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Constructing Queer Ecologies in Early America

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Constructing Queer Ecologies in Early America University of Kentucky UKnowledge Theses and Dissertations--English English 2020 Curious Natures: Constructing Queer Ecologies in Early America Richard Lee Parmer Jr. University of Kentucky, [email protected] Digital Object Identifier: https://doi.org/10.13023/etd.2020.490 Right click to open a feedback form in a new tab to let us know how this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Parmer, Richard Lee Jr., "Curious Natures: Constructing Queer Ecologies in Early America" (2020). Theses and Dissertations--English. 120. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/english_etds/120 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the English at UKnowledge. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations--English by an authorized administrator of UKnowledge. For more information, please contact [email protected]. STUDENT AGREEMENT: I represent that my thesis or dissertation and abstract are my original work. Proper attribution has been given to all outside sources. I understand that I am solely responsible for obtaining any needed copyright permissions. I have obtained needed written permission statement(s) from the owner(s) of each third-party copyrighted matter to be included in my work, allowing electronic distribution (if such use is not permitted by the fair use doctrine) which will be submitted to UKnowledge as Additional File. I hereby grant to The University of Kentucky and its agents the irrevocable, non-exclusive, and royalty-free license to archive and make accessible my work in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I agree that the document mentioned above may be made available immediately for worldwide access unless an embargo applies. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of my work. I understand that I am free to register the copyright to my work. REVIEW, APPROVAL AND ACCEPTANCE The document mentioned above has been reviewed and accepted by the student’s advisor, on behalf of the advisory committee, and by the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS), on behalf of the program; we verify that this is the final, approved version of the student’s thesis including all changes required by the advisory committee. The undersigned agree to abide by the statements above. Richard Lee Parmer Jr., Student Dr. Marion Rust, Major Professor Dr. Michael Trask, Director of Graduate Studies CURIOUS NATURES: CONSTRUCTING QUEER ECOLOGIES IN EARLY AMERICA DISSERTATION A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Kentucky By Richard Lee Parmer, Jr. Lexington, Kentucky Director: Dr. Marion Rust, Professor of English Lexington, Kentucky 2020 Copyright © Richard Lee Parmer, Jr. 2020 ASTRACT OF DISSERTATION CURIOUS NATURES: CONSTRUCTING QUEER ECOLOGIES IN EARLY AMERICA This dissertation argues that early American writers often constructed queer ecologies in order to naturalize Anglo-American civilization and justify its expansion into Native American territories. Since there is so little textual evidence on the subject, the major challenge to studying sexuality in early America is approaching sexuality studies creatively—to broaden both our understanding of what counts as sexual discourse and our frameworks for analyzing it. My dissertation addresses this challenge through what many ecocritical scholars of sexuality call queer ecology. In their groundbreaking anthology on the topic, Catriona Mortimer-Sandilands and Bruce Erikson remind us that, historically and in the present, discourses on nature and sex often overlap; as a result, sexual politics has had a distinctly “environmental-spatial dimension” that includes organizing landscapes to produce, promote, and prohibit specific sexual practices and identities. My dissertation contributes to this environmental-spatial study of sexuality by asking what role the rise of natural history in the late colonial and early national periods played in producing our heteronormative national imaginary. Seminal works by scholars such as John D’Emilio, Clare Lyons, Richard Godbeer, and Thomas Foster have made invaluable contributions to our understanding of sex in early America. Likewise, the scholarship of critics like Susan Scott Parrish, Joyce Chaplin, and Kathleen Brown has illuminated how natural history offered new ways of understanding the material world that were used to produce cultural knowledge and norms. My dissertation fills an important gap between these bodies of scholarship by arguing that natural history discourse in early America produces new sexual politics within which sex and nature are inseparable. This critical recognition allows us to rethink sex