The Great American Road Trip: Exploring Identity in the Open Landscape

My thesis aims to understand how humans create a sense of identity by drawing on their physical surroundings. It looks at the hidden stories I find in various photographers’ work and celebrates the ‘average’—the truck driving families, painters, hotel receptionists, soccer playing twins. . . Those whose story will not make front cover news or prime time TV, but who make up the essence of the American landscape. Using different authors’ writing, I discuss the role that our physical environment plays in people’s external relationships and internal dialogue. I also explore the literal and metaphorical contrast between cities and small towns, cornfields, and canyons. My thesis’s visual and written elements examine how places influence individual identity in the larger context of the open landscape.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of Oregon

Year dc:date.issued

2013

Author dc:creator

• Bussel, Lily

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Warpinski, Terri L.

• Identity
• Physical environment
• Open landscape
• Hidden stories

Statement dc:rights

• Creative Commons BY-NC-ND 4.0-US
• UO theses and dissertations are provided for research and educational purposes and may be under copyright by the author or the author’s heirs. Please contact scholars@uoregon.edu with any questions or comments. In your email, be sure to include the URL and title of the specific items that you are inquiring about.

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1794/33153

OAI record oai:identifier

https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/server/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=dim&identifier=oai%3Ascholarsbank.uoregon.edu%3A1794%2F33153