Reading the grain: forestry and woods-work in modern and contemporary American literature

Kaye, Thomas (2025). Reading the grain: forestry and woods-work in modern and contemporary American literature. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

Kaye2025PhD.pdf
Text - Accepted Version
Restricted to Repository staff only until 31 July 2026.
Available under License All rights reserved.
Download (2MB)

Abstract

Reading the Grain is a thesis that explores the worked and managed forest in modern and contemporary American literature. In doing so I make the case for bringing a more conscious awareness of forestry into literary criticism. Analysing the ways in which authors engage with forestry and woods-work allows one to ask questions of stewardship, labour, conservation, utility, and beauty. These themes – that run throughout the texts of this thesis – coalesce in a complex relationship between people, trees, wood, and text.

I offer readings of the contemporary novels; Barkskins (2016) by Annie Proulx, The Overstory (2018) by Richard Powers, and Damnation Spring (2021) by Ash Davidson. I place these contemporary novels in conversation with one of the United States Forest Service’s greatest literary proponents, Norman Maclean. In addition to Maclean’s work, I also analyse one of the most well-storied seasonal jobs in the Forest Service in a chapter that examines the literature of fire lookouts from the beat authors Jack Kerouac and Gary Snyder to modern day lookout Philip Connors and his memoir Fire Season (2011). Through these texts I engage with various forms of woods-work from the worlds of logging, wildland fire-fighting, and experimental forest laboratories to name just a few.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):