Love grows out of the ground : affection and place in Howards End and Hannah Coulter.

E.M. Forster’s Howards End and Wendell Berry’s Hannah Coulter both demonstrate that individuals who love local places also attend to the needs of their neighbors. In considering how these authors display the importance of affection and emplacement, this thesis draws attention to the role that place plays in the moral formation of the individual. Focusing particularly on passages in which these authors reveal that the small, ordinary features of a particular landscape can elicit a sublime response, this thesis argues that Forster and Berry both believe that individuals increase their potential to practice affection when they limit the scope of their imagination. In illuminating the distinct emphasis that Berry places on cultivating a shared love for local places and reifying that love through a practical work ethic, this thesis also demonstrates that Berry believes an imaginative attunement to local places works best when it promotes communal visions of justice.