“녹색 넘어서기”--미국서부사막지대 자연인식과 에드워드 애비의 『사막의 고독』

Abstract

Wallace Stegner once argued that appreciation of nature in the arid West requires getting over the color green, dissociating beauty with gardens and lawns. The color green has long been associated with beauty of nature in Western culture, and people favor green color, associating it with positive values and pleasant feelings. In addition, in recent years the color green has come to denote the healthy environment and ecosystem. All these factors have made it very difficult for general people 'get over the color green.' It was a group of nature writers who pioneered appreciating the aesthetics and value of vast sprawls of hot and dry land of American West devoid of color green. They not only questioned the accustomed modes of geography, landscape, environment, and ecology but also overcame the collective imagination of cultural heritage of color green represented in the mythic 'green world' and wilderness ethics in the American myth. An American nature writer Edward Abbey represents not only this post-green color aesthetics on non-green nature of the arid land of American West, but also trans-wilderness ethics in which green nature and red culture are incorporated in balance. Abbey's Desert Solitaire incorporates Abbey's such perception and awareness. An ecocritical approach on Abbey should be made from this aspect, instead of ever branding him an "anarchist," "radical environmentalist," eco-terrorist," or "anti-civilization voice."