Abstract

As Greg Garrard stresses, “[i]nterpretation and critique of the various inflections of dwelling is a major task for ecocritics interested in a predominantly political, rather than moral or spiritual, project of cultural critique that can take us beyond pastoral and nature writing, from the landscapes of leisure to the uneven terrain of real work”. In this paper, I will examine American literary texts dealing with representations of dwelling or “home” as a refuge from the “tensions” or problems caused by modern civilisation and technology. Starting with Thoreau’s Walden, I will focus on the relationships between such refuges, the natural environment, and socio-political critique. Indeed, Thoreau’s work displays a philosophy on nature and dwelling that has influenced other writers to ponder on the negative effects that modern technologies, capitalism and consumerism have had on the human self and, more largely, on our physical environment. Adopting an ecocritical perspective, I will therefore consider Thoreau’s stay in Walden Pond as well as Edward Abbey’s house trailer, Christopher McCandless’s “magic bus” as depicted in Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild or Ken Ilgunas’s “vandwelling” to study the socio-political and environmental concerns raised by dwelling experiences in such peculiar or isolated “homes”. Finally, I will also briefly discuss the Native American perspective through an analysis of Leslie Marmon Silko’s novel Ceremony as an example of the Laguna Pueblo’s perception of nature or the “land” as “home”.