Under Salted Earth
Date
2024-10-01
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
ORCID
Type
Thesis
Degree Level
Masters
Abstract
Under Salted Earth is a novel that borrows from several genres such as the New Weird, prairie realism, and eco-fiction to explore the deleterious effects of industrial agriculture in rural Manitoba. The intergenerational plot, alternating between 1950 and the present day, involves the arrival of a beast based on the Bahkauv of German folklore, a creature from the city of Aachen which, according to legend, looked like a fanged calf and attacked intoxicated men at night. In my reworking of this old German tale, a similar beast travels to a village in rural Manitoba and demands massive quantities of food from its unprepared inhabitants. As such, the village – a mixture of inhabitants including settlers and members of Indigenous communities – must work together to appease it. Themes include displacement/dispossession, monstrosity and otherness, and the necessity of engaging critically with personal and regional histories to foster a more ecological way of being.
Description
Keywords
Prairies, novel, eco-fiction, New Weird
Citation
Degree
Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)
Department
English
Program
English