Archived

This content is available here for research, reference, and/or recordkeeping.

Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0003-1619-6570

Date Available

3-28-2026

Year of Publication

2026

Document Type

Doctoral Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College

Arts and Sciences

Department/School/Program

English

Faculty

Erik Reece

Faculty

Matthew Giancarlo

Abstract

In the face of increasingly dire environmental crises, proposed solutions have gravitated toward imperatives for faster, cleaner, and more efficient technologies and resources. While practical solutions are necessary, they are entirely insufficient to deal with an underlying issue driving environmental degradation: unbridled instrumental reason. In this dissertation, I suggest a theoretical posture, cultus, which attempts to balance the necessity of instrumental action with the guiding counterweight of receptivity. Furthermore, I argue that such personal receptivity is uniquely fostered in aesthetic experiences, attuning the individual to the non-identical and renewing a relationship of care.

I examine the life and work of John Steinbeck, Robinson Jeffers, and Jack London to 1) explicate the balanced posture of cultus and 2) exemplify how cultus can be fostered through the study of literature. After the introduction, my second chapter uses California’s history to display the need for cultus and details how aesthetic experiences can foster individual transformation that blooms into cultus. The subsequent chapters (3- 5) are literary studies that progressively develop a distinctive aspect of cultus. In my chapter on John Steinbeck, I examine how his phenomenological approach in the Sea of Cortez represents the exact balance that cultus describes and is elucidated by the work of American philosopher Henry Bugbee. Then, in the following chapter on Robinson Jeffers, I display the way that cultus is intertwined with the poetic disclosure of presence and involves a corresponding call of care. Finally, my chapter on Jack London outlines London’s journey toward cultus and how he practically extends its principles toward Beauty Ranch and American society. I conclude the dissertation by outlining the extension of cultus in the literary traditions of California and reinforcing the invaluable role that the Arts play in helping restore our relationship to the world.

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2026.18

Archival?

Archival

Download

Share

COinS