The limits of violence: people and property in Edward Abbey's "Monkeywrenching" novels

• Autores: David Thomas Sumner
• Localización: Ecozon@ [Ecozona]: European Journal of Literature, Culture and Environment, ISSN-e 2171-9594, Vol. 4, Nº. 2, 2013 (Ejemplar dedicado a: Mediterranean ecocriticism), págs. 166-181
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.37536/ecozona.2013.4.2.535
• Títulos paralelos:
  • Los límites de la violencia: la gente y la propiedad en las novelas "Monkeywrenching" de Edward Abbey
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen
  • español

    Este trabajo explora la ficción de Abbey cuestionando qué clase de imperativo ético ofrecen sus novelas "monkeywrenching". Mientras aboga por la destrucción de la propiedad en defensa de la naturaleza, The Monkey Wrench Gang también traza una distinción ética clara entre la destrucción de la propiedad en defensa de la naturaleza y el daño a la gente. Pero la secuela, "Hayduke Lives!", desdibuja esta línea cuando un guardia muere durante la escena final de eco-sabotaje de la novela. Tras explorar las diversas explicaciones textuales posibles para este cambio aparente, y después de entrevistar a varios amigos de Abbey en relación a este asunto, el autor concluye que la variación no representa un cambio en la visión del mundo de Abbey, sino más bien un cambio en las circunstancias de la ficción.

  • English

    This paper explores Edward Abbey's fiction asking what kind of ethical imperative his monkeywrenching novels offer. While advocating the destruction of property in defense of wilderness, "The Monkey Wrench Gang" draws a clear ethical distinction between the destruction of property in defense of wilderness and the harming of people. Yet the sequel, "Hayduke Lives!", blurs this ethical line when a security guard is killed during the novel's final eco-sabotage scene. After exploring several possible textual explanations for this apparent change and then interviewing several of Abbey's close friends regarding this issue, the author concludes that the shift does not represent a change in Abbey's worldview, but rather a change in fictional circumstance.

• Referencias bibliográficas
  • Abbey, Edward. “Anarchism and the Morality of Violence.” Master’s Thesis. University of Mexico, 1959. Print.
  • Abbey, Edward. Confessions of a Barbarian. Ed. David Petersen. Boston: Little Brown, 1994. Print.
  • Abbey, Edward.. Desert Solitaire. Touchstone ed. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990. Print.
  • Abbey, Edward. “Earth First! and The Monkey Wrench Gang.” Editorial. Environmental Ethics 5.1 (1983): 94-95. Print.
  • Abbey, Edward. Hayduke Lives!. 1989. TS. Collection of the U of Arizona Library, Tucson.
  • Abbey, Edward. Hayduke Lives!. Boston: Little Brown, 1990. Print.
  • Abbey, Edward. Postcards From Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast. Ed. David Petersen. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, n.d....
  • Abbey, Edward. The Monkey Wrench Gang. Perennial Classics. New York: Harper Collins, 2006. Print.
  • Berry, Wendell. What Are People For? New York: North Point Press, 1990. Print.
  • Booth, Wayne C. The Company We Keep: An Ethics of Fiction. Berkeley: U of California P, 1988. Print.
  • Brinkley, Douglas. Introduction. The Monkey Wrench Gang. By Edward Abbey. Perennial Classics. New York: Harper Collins, 2006. xv-xxiv. Print.
  • Bryant, Paul. “Edward Abbey and Environmental Quixoticism.” Western American Literature 24.1 (1989): 37-43. Print.
  • Burke, Kenneth. Language as Symbolic Action. Berkeley: U of California Press, 1966. Print
  • Foreman, Dave. “More on Earth First! And the Monkey Wrench Gang.” Editorial. Environmental Ethics 5.1 (1983): 94-95. Print.
  • Foreman, Dave. Confessions of an Eco-Warrior. New York: Crown Publishers, 1991. Print.
  • Greiner, Patricia. “Radical Environmentalism in Recent Literature Concerning the American West.” Rendezvous 19.1 (1983): 8-21. Print.
  • Likar, Lawrence E. Eco-Warriors, Nihilistic Terrorists, and the Environment. Santa Barbara: Praeger Security International, 2011.
  • Lindholdt, Paul. "Rage Against the Machine: Edward Abbey and the Neo-Luddite Thought." Coyote in the Maze: Tracking Edward Abbey in...
  • Loeffler, Jack. Adventures With Ed: A Portrait of Abbey. Albuquerque: U of New Mexico Press, 2002. Print.
  • Loeffler, Jack. E-mail to David Sumner. July 18, 2013.
  • Loeffler, Jack. Headed Upstream: Interviews with Iconoclasts. Tucson: Harbinger House, 1989. Print.
  • Loeffler, Jack. Telephone interview. 7 Apr. 2012.
  • Mortimer, Michael J. “Eco-Terrorism: a Natural Reaction of Violence?.” Handbook of Globalization and the Environment. Boca Raton: CRC Press,...
  • Peacock, Doug. Telephone interview. 9 Mar. 2012.
  • Peacock, Doug. Walking It Off: A Veteran’s Chronicle of War and Wilderness. Spokane: Eastern Washington UP, 2005. Print.
  • Ronald, Ann. The New West of Edward Abbey. Reno: U of Nevada P, 1988. Print. l 4 , N
  • Sumner, David Thomas and Lisa Weidman. ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment. Forthcoming, 20.4 (Fall 2013). Print.
  • Scheese, Don. "Desert Solitaire: Counter-Friction to the Machine in the Garden." North Dakota Quarterly 59.2 (1991): 211-27. Print.
  • Taylor, Bron. “Ecoterrorism.” E-mail to David Sumner. June 22, 2010.
  • Taylor, Bron. “Religion, Violence and Radical Environmentalism: From Earth First! to the Unabomber to the Earth Liberation Front.” Terrorism...
  • Taylor, Bron. “The Tributaries of Radical Environmentalism.” Journal for the Study of Radicalism 2.1 (2008): 27-61. Print.
  • Taylor, Bron. “Threat Assessments and Radical Environmentalism.” Terrorism and Political Violence 15.4 (2003): 173-182. Print.