DOCSLIB.ORG

ANALYSIS the Prairie (1827) James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
ANALYSIS the Prairie (1827) James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) ANALYSIS The Prairie (1827) James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) The Prairie was Cooper’s favorite in his Leatherstocking series, he spent more time on it than on any other book in the Saga, it is the most rich and complex--his best--and it brings his vision into the closest relation to modern America, as in his concern for preserving the natural environment. This allegorical romance is the finale in the chronology of Natty Bumppo’s life, as he personifies the best spirit of the westward movement confronting the worst to come as represented by Ishmael Bush. The tone is elegiac, leading to the death of Leatherstocking. The book opens with a quotation from Shakespeare’s As You Like It that parallels Natty to Christ, implying a spiritual allegory and casting him as the pastoral “good shepherd”: “I pray thee, shepherd, if that love, or gold, / Can in this desert place buy entertainment, / Bring us where we may rest ourselves and feed.” Many critics such as Mark Twain and Bret Harte have ridiculed Cooper for not being a Realist, as if he could or should have had an entirely different education, life experience, sensibility and outlook--as if he could or should have ignored his own reality and his Victorian audience and written according to aesthetic principles that evolved and governed literary fiction long after his death. Cooper’s quotation from Shakespeare indicates that he is writing a romance, just as suggested by critic Leslie Fiedler: “In all [his] magic woods (sometimes more like those of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night's Dream than any native forest)...” [Love and Death in the American Novel (1960) 201] “He treats the portion of the Plains in which the action takes place as if it were an Elizabethan stage, a neutral space where any character may be brought at a moment's notice without arousing in the audience a desire to have the entrance accounted for.” [Henry Nash Smith, Introduction to The Prairie (1962)] The refusal by Realists to respect Cooper’s romances, even when he parallels Shakespeare, is comparable to the illiterate vulgarity of the Duke and the King in their representation of Shakespeare. Of course Cooper himself, though a great writer, is far from measuring up to Shakespeare. His qualities transcend his faults, but his faults are fun to laugh at: COMIC RELIEF 1. Unnecessary exposition and wordiness: “It is necessary, in order that the thread of the narrative should not be spun to a length which might fatigue the reader [!], that he should imagine a week to have intervened between the scene with which the preceding chapter closed and the events with which it is our intention to resume its relation in this.” (opening sentence, Chapter 8) “Having made the reader acquainted with the manner in which Ishmael Bush had disposed of his family, under circumstances that might have proved so embarrassing to most other men, we shall again shift the scene a few short miles from the place last described, preserving, however, the due and natural succession of time.” (opening sentence, Chapter 9) 2. Absurd exposition, as Cooper establishes family relationships in one outburst from Ellen Wade: “You mean Ishmael Bush, my father’s brother's widow's husband...” (end Chapter 11) 3. Incredible coincidence, or mental telepathy: “’Have I a man among my children?’ demanded Esther... ‘Stay, mother,’ exclaimed Abner and Enoch; ‘if you will see the creature’ let us drive it into view’.” (italics added, end Chapter 12) The boys are like half a barbershop quartet. 4. Ridiculous deafness of Bush family during Indian raid: “His voice was, however, lost, or rather unheeded, in the midst of the shrieks, shouts, and yells that were, by this time, bursting from fifty mouths on every side of him.... They tossed their arms wildly in the air, leaping up and down more like exulting children than sober men, and continued to utter the most frantic cries. In the midst of this tumultuous disorder a rushing sound was heard, similar to that which might be expected to precede the passage of a flight of buffaloes, and then came the flocks and cattle of Ishmael in one confused and frightened drove...all eyes were directed to the passing whirlwind of men and beasts... The wild animals snorted with joy and terror, and tearing the earth with their heels, they dashed away into the broad prairies, in a dozen different directions....‘The family is stirring,’ cried Ellen...” (Chapter 5) 5. In Chapter 14, out on the prairie, the Bush family takes refuge on a rock that is about 200 feet high. Characters on the ground engage in long conversations with characters high above them at a distance of 200 feet! On the ground, Dr. Battius poses a question to Ellen Wade high over his head: “’I know not the meaning of all you wish to say, Dr. Battius,’ she quietly replied.” 