In The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Idea in America, Leo Marx “evaluates the uses of the pastoral ideal in the interpretation of American experience” (Marx 4). While Marx explores ways that pastoralism has been impacted by factors such as industrialism, it is the purpose of this project to explore Marx’s assertion regarding the presence of the figurative and literal machine within the poetry of Robinson Jeffers.
Jeffers’ poetry is generally located within the landscapes of California. His lyric poetry has a distinct connection to the land and is driven by inhumanism, which works to shift the “emphasis and significance from man to not-man…” (Oelschlaeger 246). Jeffers’ machine like elements highlight the relationship between the natural world and humanity’s intrusion; in doing so, Jeffers furthers Marx’s supposition that American literature continues to be impacted by the machine, by “forces working against the dream of pastoral fulfillment” (Marx 358).
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ETSU/oai:dc.etsu.edu:etd-4782 |
| Date | 01 December 2017 |
| Creators | Hutton, Mark |
| Publisher | Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University |
| Source Sets | East Tennessee State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Electronic Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | Copyright by the authors. |
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