Environmentalism and memory: The ethereal landscapes of Edward Abbey and Terry Tempest Williams

This thesis is an examination of the role memory and discourse play in the culture of American environmentalism, with an emphasis on the literary work of Edward Abbey and Terry Tempest Williams. While critics are quick to assume Abbey and Williams write from an environmental perspective, Abbey can also be seen as writing primarily from a masculine sublime context, while Williams writes from a cultural ecofeminism context popular among feminist writers in the 1970s. The ethereal landscapes of Abbey and Williams' work manifest through a close reading of the text through these contexts, revealing evidence that suggests their work might be used to evaluate ideas about the role gender plays in contemporary American environmentalism.