6. Elsewhere, also, Dr. Battius and Natty engage in philosophical discourse--Natty on his horse and Dr. Batty on his ass--while at full gallop hotly pursued by hostile Indians! SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT Cooper inherited his view of social evolution from the Enlightenment of the previous century, in particular from the French Encyclopedists and their successors, mainly Condorcet: All human societies pass through a series of stages, beginning with (1) the solitary hunter in the forest (Natty Bumppo); (2) followed by “patriarchal” migratory tribes (Ishmael Bush & family); (3) the beginnings of pastoral agriculture, the stage of Crèvecoeur and Thomas Jefferson, Cooper himself and Middleton in The Prairie; (4) and on through ever more artificial forms of social organization (Dr. Battius). THE PRAIRIE AS A METAPHOR 1. The prairie is a metaphor of life: “The world was, in truth, no better than a desert, and...there was but one hand [Christ/Moses/Natty] that could lead the most learned man [Dr. Battius] through all its crooked windings.” (Chapter 8) 2. The prairie of Natty is analogous to the Biblical desert of Moses: “...remarkable for its barrenness...”; “’It is true; but Egypt--nay much of Africa furnishes still more striking proofs of this exhaustion of nature’.” (Chapter 22) 3. The prairie is a symbolic warning that makes this book the first work of environmentalism in American literature. In Chapter 2, when Natty observes the Bush pioneers overcutting trees, Cooper expresses his ambivalence with a pun, questioning their form of “progress.” Then Natty “turned away muttering to himself with a bitter smile, like one who disdained giving a more audible utterance to his discontent.” (Chapter 2) “What will the Yankee choppers say, when they find that a hand, which can lay the ‘arth bare at a blow, has been here and swept the country, in very mockery of their wickedness. They will turn on their tracks like a fox that doubles, and then the rank smell of their own footsteps will show them the madness of their waste.” (Chapter 7) This passage prefigures the plot, as in the end Ishmael Bush turns back on his tracks. 4. The prairie is a prophecy of the literal and spiritual wastelands to come if the values of Natty die with him, anticipating “The Waste Land” (1922) by T. S. Eliot, the most influential poem of the 20th century: “It will not be long before an accursed band of choppers and loggers will be following on their heels, to humble the wilderness which lies so broad and rich on the western banks of the Mississippi, and then the land will be a peopled desert, from the shores of the main sea to the foot of the Rocky Mountains; filled with all the abominations and craft of man, and stript of the comforts and loveliness it received from the hands of the Lord!” (Chapter 18) FAITH AND MANIFEST DESTINY Chapter 6 opens with an essay applauding the early New England Puritans for their virtues, but Cooper, like Hawthorne, thinks Calvinism is a destructive ideology in the long term and sees later generations of New Englanders as degenerate exploiters. Though lately from Tennessee, Ishmael Bush is called a “Yankee chopper.” His character, biblical name, and religious practice identify him with the Calvinistic tradition. Cooper goes on to affirm independence, democracy, the march of civilization westward, and Manifest Destiny as divine Providence. In Chapter 15 he expresses his Christian faith, then accommodates the prevailing deism of intellectuals during the Enlightenment, affirming “Providence--or if that imposing word is too just to be classical, fate...” In Chapter 15 he accuses Catholics of suppressing knowledge to maintain control of the believers and contrasts the faith of young Middleton, a model of the civilized man just as Natty is a model of the frontiersman: “Educated himself under the dominion of a simple and rational faith, in which nothing is attempted to be concealed from the believers...” His “rational faith” is implicitly Protestant in contrast to Catholic, and also in contrast to the primitive Calvinism of Ishmael Bush. THE GARDEN OF THE WEST At the end of Chapter 10, a reference is made to the Lewis and Clark expedition of 1804, placing the narrative in historical time with poetic license as to dates: “Lewis is making his way up the river, some hundreds of miles from this.” On the second page of the book, Cooper alludes indirectly to Daniel Boone, the principal model for Natty: “This adventurous and venerable patriarch was now seen making his last remove.” In historical fact, Boone moved to Missouri in 1799, not 1804. Cooper also drops a footnote saying that “Colonel Boon” was “in his ninety-second year.” In fact, Boone was 65 in 1804.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • In Cooper's the Leatherstocking Tales
