ENGL 224 Lecture 4: Unit 3 Place (3)
Document Summary
Rootedness is a primary organizing trope that accommodates the need to feel connected to something outside the self; for reasons i will explain, this subterranean, botanical form seems the ideal metaphor to communicate that desire. Across cultures and through time, the root surfaces again and again as a figure for filiation, cultural connectedness, regional or national allegiance, and symbiosis with the environment. We tend to think of language as something that sprouted from an original seed and continues to burgeon. Certain kinds of knowledge are readily organized in an arborescent shape. Something in our brains is compatible with the tree"s style of proliferation. (p. 3) it is fair to say that a large part of what is usually called the west is suffering from an overwhelming sense of rootlessness. My objective is to understand why we think about existence and dwelling in terms of rootedness.
