIFICATION, CONSUBSTANTIALITY, AND MULTIPLE STAKEHOLDERS IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL RHETORIC OF THE CONSERVATION IN ACTION SERIES By Cynthia E. Britt B.A., Western Kentucky University, 2000 M.A., Western Kentucky University, 2003 A Dissertation Approved on August 6,2010 by the following Dissertation Committee: Diss~rtation IDtrecto'r ii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to the memory of Gerald A. Embry (1941-2008) iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the members of my dissertation committee for their help completing this project. Beth Boehm, the first person I met at the University of Louisville, started me on this journey. Susan Ryan has assisted me and given advice whenever I have needed it, and I especially appreciate her guidance with the grant application process. I have been fortunate to work with Paul Griner, who is unfailingly supportive and encouraging. Louie Ulman, before he was a member of this committee, was an interested and knowledgeable reader, and I am grateful for his help and willingness to be part of this project. Finally, I want to thank my dissertation director, Debra Journet. Without her belief in me and in the value of my work, this project certainly would not have come to fruition. I have benefitted from her wisdom and her scholarship. The University of Louisville has supported this project in multiple ways, but I would particularly like to thank the Judith Bonnie Endowment for funding my travel and archival research. I would also like to thank Graduate Advisor, Karen Kopelson, for her help in obtaining 2010 summer funding. Many people have taken the time to assist me during this project. Mark Madison, U.s. Fish and Wildlife Service Historian, and Anne Roy, U.s. Fish and Wildlife Service National Conservation Training Center Librarian, have patiently answered questions and helped me locate documents associated with Carson's tenure at Fish and Wildlife. iv Author Linda Lear has offered me encouragement and advice throughout this process. Her definitive biography of Carson is the foundation for the Carson scholarship that has followed. I would especially like to thank David Klinger, National Conservation Training Center Senior Writer-Editor, for his continued support and interest in this project and his help with archival research at the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library and at the National Archives Records Administration in College Park, Maryland. He made the journeys both more fruitful and enjoyable. I would like to thank the women whose friendship and encouragement have helped me finish this project: Jane Fife, Stephanie Fleischer, Marya Waters, and Joanna Wolfe. I also want to thank my family for their support during this project. My husband, John, has been my partner through the good times and the difficult ones. His strength is my foundation. I thank my children, Katherine and Jonathan, who are my main reasons for finishing. I feel confident knowing the future of our planet is in capable hands such as theirs. My parents, Gerald and Freda Embry, went to college as non-traditional students, juggling family responsibilities, jobs, and school. Through them I learned the value of hard work and the importance of being a life-long learner. My satisfaction in finishing this project is greater because my mother is here to share it. v ABSTRACT RACHEL CARSON AND NATURE AS RESOURCE, OBJECT, AND SPIRIT: IDENTIFICATION, CONSUBSTANTIALITY, AND MULTIPLE STAKEHOLDERS IN THE ENVIRONMENTAL RHETORIC OF THE CONSERVA TION IN ACTION SERIES Cynthia E. Britt August 6, 2010 This project examines the Conservation in Action series, twelve texts produced by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) from 1947-1957 and developed and written by Rachel Carson and other agency employees. She developed the series to publicize the refuge service and conservation work, and I specifically focus on the first two booklets in the series, Chincoteague: A National Wildlife Refuge and Parker River: A National Wildlife Refuge, which argue the need for waterfowl sanctuaries. I analyze the texts as early examples of government environmental rhetoric produced by Carson, author of Silent Spring. For the analysis I use four lenses: Killingsworth and Palmer's environmental perspectives, Herndl and Brown's environmental discourse categories, Aristotelian proofs, and Carson's subject positions as government employee, scientist, and naturalist. My analysis suggests that Carson's construction of arguments and evidence in these texts illustrates the potential for environmental discourse to 1) contain appeals for both specific and wide audiences, 2) incorporate multiple ways of talking about the environment, and 3) address the needs of many stakeholders. Adding to Carson vi scholarship and critiques of modem environmental discourse, I specifically argue that using a combination of ethos, logos, and pathos is rhetorically powerful and that current environmental discourse must incorporate emotional appeals not depending only on jeremiad, apocalyptic, or overly emotional language. Chapter 1 reviews current environmental rhetoric scholarship, analyses of governmental environmental texts, and critiques of environmental discourse; it also explores environmental communication models, Burke's theory of identification and consubstantiality, and current Carson scholarship. Chapter 2 explains background information about the USFWS, Carson, her involvement with the agency, and the creation and content of the CIA series. Chapter 3 analyzes how Carson constructs nature through the discourse of resource and of science and incorporates ethical and logical proofs, specifically arguing Carson's use of the language of commerce and the language of conservation science. Chapter 4 analyzes Carson's construction of nature as spirit and her use of multiple pathetic appeals in her call for conservation support. Chapter 5 briefly examines two recent examples of environmental discourse in light of the project's discussion. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................. .iv ABSTRACT .................................................................................................vi LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................... .ix INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 1 .................................................................................................. 12 CHAPTER 2 ..................................................................................................54 CHAPTER 3 ..................................................................................................80 CHAPTER 4 ................................................................................................ 116 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................ 144 REFERENCES ......... : ................................................................................... 156 APPENDICES ............................................................................................. 165 CURRICULUM VITAE .................................................................................... 167 viii LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE 1. Killingsworth and Palmer's Continuum of Perspectives on the Environment... ..41 2. Adaption of Hemdl and Brown's Environmental Discourse Model. ............... .45 3. Consubstantiality in the CIA texts ............................................................ 51 4. Sign of the Flying