JOURNAL ARTICLE

In Distant Fields: "Wild Apples" and Planetarity.

  • Published In: Concord Saunterer, 2024, v. 32. P. 18 1 of 3

  • Database: Humanities Source Ultimate 2 of 3

  • Authored By: GUSTKE, CHARMION 3 of 3

Abstract

This essay explores the relationship between Henry David Thoreau's "Wild Apples" and the teachings of Hinduism and Sufism. My thesis is that by uncovering the threads of Eastern thought running through "Wild Apples," Thoreau's naturalism takes on a mystical significance, transporting the reader from the local terrain of American literature to the literary cultures of an uncanny planet. Gaining access to the planetary concerns of "Wild Apples" requires new ways of reading that disavow the transactional relationship between the reader and the text. In connecting the mystical undercurrents in "Wild Apples" to colonial India, specifically to Mahatma Gandhi's politics of resistance and Mirza Ghalib's transgressive poetry, this essay reveals the way in which Thoreau's eulogy for the wild apple is a subversive critique of industrial capitalism by examining the machinery of economics and its deleterious impact on wildness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Additional Information

  • Source:Concord Saunterer. 2024/01, Vol. 32, p18
  • Document Type:Article
  • Subject Area:Literature and Writing
  • Publication Date:2024
  • ISSN:10685359
  • Accession Number:188608762
  • Copyright Statement:Copyright of Concord Saunterer is the property of Thoreau Society and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

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