Kris Meller

ENG 680

Dr. Van Noy

September 29, 2000

An Exploration of the Appalachian People in Relation to Their Environment:

Contexts of Inner and Outer Space In The Poetics of Appalachian Space

Anyone even vaguely familiar with the culture of the Appalachian people realizes the importance of place in the lives of these unique and honorable people. This powerful connection encompasses not only an attachment to the oneiric house, as presented by Bachelard, but also an eternal belonging to the mountains of Appalachia. In other words, when an Appalachian travels the mental journey “home,” he not only returns to his birth “house,” but also to the broader surroundings of his home environment. Authors from Appalachia present contrasting views of the “inner” and “outer” space of the Appalachian people. Some portray the inner spaces of houses and cabins as security and comfort, with the outer world as threatening and lonesome. Others, however, depict the house as confining and restraining, with the outside representing freedom and release. In The Poetics of Appalachian Space, edited by Parks Lanier, Jr., various authors offer their interpretations of Bachelard’s Poetics of Space in relation to the literature of Appalachia. Bachelard seems to address the “inner” or psychic space of individuals, but when his theories are explored in the context of Appalachian literature, an interesting dichotomy emerges. Although the usefulness of this book as an ecocritical resource may be somewhat limited, the individual essays may prove a valuable starting point for someone analyzing one of the texts discussed.

In his introduction, Lanier introduces the reader to the premise of his collection and its connection with Bachelard’s Poetics of Space.

Individually and collectively, the sixteen essays in this volume exemplify the process of eidetic reduction which Bachelard employs in The Poetics of Space.

At once simple but complex, eidetic reduction seeks to lead the reader to a sense of the eidos, the Idea, the Essence underlying particularities being discussed (Lanier, 2).

In simpler terms, the collection offers the reader interpretations of common images used in Appalachian literature, the connection of the characters to these images, and the broader implications of these relationships. Although the majority of the essays address the inner spaces of house and psyche, some do offer insight into the outer space, or environment, of Appalachia, also.

Following the suggestion of the editor, the reader begins at the end of the collection with the essay, “Daydreaming Primal Space,” by Marilou Awiakta. This essay offers the reader a broad sense of the unique connection between the Appalachian environment and its inhabitants through which the reader can then view the more specific images presented in other essays. Awiakta portrays Appalachian space as a “web” with its inhabitants the “spinners” (Lanier 196). The people of Appalachia become a part of nature’s web; thus people and place are intertwined. She speaks of the Appalachian mountains as playing an integral part in the lives of those who have lived there. “Mountains teach you to face the realities of life, to ‘abide in your own soul’ – and survive” (Lanier 201). Through these words, Awiakta makes the connection with Bachelard’s inner space. The people of Appalachia carry the mountains within them, wherever they may go, and accordingly live by the valuable lessons taught by their “home” environment.

A similar connection to this “homeplace” is offered in Amy Tipton Gray’s essay, “Fred Chappel’s I Am One of You Forever: The Oneiros of Childhood Transformed.” In addition to Chappel’s work, Gray also discusses the poetry of Jim Wayne Miller, offering an ecocritical perspective similar to that of Awiakta. Miller, in his poem, “The Brier Sermon,” appeals to his readers to go home again. Taken in a figurative sense, Miller’s words provoke the reader to return to his “homeland,” at least in his mind, and recapture the virtue of his beginnings.

Don Johnson, in his essay, “The Appalachian Homeplace As Oneiric House,” also discusses Miller’s poetry from a somewhat ecocritical perspective. First, Johnson presents the reader with a unique perspective of the Appalachian in relation to his environment. When people move away from their places of birth, most feel separated by time and somewhat nostalgic for their “homeland.” Appalachians, however, feel a deep loss and a sense of dislocation that is seldom fully overcome. According to Johnson, Appalachians do not take comfort in “cultural evolution,” and never lose their attachment to their native mountains (Lanier 41). In Johnson’s essay, the reader is also first introduced to the interesting dichotomy of “inner” and “outer” space, with inner space being represented by the “house.” In Miller’s poetry, house becomes a metaphor for life. The stability of the house reflects an inner stability upon which the inhabitant can build a new life. His “poems measure the distance he has come from the homeplace and record the losses he has incurred as a result of his journey” (Lanier 42). Thus, the inner space of the house represents virtue and stability and the outer space of new environments represent a separation from this goodness and strength.

