Agriculture In US Literature

Abstract

US literature is inseparable from the nation's history and culture. In this chapter, the author contextualizes literature and agriculture in the United States, briefly modeling readings of agricultural in four authors from the nineteenth, twentieth, and twenty-first centuries: Henry David Thoreau, Charles Chesnutt, Willa Cather, and Robin Wall Kimmerer. The development of the United States and its earliest rationale for expansion involved the concept of Jeffersonian agrarianism, an ideal of small-scale farmers who produced and consumed most of their own foods. Stories of farms and other forms of agriculture continue to gain in significance as part of the field of US literary criticism. Carolyn Korsmeyer appreciates the importance of "agricultural resources and animal use" in the "development of eating patterns and hence the taste preferences" of cultures across the globe.

Department(s)

English and Technical Communication

Keywords and Phrases

Agricultural resources; Animal use; Charles Chesnutt; Henry David Thoreau; Jeffersonian agrarianism; Robin Wall Kimmerer; US literary criticism; US literature; Willa Cather

International Standard Book Number (ISBN)

978-111963222-1

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2025 Wiley, All rights reserved.

Publication Date

20 May 2022

Link to Full Text

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