Landscape, place and belonging in John Steffler's The Grey Islands
LE3 .A278 2010
2010
La Rocque, Lance
Acadia University
Master of Arts
Masters
English
English & Theatre Studies
In this thesis, I analyze John Steffler’s The Grey Islands through postmodernism, contemporary cultural theory, and pastoralism. In Chapter One, I place The Grey Islands in the context of the contemporary Canadian long poem, articulating the role of the lyric style within this literary form. The speaker’s shift in awareness regarding his own identity in the context of community and the natural landscape is foregrounded, providing a means to contextualize the typically postmodern idea of an individual not having a fixed identity. Chapter Two demonstrates the inherent flaws in the speaker’s ideology through several contemporary cultural theorists, emphasizing issues with consumerism, modernism and the ensuing placelessness that is the basis of contemporary ecocritical theory. In Chapter Three, I investigate the speaker’s perceptions of landscape and rural communities in the context of the pastoral ideal, foregrounding his understanding of the community as existing within, and depending upon, the natural landscape.
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https://scholar.acadiau.ca/islandora/object/theses:152
