Reframing Romantic Nature: Towards a Social Ecocriticism
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 9-2015 Reframing Romantic Nature: Towards a Social Ecocriticism Matthew Rowney Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/1113 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] Reframing Romantic Nature: Towards a Social Ecocriticism by Matthew Rowney A dissertation submitted to the Graduate Faculty in English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy The City University of New York 2015 ii © 2015 Matthew Rowney All Rights Reserved iii This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in English to satisfy the dissertation requirement for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Alan Vardy ___________ __________________________________ Date Chair of Examining Committee Mario DiGangi ___________ __________________________________ Date Executive Officer Alexander Schlutz Joshua Wilner Nancy Yousef Supervisory Committee iv Abstract Reframing Romantic Nature: Towards a Social Ecocriticism by Matthew Rowney Adviser: Alan Vardy Reframing Romantic Nature: Towards a Social Ecocriticism is an attempt to offer a new way of thinking about ecological approaches to literature. Rather than separate ecology from the movement of history, or support an anthropocentric historicism, my approach aims to merge the interests of both environmental and historical criticism in order to provide a more interdisciplinary view of conceptions of the natural and the social. The process of history owes much more to the non-human than has been generally allowed, especially in the face of contemporary ecocrisis. In the more than two hundred years since the advent of Romanticism in Britain, figures such as William Wordsworth have become icons, their work celebrated as defining intrinsic elements of cultural identity and history. Yet this same period has seen greater environmental destruction than any other in human existence. The poet who announces the renewal of nature does so at the dawn of the anthropocene, and it is no longer possible to treat these phenomena as entirely v distinct. Looking back at the Romantics from our own era of ecocrisis evokes an ambivalence towards Romantic constructions of the natural world. This thesis is an attempt to address this complex ambivalence. The thesis advances these concerns through the reading of texts in various genres by five Romantic authors. The first chapter explores a foundational work of Romanticism, Mary Wollstonecraft’s Letters from Denmark, Norway and Sweden, in terms of how various landscape descriptions are interrupted by both outside forces and internal states, and how these interruptions are emblematic of the irruptive force of capital. This work, though celebrated on its publication for the beauty of its landscape descriptions, is full of a tumultuous and often vexed sense of place. The second chapter addresses the history of deforestation in terms of William Wordsworth’s poem “The Ruined Cottage.” The sense of dearth that poem evokes is, I argue, directly related to the drastic deforestation of England in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The next chapter examines the acoustic ecology of John Clare as exemplified in his poem “The Fallen Elm.” How the sounds of the natural world appear as both subjects in his poetry and as influential on the formation of his own patterning of sound is explored, as well as the ideological significance of different types of soundscapes. The focus of the fourth chapter is the urban and suburban landscapes of Thomas De Quincey. Here I examine the appearance of urban sprawl in a variety of works by De Quincey and the way in which the addicted body and the sprawling city become darkly symbolic of each other. The thesis concludes with a reading of Mary Shelley’s The Last Man, a novel about the end of humanity written at the end of the Romantic era. Here I consider how changing thought about the relationship of humanity to vi deity, along with the panic of 1825, which marked an important recognition of the global reach of capitalism, inform a broader revision of earlier Romantic idealism and anticipate later existential thought. vii Acknowledgements This dissertation would never have been written had it not been for the compelling instruction and patient guidance of Professor Alan Vardy. The underlying focus on landscape here is heavily influenced by his wide-ranging knowledge and critical insight into this topic. My still- developing interest in ecocriticism owes much to Professor Alexander Schlutz, who has brought so much to my attention during the writing process that my debt to him is immeasurable. Professor Schlutz has in addition been a very generous source of intellectual and emotional support and encouragement