JOHN BURROUGHS’ PLANTS: AN ECOCRITICAL APPROACH TO BURROUGHS’ NATURE PHILOSOPHY AS REFLECTED IN A YEAR IN THE FIELDS, SIGNS AND SEASONS, FIELD AND STUDY, AND UNDER THE MAPLES

Abstract

For the past century, the prominent nature writer John Burroughs’ works have been analyzed from various standpoints, ranging from his observations of nonhuman beings which include animals, specifically birds and bees, to his merging of literature and science, and to the interrelationships between Burroughs and outstanding nature writers, such as Thoreau, Emerson and Muir. However, as a first in Burroughs studies, this thesis will center on Burroughs’ plants through an analysis of his nature philosophy which brings forth new ways of thinking of plant lives by cultivating a vegetative point of view. Through a critical approach to his works from a critical plant studies perspective, this study aims to re-interpret John Burroughs’ works through a close examination of A Year in the Fields (1875), Signs and Seasons (1886), Field and Study (1919), and Under the Maples (1921). Utilizing Michael Marder’s Plant-Thinking: A Philosophy of Vegetal Life (2013), along with his other writings that contributed to the field of critical plant studies, this study focuses on Burroughs’ nature philosophy, which encompasses vegetation, as well. This nature philosophy, from more than a century ago, coincides with the contemporary studies on vegetal life. In this regard, through demonstrating that vegetation has a place in the philosophical discussions about existence, this study reveals that plant-centric perspectives that de-center the human from the philosophical discussions on the lives of plants are pivotal in an era of the plant turn. In today’s world, where violent acts against plantal life are ravaging lands, a nature philosophy comes to the fore to preserve and sustain vegetal life. Thus, in the posthumanist age, this thesis shows that Burroughs brings a new perspective to vegetal life by taking a critical stance to anthropocentrism. By removing the human from the center, and defying longstanding plant-blindness, this study introduces a new perspective on plant species which channels new ways of thinking about the lives of plants. Through an examination of vegetal life in the given works by Burroughs, this study portrays Burroughs’ plants as alive, active, and intelligent agents in a more-than- human world.