| This thesis engages the historical site of Black Mountain College through the lens of Felix Guattari's Three Ecologies. In this study, I appropriate Guattari's tripartite ecosophy as a means through which to engage the environmental life and environmental being of Black Mountain College. Read in this way, the College---more than the mythic and near-utopic idea that preoccupies its image today---becomes a grounded illustration of Guattari's ecological vision, thus providing us entrance into the historical actuality of Guattari's lamentably unexplored ecosophy. By examining particular instances of Black Mountain's communal, artistic, and environmental processes, I am able to show how Black Mountain College created a structure of environmental life that afforded its participants entrance into a seemingly nascent form of environmental being. |
