Project Director

Coons, Jayda

Department Examiner

Babine, Karen, 1978-; Quinlan, Catherine Meeks

Department

Dept. of English

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

Joan Didion’s work is heavily regional and rooted in place, whether that be the place about which she writes or, by contrast, the place she leaves in order to do her writing. This place-based context takes root in many American ideologies and mythos, like that of the frontier mentality and golden dream. For this reason, exploring Didion’s use of natural metaphor and description as she discusses various cultural phenomena is essential to understanding the layers of her social critiques of 1960’s and 1970’s American culture, especially as they reflect on the failures of the frontier ideology. Further, looking at her implementation of ecological imagery and metaphor in her nonfiction writing provides readers with another lens through which to interpret Didion’s nonfiction reporting. The natural details she layers into her places and people in place reinforce her representation of social order and disorder, and with this, her representation of American culture, and thus her criticism of it is made ever powerful and prevalent.

Acknowledgments

I extend my utmost gratitude to any and all who guided and assisted me in the process of writing this thesis, especially my committee, and most especially my director, Dr. Jayda Coons. Her guidance is both inspiring and inextricable to this project and my time at UTC.

Degree

B. A.; An honors thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Bachelor of Arts.

Date

5-2025

Subject

Ecocriticism in literature; Ecoliterature, American; Frontier thesis; Place (Philosophy) in literature

Name

Didion, Joan. Works. Selections--Criticism and interpretation

Keyword

Joan Didion; Creative nonfiction; ecological literary criticism; Place studies; American frontiers; the golden dream

Discipline

Literature in English, North America

Document Type

Theses

Extent

iv, 56 leaves

DCMI Type

Text

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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