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Francis Parkman's Literary Landscapes and the Formation of the American Cosmos

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Francis Parkman's Literary Landscapes and the Formation of the American Cosmos Georgia State University ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University English Dissertations Department of English Summer 7-15-2011 The Spaces of History: Francis Parkman's Literary Landscapes and the Formation of the American Cosmos Florian Schwieger Georgia State University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Schwieger, Florian, "The Spaces of History: Francis Parkman's Literary Landscapes and the Formation of the American Cosmos." Dissertation, Georgia State University, 2011. https://scholarworks.gsu.edu/english_diss/74 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of English at ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. It has been accepted for inclusion in English Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks @ Georgia State University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE SPACES OF HISTORY: FRANCIS PARKMAN’S LITERARY LANDSCAPES AND THE FORMATION OF THE AMERICAN COSMOS by FLORIAN SCHWIEGER Under the Direction of Dr. Audrey Goodman and Dr. Robert Sattelmeyer ABSTRACT It is the aim of this dissertation to discuss the creation of historiographic space in the works of Francis Parkman. More specifically, this dissertation intends to analyze Parkman‘s The Oregon Trail and Montcalm and Wolfe as literary texts that examine geographies of cultural interaction and transnational empire building. Parkman‘s historical narratives, this dissertation suggests, not only describe historically significant sites, such as the Oregon Trail and the Northern Frontier, but further create literary heterotopias. These textual counter geographies, as for instance his conceptualizations of the trading posts of the far West and the wilderness fortifications of the far North, allow Parkman to effectively interrogate American history. By investigating the fruitful juncture between history, geography, and literature this project aims to establish the importance of historical geographies for Francis Parkman‘s methodology and define its function for the creation of a national consciousness. In addition to Parkman‘s use of space, this dissertation further analyzes the historian‘s depiction of historical characters and his subsequent attempts to define American identity. Thereby, my analysis specifically highlights the relationship between Parkman‘s literary characters and their environment. In an attempt to trace the impact Parkman‘s historical narratives exert on postmodern authors of American literature, the concluding chapters interrogate the re-negotiation of Parkman‘s historiographic spaces in Thomas King‘s Truth and Bright Water and William T. Vollmann‘s Fathers and Crows. INDEX WORDS: Francis Parkman, Oregon Trail, Montcalm and Wolfe, Nineteenth- Century Literature, Literary Criticism, Heterotopias, Historiographic Space, American History, Geography, Space, French and Indian War, Border Fiction, Native American Literature, Thomas King, William T. Vollmann. THE SPACES OF HISTORY: FRANCIS PARKMAN’S LITERARY LANDSCAPES AND THE FORMATION OF THE AMERICAN COSMOS by FLORIAN SCHWIEGER A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University 2011 Copyright by Florian Schwieger 2011 THE SPACES OF HISTORY: FRANCIS PARKMAN’S LITERARY LANDSCAPES AND THE FORMATION OF THE AMERICAN COSMOS by FLORIAN SCHWIEGER Committee Chairs: Dr. Audrey Goodman and Dr. Robert Sattelmeyer Committee: Dr. Christopher Kocela Electronic Version Approved: Office of Graduate Studies College of Arts and Sciences Georgia State University July 2011 iv DEDICATION für Heather und Lyric. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This dissertation is the culmination of a long journey that began over ten years ago in Evessen, Germany and eventually led me to Atlanta, Georgia. Over the course of this journey many people have contributed in one form or another to the eventual completion of this project. First and foremost I would like to thank my family, most importantly my parents Elke and Karl- Heinrich Schwieger for their unwavering love and support. Thank you for believing in me when I picked an exotic field of study and supporting me when I moved to the United States. I will always be grateful for that. I would also like to thank my sister Maren for the many inspirational conversations in person or over the phone and my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins back home for reminding me what is truly important. Special thanks to all of my friends around the globe, but especially to Casey Cater, Malte Gärtner, Stephanie Hass, Grant Kirby, Jan-Fritz Nierste, Jan Saathoff, Martin Schulz, and Volker Soßna (in alphabetical order) for your inspiration and encouragement. I would also like to express my gratitude to the entire faculty and staff of the English Department at Georgia State University for creating a friendly and encouraging academic environment. In my entire time here I have always felt welcomed and supported, I am very grateful for that. Finally, I would like to thank my advisers Dr. Audrey Goodman, Dr. Robert Sattelmeyer, and Dr. Chris Kocela for their unwavering support and thoughtful guidance. I feel very fortunate that I had the opportunity to work with all of you. Finally, I owe my deepest gratitude to my wife Heather for selflessly supporting me over the course of the last years in so many different ways. There is no better cheerleader, friend, and muse. You are my shining star and I could not have done it without you. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS v LIST OF FIGURES ix 1 INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 Of New and Other Worlds: American Space 1 1.2 Change of Space 17 1.3 The Interplay of History, Space, and Literature 19 1.4 The Question of Space 25 1.4.1 Leibniz’s Intuitive Intervention 28 1.4.2 Nacheinander and Nebeneinander: The Kantian Order of Space 35 1.5 Historiographic Space 39 1.6 The Question of Temporality in Historical Discourse 47 1.7 The Historical Event: From Erfahrung to Erlebnis 53 1.8 Chapters Outline 58 2 CHAPTER 1: FRANCIS PARKMAN AND THE WRITING OF 62 AMERICA’S PAST 2.1 The Invention of the Past: Historiography in America 62 2.2 Biographical Interlude 74 2.3 Francis Parkman’s Historical Method: Romantic Idealism and 78 Humboldtian Crossroads 2.4 The Geographic Turn 90 2.5 Sauntering in the Past 97 3 CHAPTER 2: “WESTWARD THE COURSE OF EMPIRE TAKES ITS 102 WAY:” FRANCIS PARKMAN’S THE ORGEON TRAIL vii 3.1 Prologue: Migrants and Mythmakers 102 3.2 The West as Sensed Space 114 3.2.1 A Space to end all Spaces: the Great American Desert 118 3.2.2 Utopia Unleashed: Fort Leavenworth and Fort Laramie 123 3.2.3 Pastime Paradise and Primordial Prison: The Ogillallah Camp 142 3.3 Trapper, Tourists, and Indian Temptations: People and Place 146 3.3.1 Soulless Savages and Noble Fighters: Native Americans 148 3.3.2 The New American Adam: Guides and Trappers 159 4 CHAPTER 3: AN ATLAS OF FORTS AND FORESTS: FRANCIS 165 PARKMAN’S MONTCLAM AND WOLFE 4.1 Prologue: Absolutism Abroad 165 4.2 Montcalm and Wolfe: The Spaces of History 171 4.2.1 Charting Connections: Parkman’s Europe 174 4.2.2 “Et in Arcadia Ego:” New France 176 4.2.3 Castles in the Forest: Canadian Forts 187 4.3 Dystopian Kill Zones: Spaces of War 200 4.3.1 Forest Fighting or Fighting the Forest 202 4.3.2 “In the Shadow of the Season:” Guerilla War 208 4.3.3 “My Land is your Land:” Border War 210 4.3.4 “What went down on the Plains of Abraham:” The Battle of 215 Quebec 4.4 Scholar-Soldiers and Man-eating Savages: The Protagonists of Place 220 4.4.1 Sons of the Forest and Friends of the Devil: Native Americans 220 4.4.2 La colonie c’est moi: Villainous Governors and Soldier-Scholars 226 viii 4.4.3 Redcoats: Braddock and Wolfe 232 4.4.4 Rangers, Revolutionaries, and Renaissance Men: American 235 Heroes 4.5 Epilogue: Border History 240 5 CHAPTER 4: PARKMAN’S POSTMODERN LEGACY: THOMAS 242 KINGS’S TRUTH AND BRIGHT WATER 5.1 Prologue: Crossing the Border Before it’s too late: The U.S.- 242 Canadian Border and Postmodern Literatures 5.2 Reservations, Railroad Towns, and a Festival of Consumption: 248 Native American Heterotopias 5.3 Simulating Space: Indian Representations 264 5.4 (Un-) Representative Men 271 5.5 Towards a Counter-Geography of the American West: Sacred 278 Spaces 6 AFTERWORD 284 6.1 Parkman Redux: William T. Vollmann’s Fathers and Crows 284 6.2 “Et in Arcadia Ego” Ante: De-romanticizing Colonial Geography 290 6.3 Angels of History 296 6.4 Dreaming of Rivers 300 6.5 Unconscious Geographies: Dream Space 304 WORKS CITED 308 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1 Martin Waldseemüller,Universalis Cosmographia Secundum Ptholomaei 4 Traditionem et Americi Vespucii Aliorum Lustrationes (1507). Figure 1.2 Benjamin Wright, Map of New France (1608). 5 Figure 1.3 Gervase Epstorf, The Ebstorf World Map (thirteenth century). 10 Figure 1.4 Virginien; illustration from Olfert Dappert‘s Die Unbekante Neue Welt 11 (1673). Figure 1.5 Friedrich Georg Weitsch, Alexander von Humboldt und Aime Bonpland 16 am Fuß des Vulkans Chimborazo (1810). Figure 2.1 Squaws Guarding Cornfield from Depredations of Blackbirds; carte de 84 visite (circa 1863-1870). Figure 2.2 Tepees of the Sioux Indians, Minnesota; cart de visite (circa 1863). 85 Figure 3.1 Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze, Westward the Course of Empire Takes Its 105 Way (1861). Figure 3.2 Manuscript page of Lansford Hastings‘ The Emigrants’ Guide to Oregon 113 and California (1845). Figure 3.3 Alfred Jacob Miller, Fort Laramie (1858-60). 140 Figure 3.4 Karl Bodmer, Offering of the Mandan Indians (1834). 141 Figure 3.5 Karl Bodmer, Mato-Tope (1834). 157 Figure 3.6 Karl Bodmer, The Interior of the Hut of a Mandan Chief (1834).
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