    CONNECTING THE VANISHING FLORA, FAUNA AND ITS RELATION TO THE INDIAN REMOVAL POLICY AS SEEN IN COOPER’S THE LEATHERSTOCKING TALES Ceisy Nita Wuntu [email protected] English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, Manado State University, Indonesia Abstract: This study aims at connecting the vanishing flora, fauna and its Relation to the Indian removal policy in Cooper’s The Leatherstocking Tales. This research applies an American Studies’ interdisciplinary principle supplemented by the myth and symbol theory proposed by Henry Nash Smith. Smith claimed the importance of imaginative works in revealing American culture. He declared that the historical, anthropological and cultural, sociological, and ecological data as covered in this research can be equipped by data from imaginative works. Hence, in this research, those data are presented integratedly in their context of past and present. In this research, in order to highlight environmental matters in Cooper’s The Leatherstocking Tales, the analysis covers the data above that are integrated with the data revealed in The Leatherstocking Tales as a whole by employing the concept of ecocriticism. The spirit of the immigrants to have a better life in the new world, stimulated by its rich, lush and beautiful circumstances, in fact, is not an aim of a sustainable life. The desire to improve their life is not enough without using and treating its environment wisely as well as facing it with the environmental conservation paradigm. The spirit of doing the exploitation is a consequence of western humanism value. The reason of coming to America to avoid the population density as well as the competition of life cannot be attained when the immigrants experience the same population density and harsh competition as in their old world and when the beautiful nature disappears, the forests become cities, the tranquility becomes noisy and crowded, and the people experience the uncomfortable life that many kinds of conflict can follow.
    [Show full text]
  • Us Lone Wand'ring Whaling-Men
    “Us Lone Wand’ring Whaling-Men”: Cross-cutting Fantasies of Work and Nation in Late Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century American Whaling Narratives by Jennifer Hope Schell B.A., Emory University, 1996 M.A., University of Georgia, 1998 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2006 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Jennifer Hope Schell Jennifer Hope Schell It was defended on April 21, 2006 and approved by Susan Z. Andrade, Associate Professor of English Jean Ferguson Carr, Associate Professor of English Kirk Savage, Associate Professor of History of Art & Architecture Dissertation Advisor: Nancy Glazener, Associate Professor of English ii “Us Lone Wand’ring Whaling-Men”: Cross-cutting Fantasies of Work and Nation in Late Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century American Whaling Narratives Jennifer Hope Schell, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2006 My project takes up a variety of fictional and non-fictional texts about a kind of work which attracted the attention of American novelists Herman Melville, Harry Halyard, and Helen E. Brown; historian Obed Macy; and journalist J. Ross Browne, among others. In my Introduction, I argue that these whaling narratives helped to further develop and perpetuate an already existing fantasy of masculine physical labor which imagines the United States’ working class men to be ideal, heroic Americans. This fantasy was so compelling and palpable that, surprisingly enough, the New England whalemen could be persistently claimed as characteristically and emblematically American, even though they worked on hierarchically-stratified floating factories, were frequently denied their Constitutional rights by maritime law, and hardly ever spent any time on American soil.
    [Show full text]
  • James Fenimore Cooper and Thomas Cole Corie Dias
    Undergraduate Review Volume 2 Article 18 2006 Painters of a Changing New World: James Fenimore Cooper and Thomas Cole Corie Dias Follow this and additional works at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/undergrad_rev Part of the American Art and Architecture Commons, Comparative Literature Commons, and the Literature in English, North America Commons Recommended Citation Dias, Corie (2006). Painters of a Changing New World: James Fenimore Cooper and Thomas Cole. Undergraduate Review, 2, 110-118. Available at: http://vc.bridgew.edu/undergrad_rev/vol2/iss1/18 This item is available as part of Virtual Commons, the open-access institutional repository of Bridgewater State University, Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Copyright © 2006 Corie Dias 110 Painters ofa Changing New World: James Fenimore Cooper and Thomas Cole BY CORlE DIAS Corie wrote this piece as part of her uthor James Fenimore Cooper and painter Thomas Cole both Honors thesis under the mentorship of Dr. observed man's progress west and both disapproved of the way Ann Brunjes. She plans on pursuing a career in which the settlers went about this expansion. They were not in the fine arts field, while also continuing against such progress. but both men disagreed with the harmful to produce her own artwork. way it was done, with the natural environment suffering irreversible harm. Had the pioneers gone about making their changes in a different way, Cooper and Cole seem to suggest, the new society could have been established without corrupting the environment and would not have been criticized by these artists; however, the settlers showed little or no regard for the natural state of this new land.