throughout the writing process. Professor Joshua Wilner and Professor Nancy Yousef have contributed a great deal to this project, as three of the five chapters here were inspired by work done in their seminars, courses which have left a lasting impression on my thinking and general critical awareness. I wish to warmly thank all of these mentors for providing such a rich and varied academic experience, one to which this document can only poorly attest. Another person without whom this project would never have left the ground is my wife, Seirin Nagano. Her unflagging support, understanding and heroic patience have been a gift that I can never value highly enough, and I count myself lucky for every day I spend in her company. I would also like to thank my mother for her ongoing support and the confidence she has always instilled in me. And, of course, my fellow students at the Graduate Center have provided, in addition to engaging conversation, an empathy and companionship that I continue to hold dear. viii Finally, to my late father, who passed away at the outset of this project, I dedicate the words herein. ix Table of Contents Page Abstract iv Acknowledgements vii List of Figures x Introduction 1 Work Cited 16 Chapter 1 – “The Bones of the World”: The Social Geology of 19 Landscape in Wollstonecraft’s Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark Work Cited 52 Chapter 2 – Broken Arbour: The Ruined Cottage and Deforestation 56 Work Cited 92 Chapter 3 – Music in the Noise: The Acoustic Ecology of John Clare 97 Work Cited 126 Chapter 4 – On the Threshold: The Urban and Suburban Landscapes 129 Of Thomas De Quincey Work Cited 168 Chapter 5 – Imaging Lastness: The Last Man and the Contagion of 171 Modernity Work Cited 203 x List of Figures Page Fig.1: Las Meninas, detail. Diego Velázquez. 1656. 129 Fig. 2: Maps of London. Adapted from various sources 156-57 by Francis Sheppard in London 1808-1870: The Infernal Wen. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1971. 86-87. Fig. 3: Le Deluge. Nicholas Poussin. c1660. 171 Fig. 4: The discovery of the jaw of a fossil reptile in a cavern 185 at Maestricht, taken from Faujas de St Fond’s Histoire naturelle de la Montagne de Saint-Pierre de Maestricht, Paris, an 7 [1799]. Fig. 5: “Section of the Cave in the Dream Lead Mine Near 186 Wirksworth, Derbyshire. 1822.” From Reliquiae Diluvinae, Plate 20. 1 Introduction Man sallies forth into nature…to discover the original of the forms presented to him in his own intellect…he learns at last that what he seeks he has left behind. – S.T.C. After De Quincey had taken possession of Dove Cottage in 1809, one of the ways he marked the space as his own was to cut down the Wordsworths’ cherished trees. The rest of the Wordsworth circle was horrified. Dorothy vows never to see him again, Mary Hutchinson is said to cancel a possible walking tour to Wales, and Sara Hutchinson is positively livid: What do you say to de Q's having polled the Ash Tree & cut down the hedge all round the orchard every Holly, Heckberry, Hazel, & every twig that skreened it & all for the sake of the Apple trees that he may have a few more Apples […] D.[orothy] is so hurt and angry that she can never speak to him more : & truly it was a most unfeeling thing when he knew how much store they set by that orchard. (36-37) Though cutting down trees to obtain a clearer prospect had been a common practice in England for centuries, De Quincey’s motivation appears financial rather than aesthetic. A good crop of apples could pay the rent,1 and De Quincey’s increasingly desperate finances (of which the Wordsworth circle knew nothing) were likely a central motivation.2 Yet his act cannot help but suggest the much broader transformation of the landscape under intensified methods of agriculture and industry that had transformed the appearance of England. In this sense De Quincey represents the urban-centered effort to make the land more “productive” (i.e. 1 As John Clare knew; his family depended for many years on the revenue the apple trees on their rented property brought in. 2 Six months before Sara’s 1811 letter, De Quincey had written to his brother apologizing for the request of the return of a two-pound loan: "my present income is so limited that every shilling is important to me." (qtd. in Jordan 220). 2 profitable), regardless of the human, aesthetic, or natural cost, and thus offends the sensibilities of his rural-minded friends. Sara’s description of De Quincey’s motivation “that he may have a few more Apples,” indicates how moral imperatives are undermined by financial interest.3 The status of the natural object, how it is valued in alternately aesthetic and financial terms, is a conflict at the heart of Romantic (and contemporary) conceptions of the natural world.