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Reading Trees In Southern Literature, Matthew Sivils

Matthew Sivils

Trees fulfi ll an important semiotic function within southern literary texts, and through this role serve as nexuses between humans and the natural world of the American South. Because of their ability to assume a wide range of sometimes temporary meanings, it is useful to think of southern literary trees as semiotic bottle trees: arboreal platforms upon which writer’s place semiotic components, or containers. To begin I draw from the work of Patricia Yaeger and Farah Jasmine Griffi n as I examine how southern literary trees are inexplicably connected to the issues of both environmental and racial oppression. Then I …