The Wild and the Domestic: Animal Representation, Ecocriticism, and Western American Literature

by Barney Nelson

This book provides a challenging look at current feminist criticism as well as ecocriticism and the burgeoning literature of the environment. Barney Nelson is widely considered one of the most original and innovative scholars at work in the field today. She offers unique views of the domestic qualities of many wild animals as well as the wildness in domesticated species often witnessed by those who live close to the land, as she and her family have...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0874173477
• ISBN13: 9780874173475
• Release Date: June 2000
• Publisher: University of Nevada Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.2" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

effulgent effluvia of earth

It is not often, in my experience, one has the opportunity to say, "I read the most sharply fascinating book about cows this past weekend." Not that I said this sort of thing after reading this book, but I could have. Barney Nelson performs at minimum two premier services for her readers. First, she reopens the cow case, teasing into gray complexity the traditional assignation of cows to the realm of domestic beasts. Second, Nelson continues a rehabilitation of fame for the early twentieth century writer of the West, Mary Austin.(This rehabilitation comes at the expense of John Muir over the issue of sheep herding and lambing.) Truly, after reading this book I think it is curious that the remarkable Austin is in need of reputation refurbishment in American letters. The glory continues with the author adding a raucously noble essay on her own life. Nelson also contributes a fine essay on Ed Abbey's reading and suggested usage of Mary Austin's desert book. At last, I mention the political concerns churned up by Nelson's hearty ploughing. Much about land management, grazing rights, and habitat change finds sensible reappraisal. I do not have the expertise or experience to evaluate the suggestions of the author on this matter, but I find her suggestion of interest, that the government policies based on the research programs of some scientists are quite possibly informed by an erring sense of healthy land use and a mistaken foundational origin for the data they interpret. Overall, this book of essays wafts thoughtful chips into the air with relatively little theoretical marsh.

Domestic vs. Wild -- some new ideas that INCLUDE women

Nelson is a creative thinker and fresh voice injecting new ways of looking at the environment, women's place in nature, and ultimately how to reconcile our dependence upon domestic livestock. By delving into works of Thoreau, John Muir, Jack London, Ed Abbey, and the lone female voice of Mary Austin, Nelson shows how our thinking about the wild, the domestic environment, and the place of men and women in both has been shaped by assumptions that are not true. I enjoyed this book very much--there are lots of new ideas to consider, as well as plenty of research to back up Nelson's points. She writes clearly and smoothly, and is not afraid to tackle ideas that westerners have misunderstood for too long, livestock grazing for one. I was not at all familiar with the work of Mary Austin, but thanks to Nelson I can see that she should be widely studied for her environmental writings, particularly pertaining to women's role. All women, all environmentalists, all westerners, should read Nelson's book, it will be the basis for many conversations, if not debates.