2022/09/01 by Zachary Faircloth · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Poetry Analysis and Criticism #Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature #American Literature and Culture #Narrative #History #Rurality #Visual arts #Art #Literature #Law #Rural area #Political science
paper · doi:10.1353/scu.2022.0029
openalex publication_date 2022/09/01 · openalex created_date 2023/01/05 · openalex updated_date 2025/11/06
Handmade wooden strip boats and memories of them dot the riverine regions of the eastern Carolinas. Today, they have accrued a certain mystique-- they are variously imagined as relics of a bygone era, held up as talismans for connection to land, or discarded as rotted hulls from the backs of old sheds. In this piece, the author examines literary remarks on these boats in the works of Franklin Burroughs and engages his own experience with the boats as passed down from his grandfather, arguing that the objects mark the triangulation of place, culture, and memory through their use and narrativization. In Horry County, they become enmeshed in debates over rurality, development, community, and belonging, such that the array of relations the boat represents exceeds a singular narrative.