    [Show full text]
  • PRIME POWER Tent 1 (DELAWARE & MARYLAND ELIGIBLE) Row F 904 BAY FILLY Foaled April 19, 2019 Stall 48 Reg
    Consigned by and Raised at WINBAK FARM, Chesapeake City, MD PRIME POWER Tent 1 (DELAWARE & MARYLAND ELIGIBLE) Row F 904 BAY FILLY Foaled April 19, 2019 Stall 48 Reg. No. 7T137 Microchip No. 985141001157086 No Nukes p,3,T1:52.1 Western Hanover p,3,1:50.4 ----------- Wendymae Hanover p,4,T1:57 Badlands Hanover p,2, 1:50z --- Tyler B p,3,1:55.1 Behave Hanover p,3,Q1:58.3f --------- Bretina Hanover p,2,T2:01.1 PRIME POWER Jenna's Beach Boy p,4,1:47.3 Quik Pulse Mindale p,3,1:48 ----------- Midnight Stage p,3,1:52.4 Pulse Power p,3,1:58.4f ---------- Camluck p,T1:48.4 Natural Luck p,3,1:55.1 ------------------ Natural Charm p,2,1:59 1st Dam PULSE POWER p,3,1:58.4f; BT1:56.1f ($11,406) by Quik Pulse Mindale. Winner at 3. At 2, third in Pennsylvania Fair S. at Butler. At 3, second in Pennsylvania Fair S. at Clearfield; third in Pennsylvania Fair S. at Waynesburg. From 1 previous foal, dam of: Bolt Power (Bolt The Duer). Now 2. 2nd Dam NATURAL LUCK p,2,1:55.3; 3,1:55.1; BT1:53s ($92,486) by Camluck. 4 wins at 2 and 3. At 2, winner leg Ontario Sires S. - Grassroots at Grand River, Semi-Final Ontario Sires S. - Grassroots at Sarnia; second in Flamboro Breeders S., leg Ontario Sires S. - Grassroots at Woodstock; third in leg Ontario Sires S. - Grassroots at Clinton, Dresden, Final Ontario Sires S.
    [Show full text]
  • Wallace Stegner and the De-Mythologizing of the American West" (2004)
    Digital Commons @ George Fox University Faculty Publications - Department of Professional Department of Professional Studies Studies 2004 Angling for Repose: Wallace Stegner and the De- Mythologizing of the American West Jennie A. Harrop George Fox University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/dps_fac Recommended Citation Harrop, Jennie A., "Angling for Repose: Wallace Stegner and the De-Mythologizing of the American West" (2004). Faculty Publications - Department of Professional Studies. Paper 5. http://digitalcommons.georgefox.edu/dps_fac/5 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of Professional Studies at Digital Commons @ George Fox University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications - Department of Professional Studies by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ George Fox University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ANGLING FOR REPOSE: WALLACE STEGNER AND THE DE-MYTHOLOGIZING OF THE AMERICAN WEST A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of Arts and Humanities University of Denver In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy by Jennie A. Camp June 2004 Advisor: Dr. Margaret Earley Whitt Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ©Copyright by Jennie A. Camp 2004 All Rights Reserved Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. GRADUATE STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DENVER Upon the recommendation of the chairperson of the Department of English this dissertation is hereby accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Profess^inJ charge of dissertation Vice Provost for Graduate Studies / if H Date Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.
    [Show full text]
  • "Be Wise To-Day. It Is Madness to Defer; To-Morrow's Caution May Arrive Too Late." W
    PRECAUTION. A NOVEL. BY J. FENIMORE COOPER. "Be wise to-day. It is madness to defer; To-morrow's caution may arrive too late." W. C. BRYANT'S DISCOURSE ON THE LIFE, GENIUS, AND WRITINGS OF JAMES FENIMORE COOPER, DELIVERED AT METROPOLITAN HALL, N.Y., FEBRUARY 25, 1852. It is now somewhat more than a year, since the friends of JAMES FENIMORE COOPER, in this city; were planning to give a public dinner to his honor. It was intended as an expression both of the regard they bore him personally, and of the pride they took in the glory his writings had reflected on the American name. We thought of what we should say in his hearing; in what terms, worthy of him and of us, we should speak of the esteem in which we held him, and of the interest we felt in a fame which had already penetrated to the remotest nook of the earth inhabited by civilized man. To-day we assemble for a sadder purpose: to pay to the dead some part of the honors then intended for the living. We bring our offering, but he is not here who should receive it; in his stead are vacancy and silence; there is no eye to brighten at our words, and no voice to answer. "It is an empty office that we perform," said Virgil, in his melodious verses, when commemorating the virtues of the young Marcellus, and bidding flowers be strewn, with full hands, over his early grave. We might apply the expression to the present occasion, but it would be true in part only.
