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In this heuristic study, I explore how four ecological writers, or wild writers, experience Nature. I identify with and participate in this inquiry because I am an ecological writer searching to understand my relationship to the natural world. That relationship begins in primary experience. The term "Nature" core to this exploration includes interactions of all dispositions of Gaia, organic and inorganic, human and not human, constructed by humans and constructed by non-humans, as well as phenomena both biospheric and cosmic, visible and invisible, physical and metaphysical, since these are all within the realm of human experience. Applying the concepts, processes, and phases of Moustakas (1990) heuristic methodology, I engage in informal conversational interviews with four women writers about their experiences of Nature and also examine their writings as depictions of those experiences. Because heuristic methodology requires the engaged presence of the primary investigator, I create ongoing self-dialogues about my experience as well as review my own writing. From all this data I discover the following composite key elements from these ecological writers' experiences of Nature: 1) The wild writer experiences Nature as a summons or response from non-human worlds; 2) The wild writer experiences Nature as conversations among all beings in the cosmos; 3) The wild writer experiences Nature as a vast capacity to harm as well as heal; 4) The wild writer experiences Nature with the exterior body; 5) The wild writer experiences Nature with the interior body; 6) The wild writer experiences Nature as the source of imagination: and 7) The wild writer experiences Nature with sadness. These key experiences reveal the wild writer's multiple embodied relationships with Nature, the embryo of awareness for healing our endangered planet.
Advisor: | Parker, Carol |
Commitee: | DeZeeuw Spencer, Jordona, Stuckey, Priscilla |
School: | Prescott College |
Department: | Humanities |
School Location: | United States -- Arizona |
Source: | MAI 50/06M, Masters Abstracts International |
Source Type: | DISSERTATION |
Subjects: | Language arts, Fine arts, Environmental education |
Keywords: | Ecology, Ecopsychology, Ecospirituality, Nature, Writer |
Publication Number: | 1511267 |
ISBN: | 978-1-267-36683-2 |