| dc.description.abstract | Place is constantly being reconstituted, yet few studies look at how that change occurs over time. This dissertation analyzes portrayals of Oklahoma in fiction to explore how the representation of place in Oklahoma evolved. My primary question is whether contemporary literary works perpetuate formative narratives established by Edna Ferber and John Steinbeck, or seek to supplant them with alternative versions of the formative stories of Oklahoma. I analyze eleven contemporary novels by seven award-winning Oklahoma women authors and compare them with Ferber's Cimarron and Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, both of which are characterized as place-defining in geographic literature. My finding is that place images of rural settings, poverty, violence, racism, Christianity, self-reliance, family and community are portrayed by writers in both time periods. The theme of displacement replaced mobility in the contemporary novels. Books in the contemporary time period also frequently feature characters engaging in art. These findings indicate that place images evolve slowly with much overlap between the two time periods. | |
