Laughing and Learning Through David Quammen's Natural Acts

Literary naturist David Quammen, whose esteem is now proliferating among readers, writers, and critics of his genre, wrote in the introduction to his 1985 collection, Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature, that his purpose in the essays was "divided about equally between edification and vaudeville." "My ambition," he disclosed additionally, "has been to offer some small moments of constructive disorientation in the way nature is seen and thought about." This study illustrates the formula by which Quammen succeeds in Natural Acts at, 1), repeatedly intriguing and amusing the reader and, 2), constructively disorienting, or subverting, the reader's assumed anthropocentric view of nature. The proposed formula comprises Quammen's three self-named elements: vaudeville, edification, and constructive disorientation. How and why do vaudeville (amusement for the reader) and edification (enlightenment for the reader) each resound so potently in these works? Constructive disorientation is Quammen's method for achieving both vaudeville and edification; driven by the force of constructive disorientation, his vaudeville and his edification repeatedly, or circularly, reinforce one another.

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts in English

Level thesis:degree_level

Masters

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Year

1998

Author dc:creator

• Sapp, Laura Lee

Contributors dc:contributor

• Nancy Walker

• English Language and Literature

Statement dc:rights

• © Laura Lee Sapp

Repository record dc:identifier

https://bearworks.missouristate.edu/theses/596

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:bearworks.missouristate.edu:theses-1597