This theme of the virtue of inner space and birth environment in contrast with the “evil” of the outer world is also addressed in Ron Willoughby’s essay, “The Nest: Images of Lost Intimacy.” Willoughby begins with a discussion of James Still’s “The Nest,” in which the main character, as a result of her stepmother’s lack of concern, cannot find her way when confronted with a choice between various paths. She eventually dies in an abandoned rabbit’s nest. In this story, the outer world reflects an indecipherable maze for this character resulting in her eventual demise. Willoughby draws a parallel between the character in this story and the people of Appalachia. World War II and the growing coal mining business caused many Appalachians to leave their native mountains, feeling like stepchildren. In the cities that they eventually migrated to, the roads reflected the maze of paths in Still’s story. The Appalachian people had been forced to leave the “inner space” of their native mountains, and became lost in the unfamiliar and unwelcoming outer world. The contrasting dichotomy of “inner” and “outer” space begins to emerge, however, in Willoughby’s discussion of The Dollmaker, by Harriette Arnow. In this novel, the main character remains attached to the “inner space” of her native Kentucky mountains, making her new surroundings in Detroit seem hostile. Her husband, on the other hand, had viewed the Appalachian environment as confining and restricting, and he thrived in his new surroundings.

Lois Lanier, in her essay, “The Many Mansions of James Agee,” also portrays this inversion of the typical perception of “inner” and “outer” space. In her discussion of James Agees’s A Death in the Family, she states, “Agee’s images of outside space expand the awareness of self into the larger world, and return to concentrate and emphasize those expanded images once more in the individual” (Lanier 106). The outside images portrayed in Agee’s work imply that the individual can become one with the many images of the “outer” world, but will only find loneliness if he remains in his “inner” space at the center of a “cohesive whole” (Lanier 108). This portrayal provides an interesting contrast to those authors who stress the importance of “inner” space above all else.

This confinement of “inner” space is also discussed in Parks Lanier, Jr.’s essay, “Psychic Space in Lee Smith’s Black Mountain Breakdown.” In his discussion of Smith’s novel, Lanier portrays the character of Crystal as turning her “inner” space into the cocoon of a spider. Unlike Awiakta’s “web” image, however, Smith’s image is one of darkness and hiding. Crystal is unable to escape from this “inner” space in which she has submerged herself. When she observes the mist of the New River Valley, where she briefly attends college, she is only able to view it in relation to her own cocoon, as a characteristic reflecting her inner space. Eventually, this stagnation in inner space leads to Crystal’s “breakdown,” her ultimate escape into her own world.

The reader is presented with somewhat of a resolution to this dichotomy of “inner” and “outer” space in the Jim Gage’s essay, “The ‘Poetics of Space’ in Wilma Dykeman’s The Tall Woman.” According to Gage, Dykeman’s novel portrays many images of nature as conveying a sense of shelter, safety, and well-being. The characters movements are often toward safety and peace, which contrasts with the hostile images of the outer world portrayed by other authors. Gage offers an interpretation, however, that serves to resolve the conflicting images of inner and outer space. In Dykeman’s novel, there is a well-worn path between the main character’s house and her favorite place in nature. This path serves as a connection between Lydia’s “inner space” and the immense space of “outside.” Dykeman does not portray either space as better or more essential than the other; rather she presents both as necessary to Lydia’s whole existence. Although the Appalachian people’s connection to their “homeland” or “inner space” is incredibly strong, Dykeman seems to suggest that an acceptance and even an embracing of the goodness in the outside world are essential for a healthy existence.

Obviously, the volume of literature covered in this collection cannot be justifiably reviewed in this short a space. However, when approached from an ecocritical perspective, The Poetics of Appalachian Space seems to offer two main themes running throughout the many essays: the intense connection of Appalachians to their home environment and the dichotomy that these people experience involving their “inner” and “outer” space. The collection seems to move away from the typical discussion of region in Appalachian literature, and toward an understanding of the interaction between the Appalachian people and their environments, both inner and outer. In Lanier’s words, “Appalachia has produced a literature which has as much to do with interior – and by extension, intellectual – space as with exterior or physical space” (Lanier 1). Through this collection, the reader is given a profound glimpse into both the “interior,” or inner space, and the “exterior,” or outer space of the characters in Appalachian literature.

Works Cited

Lanier, Jr., Parks, ed. The Poetics of Appalachian Space. Knoxville: The University of

Tennessee Press, 1991.