Cross Creek: Nouveau Pastoral Florida

Notice the similarity of pastoral, a word that describes a type of writing to the word, pasture. According to literary critic David Halperin, this is no coincidence. Halperin has written a description for what it takes for a piece of literature to be called "pastoral." The first of these requirements is that pastoral literature be, "about or pertaining to herdsmen and their activities in a country setting" (Kuipers 2). Halperin points out the importance of herdsmen to pastoral literature and the connection between "pastoral" and "pasture."

Halperin's definition of the word is relatively modern, especially when considering that pastoral literature's beginnings can be traced to 17th and 18th century Europe. During this period, many of Europe's more widely recognized writers were supported by the aristocratic ruling class; these writers, therefore, were composing their earliest works from the large manors and estates of their patrons. Thus, pastoral literature's topographic imagery and descriptions were primarily of expansive, rolling hills-and other typically European scenery.

In America, writers, such as Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson, who are similarly recognized as pastoral, gained recognition for their writing that included detailed descriptions of their familiar, Northeastern American countryside. As they roamed the wilderness of early America, Thoreau and Emerson described a new, American landscape not entirely dissimilar from the Europe of early pastoral writers.

In his "Ode: Transcribed to W.H. Channing," Emerson paints pastoral images with descriptions of the New Hampshire countryside-by name dropping some local waterways and its folk: "Dare praise the freedom-loving mountaineer? / I found by thee, O rushing Contoocook! / And in thy valleys, Agiochook!" On the other hand, evoking names, such as Orange Lake and Lochloosa Prairie-which isn't even an actual prairie-Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings shows a similar passion and affection for the unique Florida geography of Cross Creek. Thus, the search for similarities between nature writers describing completely different regions of the United States may seem fruitless, but these recognized pastoral authors are the forefathers of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings's Cross Creek.

For example, Rawlings celebrates hammocks as an aspect of the unique Florida topography. In a passage from Cross Creek, she describes with adoration the islets of trees and foliage that spring from Florida's "prairies"-which are actually low-lying swamps. Uknowingly, she defines her version of pastoral imagery: "Something about it is beautiful, its color most of all, and tall palms bend over it, and there are live oaks and holly and a few orange trees around it, and the hammock is a soft curtain behind it." It is not a shared love for their native landscapes that connects Rawlings to other pastoral writers, but the depth and detail of her imagery as well. Still, despite these emotional similarities, the writing of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings is not typically considered pastoral.

Part of the reason may be that Rawlings's stories in Cross Creek are not, typically, stories of and about "herdsmen." Granted, there are a couple of characters who do some cattle ranching, but they are not the central characters of Cross Creek. Rawlings herself is the main character and she fails to meet Halperin's prerequisite role of a pastoral herdsman. Rawlings was neither a rancher or a man. These facts, however, do not detract from the passion of Rawlings's landscape descriptions and certainly should not inhibit her inclusion in the school of pastoral writers.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, established aristocratic families in Europe and America found their social circles being invaded by a new generation of people who had only recently come into their economic good fortunes. The established aristocracy of Old Money, referred to these new, self-made members of the upper-class as the nouveau riche. These "new rich" came to epitomize what is commonly known as the American spirit. Much like the nouveau riche's presence to the Old Money, Rawlings's descriptions of Florida are new and strange to the established ideals of pastoral literature. It is for this reason that, perhaps, Rawlings's unique, richly detailed descriptions of the one-of-a-kind Florida landscape deserve their own, unique category. With their obvious similarities to early pastoral descriptions of a new America, Florida pastoral writers incite homage to their predecessors. As they represent a new breed of writer describing a very different geography, Rawlings and her contemporaries constitue a new generation of pastoral writer writing nouveau pastoral.

--Patrick Makowski