Radical Homemaking in Contemporary American Environmental Fiction

Abstract

Ursula K. Heise in ‘Ecocriticism and the Transnational Turn in American Studies’ critiques ‘the portrayal of multicultural and sometimes transnational nuclear families as the narrative solution to environmental and political problems’ (Heise, 2008: 383). This essay places Heise’s critique of the ‘ecological family romance’ in conversation with three other ecological domestic fictions: T. C. Boyle’s 'A Friend of the Earth' (2000), Jonathan Franzen’s 'Freedom' (2010), and Barbara Kingsolver’s 'Flight Behavior' (2012). Heise’s critique and Shannon Hayes’ 'Radical Homemakers' (2010) frame my close readings of the novels’ interconnected themes of radical homemaking, transnationalism, and environmentalism. My reading of the novels highlights their shared use of marginalized, racially-other characters to develop their entwined romantic and environmental plots (Lalitha in 'Freedom', several minor characters in 'A Friend of the Earth', and Ovid in 'Flight Behavior') and their use of sentimental deaths, especially of key female characters (Lalitha in Freedom, Sierra in A Friend of the Earth, and Dellarobia’s uncertain fate in Flight Behavior). By adopting the sentimental, domestic romance plot for ecological aims, the three novels highlight how environmental aims get stymied when cultural and ecological diversity are relegated to the margins. They also suggest that more is gained than lost through their use of ecological allegory. While the fictions do not offer solutions, they do push their readers to confront the Anthropocene’s ecological realities and their radical domestic-environmental politics.

Keywords

• transnationalism
• domestic fiction
• Ursula K. Heise
• Jonathan Franzen
• T. C. Boyle
• Barbara Kingsolver