Goneril of the American countryside. J. Smiley’s novel “A Thousand Acres”

Abstract

Jane Smiley’s novel “A Thousand Acres” transplants Shakespear’s tragedy on the American soil rather accurately emphasizing the similarity of the names of the main characters to those of “King Lear”, and the analogous turns of the plot. This novel is a social novel as well continuing the tradition of the interpretation of the theme of land by Balzac, Zola, Steinbeck, Faulkner, Updike. The social message of the novel is stressed by the author in her tale of the land “floating from farmer to farmer”, of its expansion through crimes and meanness, of the destruction of nature which brings death into the families of the destructors. Jane Smiley develops a farm topos in the context of the social reality of the USA in the 70s and 80s of the 20^th century, depriving the farmer and his activities of any romantic coloring, exploring the social and moral consequences of land ownership. The themes of the moral impoverishment of the farmer who has achieved success through predatory use of land and the epistemological search of his daughters for their identity come to the fore in this novel. One of the main themes of the novel is the theme of ecofeminism.