    [Show full text]
  • James Fenimore Cooper and the Genteel Hero of Romance
    INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation.
    [Show full text]
  • James Fenimore Cooper's Frontier: the Pioneers As History Thomas Berson
    Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2004 James Fenimore Cooper's Frontier: The Pioneers as History Thomas Berson Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES JAMES FENIMORE COOPER’S FRONTIER: THE PIONEERS AS HISTORY By THOMAS BERSON A Thesis Submitted to the Progra In A erican and Florida Studies in partial fulfill ent of the require ents for the degree of Master of Arts Degree Awarded: Sum er Se ester, 2004 The members of the Committee approve the thesis of Thomas Berson defended on July 1, 2004. --------------------------- Frederick Davis Professor Directing Thesis ---------------------------- John Fenstermaker Committee Member ---------------------------- Ned Stuckey-French Committee Member Approved: ------------------------------ John Fenstermaker, Chair, Program in American and Florida Studies ------------------------------ Donald Foss, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences The Office of Graduate Studies has verified and approved the above named committee members. ii For My Parents iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Special thanks to John Fenstermaker, who gave me the opportunity to come back to school and to teach and to Fritz Davis, who helped me find direction in my studies. Additional thanks to the aforementioned and also to Ned Stuckey-French for taking the time out of their summers to sit on the committee for this paper. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • University Microfilms
    INFORMATION TO USERS This dissertation was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. While the most advanced technological means to photograph and reproduce this document have been used, the quality is heavily dependent upon the quality of the original submitted. The following explanation of techniques is provided to help you understand markings or patterns which may appear on this reproduction. 1. The sign or "target" for pages apparently lacking from the document photographed is "Missing Page(s)". If it was possible to obtain the missing page(s) or section, they are spliced into the film along with adjacent pages. This may have necessitated cutting thru an image and duplicating' adjacent pages to insure you complete continuity. 2. When an image on the film is obliterated with a large round black mark, it is an indication that the photographer suspected that the copy may have moved during exposure and thus cause a blurred image. You will find a good image of the page in the adjacent frame. 3. When a map, drawing or chart, etc., was part of the material being photographed the photographer followed a definite method in "sectioning" the material. It is customary to begin photoing at the upper left hand corner of a large sheet and to continue photoing from left to right in equal sections with a small overlap. If necessary, sectioning is continued again — beginning below the first row and continuing on until complete. 4. The majority of users indicate that the textual content is of greatest value, however, a somewhat higher quality reproduction could be made from "photographs" if essential to the understanding of the dissertation.
