8/14/2023 0 Comments Alice greenwood personal nightmareOver the next few years, Kingsolver established herself as an important writer in a variety of genres. Critical response to this autobiographical novel was highly favorable. Kingsolver's first novel was The Bean Trees (1988), in which a young woman escapes her limited prospects in rural Kentucky by moving to Tucson, taking in refugees from Central America, and becoming socially and politically aware. Out of her work during this period came her book, Holding the Line: Women in the Great Arizona Mine Strike of 1983 (1989), which was sympathetic to the miners' cause. ![]() Much of her own writing concerned political causes (such as human rights in Central and Latin America) and environmental issues. Pleased with becoming a professional writer, Kingsolver took on some freelance writing work and at the same time began her own fiction and nonfiction. She completed a master's degree in 1981, terminated her academic studies, and took a job as a technical writer for the Office of Arid Lands Studies at the University of Arizona. Kingsolver then enrolled in a doctoral program in evolutionary biology and ecology at the University of Arizona. She went to live in Tucson, Arizona, where she still lives today. After graduation, she traveled and worked in Europe for two years before returning to the United States. After changing her major from music to biology, which she considered to be a more practical subject for a future career, she graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. It was at DePauw that she became interested in the social and political issues that would later inform her writing. As a child, Kingsolver was a voracious reader and wanted to become a writer although she did not believe this to be a realistic goal.īlessed with musical talent, Kingsolver won a scholarship to study instrumental music at DePauw University in Indiana. Her father was a country physician, and Kingsolver grew up in rural Kentucky, where she became aware of the poverty that many people in the area had to endure. Author Biographyīarbara Kingsolver was born on April 5, 1955, in Annapolis, Maryland, to Virginia and Wendell R. involvement in the politics of Central America.Īnimal Dreams can be placed in the tradition of "eco-feminist" literature, which began in the 1980s and includes work by authors such as Ursula Le Guin, Leslie Marmon Silko, Louise Erdrich, and Alice Walker. ![]() The novel contains many of the elements that characterize Kingsolver's work as a whole: a setting in the American southwest, a female protagonist whose way of living is or becomes more cooperative than competitive (which is intended as a contrast between female and male attitudes) a concern for the environment an admiration of Native American culture, and opposition to U.S. The wide scope of the novel, and the way it manages to weave environmental and political issues into the narrative without sounding preachy, was also praised. ![]() It won high praise for its convincing portrayal of the complex, interconnected web of human life and relationships, and how this web is shaped by time, memory, and culture. Although her life is blighted by the tragic death of her sister, Hallie, Codi finally finds peace in the knowledge and acceptance of who she is and where she comes from.Īnimal Dreams was Kingsolver's second novel. ![]() Her exposure to Hispanic and Native American culture shows her the value of the communal way of living, which emphasizes deep and lasting ties to family and to the earth. She also learns that the detached and cynical individualism that has dominated her life is not the best recipe for happiness. As the novel unfolds, Codi gradually becomes aware of important political and environmental issues. In Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Dreams (1990), Codi Noline, a young woman unsure of her purpose in life, returns to her hometown of Grace, Arizona, to teach high school and care for her father.
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