in early America beyond explicitly sexual acts alone and to avoid the anachronistic search for homosexual identity by instead reading the sexual import of acts, identities, and perspectives tied to nature. In short, we see that how one thought about, and interacted with, the non-human natural world was an important element of sexual knowledge-production in early America. In this period before the rise of sexuality as an identity, yet when new sexual labels and categories such as fops and mollies circulated in colonial discourse, an inappropriate relationship with nature could, simultaneously, suggest non-heteronormative sexual corruption. To explore this connection, I analyze how eighteenth-century curiosity naturalized Anglo-American culture by casting all other settlements and natural spaces as queer ecologies awaiting white improvement. A sexual politics grounded in natural history helps us to understand how an ironically unnatural heteronormativity became naturalized in the new American nation. My dissertation contributes to the growing fields of queer ecology and sexuality studies in early America by considering the interwoven roles of natural history, sexuality, gender, race, and class during the late colonial and early national periods. It helps us to understand how heteronormativity became naturalized, literally and figuratively, in our national imaginary—and provides tools for contemporary scholars to interrogate such claims for contemporary social and environmental justice projects. KEYWORDS: Early American Studies, Sexuality Studies, Environmental Humanities, Queer Ecology, Gender Studies, Race Studies Richard Lee Parmer, Jr. October 15, 2020 CURIOUS NATURES: CONSTRUCTING QUEER ECOLOGIES IN EARLY AMERICA By Richard Lee Parmer, Jr. Dr. Marion Rust Director of Dissertation Dr. Michael Trask Director of Graduate Studies October 15, 2020 This dissertation is dedicated to my parents, Ricky and Rita Parmer, for their unwavering support. Thank you for planting the loves for learning and nature within me at an early age and always encouraging their growth. This project would have never happened without you. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I wish to thank my dissertation director, Dr. Marion Rust. Her passion for scholarship and mentoring exemplify the type of scholar and educator I wish to be. Thank you, Marion, for your steadfast support, encouragement, and intellectual insights. This project could not have become what it is without your guidance, and I am incredibly honored that we are both so proud of it. I would also like to thank my entire dissertation committee: Dr. Andy Doolen, Dr. Randall Roorda, and Dr. Carol Mason. Your scholarship, teaching, and mentorship has been invaluable. Finally, I wish to generally acknowledge the teachers whom have instilled a love of learning and teaching since I was an undergraduate at Presbyterian College. Thank you for all of your support and guidance along this journey. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………...….iii List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………..v Introduction: Curious Natures, Queer Ecologies………………………………………….1 Chapter 1: Copper-Coloured Beauties, Pochoon, and the Dirty State of Nature: Mapping Queer Ecologies in William Byrd II’s History of the Dividing Line…………..17 Chapter 2: Continually impelled by a restless spirit of curiosity”: Puc Puggy and the Intimate Ecologies of William Bartram’s Travels……………………………………….53 Chapter 3: “Why not act the man?”: Charles Willson Peale, Republican Manhood, and the Queer Ventriloquism of Raphaelle Peale…………………………………………….99 Coda: The Falcon, the Yellow Head, and the Queer Pleasures of Picking Daffodils..........................................................................................................................148 References………………………………………………………………………………157 Vita...................................................................................................................................164 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1, William Bartam. Spotted Turtle and Milk Snake or Corn Snake. (1769)..….…..3 Figure 2, Natural History Macaroni. (1772)….…………………………………………..5 Figure 3, William Bartram. Great Alachua Swamp. (1765)…..…………………………..8 Figure 4, William Bartram. Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake. (1774)………………...53 Figure 5, William Bartram. American Lotus, Whitelip Snail, Ruby-Throated Hummingbird, Black Root, Arrow Arum, Unidentified Snake, Dragonfly, and Frog. (1769)…………………………………………………………………………………….66 Figure 6, Charles Willson Peale. Portrait of William Bartram. (1808)………………….68 Figure 7, William Bartram. Evening Primrose. (1788)………………………………….73 Figure 8, William Bartram. Ixia caelestina. (Undated)………………………………….74 Figure
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