Narrative is my jam. In addition to being a (prospective) ENVS major, I am a declared English major. I love plots and language and the way words sound when you put them together and say them out loud. Last week, we read a treatment on narrative and stories by a genius named William Cronon. Cronon discussed how selection, sequencing, and morals in stories and histories we tell are vitally important to extracting meaning from texts. Now this meaning, I have found, is oftentimes other narratives that explain the original narratives, and this is perhaps why narrative analysis is less bounded and exact than statistics. Narrative analysis is endless because it is loaded with context and ambiguity and countless angles. In environmental analysis this is particularly important because of the interdisciplinary nature of the field and the networks of connections embedded in every object.
Cronon’s article resonated with me particularly because of two reasons. The first is that in my Constructing the American Landscape history class we read a different article by Cronon discussing grain elevators and meat packing in the 19th Century, and this was the foundation and jumping-off point for our class. The second reason is that my concentration/area of interest combines the American landscape, about which Cronon is a leading expert, with literature, hence narrative. While I was reading Cronon’s article which grappled with “nature” and “narrative” as interlocking subjects, the focus and clarity of my concentration was greatly enhanced. I want to know how our stories and narratives reflect the landscapes we inhabit and create and how these landscapes respond to our morals that are at least in part derived from our narratives. Because my entire English major is essentially narrative analysis, I am relieved to discover the direct applications of these skills into environmental analysis. Although social network analysis, particularly through literature citations, and GIS mapping skills are also going to be some of the main tools I envision myself using in the future of my ENVS/English career, I predict that narrative analysis will be fundamental.