Degree Name

MALS (Master of Arts in Liberal Studies)

Program

Liberal Studies

Date of Award

12-2011

Committee Chair or Co-Chairs

Jill LeRoy-Frazier

Committee Members

Theresa A. Lloyd, Marie Tedesco

Abstract

This thesis examines Fielding Burke's Call Home the Heart, Grace Lumpkin's To Make My Bread, and Myra Page's Gathering Storm through the lens of ecofeminism, an interdisciplinary theory that contributes the necessary insight into the link between the abuse of power on personal, political, and economic levels that underlies the human oppression and environmental exploitation experienced by the novels' characters and communities. A resurrection of the Gastonia novels through the framework of ecofeminism will contribute to the scholarly discourse regarding this maturing theory as well as intensify the critical body of work concerning the Gastonia novels themselves.

This thesis, in conjunction with the works of instrumental Appalachian scholars, literary critics, and historians as well as major landmark texts in the field of ecofeminism such as Kathy Warren's Ecofeminism: Women, Culture, Nature and Greta Gaard's Ecofeminism: Women, Animals, Nature, purposes to advance the critical standing of the Gastonia novels.

Document Type

Thesis - unrestricted

Copyright

Copyright by the authors.

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