Literature is the Best Tool of Awaking Moral Understanding and Evaluation: Wendell Berry’s The Long-Legged House

Abstract:

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The researcher examines Wendell Berry’s The Long-Legged House (1969) and addresses his  engagement with the interlocking bonds between ecological degradation and socioeconomic, psychological, and spiritual disorientations through literature; the researcher also explores Berry’s critiques of the dynamics and implications of environmental racism along with his depiction of his locale, concepts of home and community, history, mythology, tradition, , and the vivisectional imperatives of capitalism and imperialism that have wreaked havoc upon his home place.  These contested terrains have suffered the ramifications of environmental discrimination, which targets them for toxic strip-mining projects.  Throughout this paper, the researcher essentially applies environmental-justice approaches, but also refers to theories of global capitalism, and deep ecology, as they are all intertwined through their search for alternative forms of eco-resistance.  Hence, I build on critiques by such scholars as Murphy, Buell, Cornell, and Roach, among others, to provide the ideological, hermeneutical, socio-political, and aesthetic filters through which the nonfiction essay can be given fresh and original examinations.  This theoretical synthesis cements my corroboration that global capitalism and maldevelopment go hand in hand with imperialism and androcentrism, constituting an intricate nexus of hegemonies.