Individual Presentation or Panel Title
“Is there no pardon anywhere?”: How Denise Giardina Represents Appalachian Culture with the Red Fox and Japanese Skull
Abstract
This is an excerpt from my senior honors thesis, which analyzes the Biblical allusions in Denise Giardina’s Storming Heaven and The Unquiet Earth and Diane Gilliam’s Kettle Bottom. This presentation will focus on one passage from The Unquiet Earth. In the scene, Giardina uses a skull and a fox symbolically. Both represent a different aspect of Appalachian culture. In this episode, Giardina introduces the fox and skull, and they reappear throughout the novel. The main character, Dillon, realizes the loss of his heritage through the death of the fox, and the skull situates Appalachian struggles within an international context. Through these symbols, Giardina invites readers into the culture and traditions of Appalachia as well as reveals the hurt harbored by her characters, which extends to the Appalachian region generally.
Location
Janney Lounge
Start Date
3-5-2014 2:30 PM
End Date
3-5-2014 3:20 PM
“Is there no pardon anywhere?”: How Denise Giardina Represents Appalachian Culture with the Red Fox and Japanese Skull
Janney Lounge
This is an excerpt from my senior honors thesis, which analyzes the Biblical allusions in Denise Giardina’s Storming Heaven and The Unquiet Earth and Diane Gilliam’s Kettle Bottom. This presentation will focus on one passage from The Unquiet Earth. In the scene, Giardina uses a skull and a fox symbolically. Both represent a different aspect of Appalachian culture. In this episode, Giardina introduces the fox and skull, and they reappear throughout the novel. The main character, Dillon, realizes the loss of his heritage through the death of the fox, and the skull situates Appalachian struggles within an international context. Through these symbols, Giardina invites readers into the culture and traditions of Appalachia as well as reveals the hurt harbored by her characters, which extends to the Appalachian region generally.