    [Show full text]
  • Glen Ridge High School 1 Page Oct 20, 2020 at 11:39 Am Weeding List
    GLEN - Glen Ridge High School Oct 20, 2020 at 11:39 am 1Page Weeding List (164) by Copy Call Number Alexandria 6.23.1 Selected:All Copies Call # Title Year Barcode LTD Use Last Use Bloom's guide to Khaled Hosseini's The kite ru... 2009 57820000588429 0 None Chromebook charger NONE 57820000297351 3 03/09/2020 Medicine, health, and bioethics : essential prim... 2006 57820000538013 0 None NO TITLE NONE EEUFET8I 0 None NO TITLE NONE ETU 0 None NO TITLE NONE AUCIEZEU 0 None NO TITLE NONE ENA1GCAL 0 None NO TITLE NONE OIAIQA8CNH5 0 None NO TITLE NONE UAADCEGLZU 0 None NO TITLE NONE EVECA 0 None NO TITLE NONE ZEIOHUAAA 0 None NO TITLE NONE CUOCEZMPE 0 None NO TITLE NONE KEAOUADNA 0 None NO TITLE NONE ED8ERHZU 0 None NO TITLE NONE ESEU 0 None NO TITLE NONE RAIQGCCOAU 0 None NO TITLE NONE AEZJEHSSSPU 0 None NO TITLE NONE CPNARECOE 0 None NO TITLE NONE SON 0 None NO TITLE NONE EEHBVNEUERZO 0 None NO TITLE NONE ENODBOAII 0 None NO TITLE NONE IHBDIIH 0 None NO TITLE NONE HTVUQZUKEEE 0 None NO TITLE NONE BBACCNZNU 0 None NO TITLE NONE 1301309 0 None Famous military trials 1980 57820000517881 0 None Geis 2016 5782000058211 0 None A Christmas carol 2008 57820000587959 0 None Recipes from the Chateaux of the Loire 1998 57820000169873 0 None The burning bridge 2005 57820000520174 7 12/07/2015 Winning in the game of life : self-coaching secr... 1999 57820000157423 0 None The scarlet letter 2006 57820000587991 0 None 20s & '30s style 1989 57820000079437 2 01/31/2013 The kite runner 2008 57820000585433 0 None The Hudson River and its painters 1983 57820000283815 0 None Literary criticism - French writers, other Europea...1984 57820000080427 0 None Napoleon's glands : and other ventures in bioh..
    [Show full text]
  • “Messengers of Justice and of Wrath”: the Captivity
    ―Messengers of Justice and of Wrath‖: The Captivity-Revenge Cycle in the American Frontier Romance A dissertation presented to the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of Ohio University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy Brian P. Elliott June 2011 © 2011 Brian P. Elliott. All Rights Reserved. 2 This dissertation titled ―Messengers of Justice and of Wrath‖: The Captivity-Revenge Cycle in the American Frontier Romance by BRIAN P. ELLIOTT has been approved for the Department of English and the College of Arts and Sciences by Paul C. Jones Associate Professor of English Benjamin M. Ogles Dean, College of Arts and Sciences 3 ABSTRACT ELLIOTT, BRIAN P., Ph.D., June 2011, English ―Messengers of Justice and of Wrath‖: The Captivity-Revenge Cycle in the American Frontier Romance Director of Dissertation: Paul C. Jones This project explores the central importance of captivity and revenge to four novels in the genre of frontier romance: Charles Brockden Brown‘s Edgar Huntly (1799), James Fenimore Cooper‘s Last of the Mohicans (1826), Catharine Maria Sedgwick‘s Hope Leslie (1827), and Robert Montgomery Bird‘s Nick of the Woods (1837). Although a fundamental plot aspect of nearly every work in the genre, the threat of captivity and the necessity of revenge are rarely approached as topics of inquiry, despite their deep connection to the structure and action of the texts. Perhaps most importantly, as critics Jeremy Engels and Greg Goodale note, these twin tropes serve as a way of unifying disparate social groups and creating order; in essence, such depictions function as a form of what Michel Foucault terms ―governmentality,‖ logics of control that originate from non-governmental sources but promote systems of governance.
    [Show full text]
  • The Making of a Mohicans Adaptation Barker, Martin
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Aberystwyth Research Portal Aberystwyth University A very American fable: the making of a Mohicans adaptation Barker, Martin Published in: Nineteenth-Century American Fiction on Screen Publication date: 2006 Citation for published version (APA): Barker, M. (2006). A very American fable: the making of a Mohicans adaptation. In R. B. Palmer (Ed.), Nineteenth-Century American Fiction on Screen (pp. 9-28). Cambridge University Press. http://hdl.handle.net/2160/1989 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the Aberystwyth Research Portal (the Institutional Repository) are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the Aberystwyth Research Portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the Aberystwyth Research Portal Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. tel: +44 1970 62 2400 email: [email protected] Download date: 09. Jul. 2020 Comp. by: MuJayakumar Date:6/12/06 Time:16:07:37 Stage:1st Revises File Path://spiina1001z/cup_prod1/PRODENV/000000~2/000B86~1/S00000~3/ 000000~1/000000~2/000013662.3D Proof by: QC by: Author: Barker 1 A very American fable: the making of a Mohicans adaptation Martin Barker and Roger Sabin In 1936 the second major screen version of James Fenimore Cooper’s (1789–1851) The Last of the Mohicans was released by a small outfit, Reliance Pictures, through United Artists.
    [Show full text]