The concept of ecology has come to have a dual focus, referring to the systems of relations that exist both in the natural world and the constructed world. These systems, one pertaining to the relationships between natural organisms and their physical environments, the other with human groups and their social as well as physical environments, are increasingly regarded as interdependent. As Lawrence Buell has recently put it, one of the major tasks of ecocriticism "is to put ‘green’ and ‘brown’ landscapes, the landscapes of exurbia and industrialization, in conversations with each other."

One of the aims of the 2003 conference is to explore that "conversation" as it exists in Faulkner’s fiction. Throughout his career Faulkner was attentive to the communities of Jefferson and human groupings–familial, town and country, white, African American, and Native American–and to the specific settings of those groups within their natural and constructed environments. The play of setting and individual and group dynamics is constant, as the human vacillates between struggle against the various forms of environment and a desire to act in accord with them. 

Here are some of the questions that might be addressed: How does Faulkner’s fiction develop and change in its depiction of the ecological situation? Do ecological issues become moral and ethical issues in the fiction? Is there any kind of consistent Yoknapatawpha ecology? How does the fiction treat the phenomena of weather, "natural" disaster, the relations between town and county, animal and human? To what extent does Falkner’s fiction reflect the larger Southern ecological situation within which much of that fiction takes place? 

We are inviting 50-minute plenary addresses and 15-minute papers for this conference. Plenary papers consist of approximately 6,000 words and will be published by the University Press of Mississippi. Short papers consist of approximately 2,500 words and will be delivered at panel sessions.

For details, consult the Center’s Web site (www.olemiss.edu/depts/south) or e-mail Donald Kartiganer (dkartiga@olemiss.edu).

0-25, 2003