A Thematic Study of James Fenimore Cooper's Nautical Fiction. Philip Neil Cooksey Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
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Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1977 A Thematic Study of James Fenimore Cooper's Nautical Fiction. Philip Neil Cooksey Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Cooksey, Philip Neil, "A Thematic Study of James Fenimore Cooper's Nautical Fiction." (1977). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 3102. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/3102 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. INFORMATION TO USERS This material was produced from a microfilm copy of the original document. 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University Microfilms International 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 USA St. John's Road, Tyler's Green High Wycombe, Bucks, England HP10 8HR Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. 77-28,667 COOKSEY, Philip N eil, 1945- A THEMATIC STUDY OF JAMES FENIMORE COOPER’S NAUTICAL FICTION. Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, Ph.D., 1977 Literature, American Xerox University Microfilms,Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. A THEMATIC STUDY OF JAMES FENIMORE COOPER’S NAUTICAL FICTION A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department o f E n g lish by Philip Neil Cooksey B.A., Oklahoma State University, 1968 M.A., Oklahoma State University, 1972 August, 1977 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. EXAMINATION AND THESIS REPORT Candidate: Philip Neil Cooksey Major Field: English T itle of Thesis: A THEMATIC STUDY OF JAMES FENIMORE COOPER’ S NAUTICAJ. FICTION Approved: Major Professor and Chairman yf Dean of the G rad u al School EXAMINING COMMITTEE: (j^'d — > Date of Examination: July 7, 1977 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express special appreciation to Dr. Donald E. Stanford, my major professor and the director of my dissertation, without whose guidance and support this project might never have been completed. I would also like to thank Dr. John Hazard Wildman and Dr. James Babin for reading the manuscript in rough draft and fo r t h e ir many v a lu a b le s u g g e stio n s , I appreciate the patience and support of Peggy Cooksey, my wife, who has lived with this work for as long as I have, and Phil Cooksey, my son, age nine, who has been understanding. And I have profited greatly from the sk ill and experience of Dora Cornwell, ray typist. Finally, to my mother I express my deepest appreciation for her belief and confidence in me, her encouragement, and her love. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OP CONTENTS PAGE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS............................................................................. i l ABSTRACT................................................................................................ iv CHAPTER I . INTRODUCTION........................................................... 1 I I . THE EARLY SEA NOVELS, 1 8 2 4 -1 8 4 2................ 11 I I I . WING-AND-WING; A NEW DIRECTION FOR THE NAtmCAT TADS’................................................................... 63 IV. AFLOAT AND ASHORE AND MILES WALLINGFORD; A SIGNIFICANT C ontribution to ‘the NEW GENRE.................................................................................. 100 V. TŒ SEA LIONS : THE SYMBOLIC SEA NOVEL . 146 V I. CONCLUSION AND MISCELLANEOUS TALES .... 191 BIBLIOGRAPHY............................................................................................ 210 VITA............................................................................................................... 213 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ABSTRACT The purpose of this examination of ten of Cooper's sea tales is to trace their chronological progression from romantic, adventure stories to symbolic and even allegor ical tales of human spiritual ordeal. Also, this study makes qualitative judgments of these novels and examines the fictional failures and successes they present to the re a d e r . Chapter two is a summary analysis of the first five nautical novels, which were written between 1824 and 1842. The first three—The P ilot, The Red Rover, and The Water- Witch—are similar in their romantic, idealized characters and in their picaresque actions, which involve miraculous events set in provincial, and usually pre-revolutionary tim e s. In Homeward Bound, th e fo u r th se a t a l e , Cooper introduces social criticism into the genre with the Montauk, a floating microcosm of American caricatures. The Two Admirals is an English story, a paean to the superb British fleet. The nautical elements in these first five tales contribute to exciting action sequences, but they are not functional as regards the political, social, and nationalistic themes Cooper attempts to express through them. Chapters three, four, and five are each devoted to individual novels. Wing-and-Wing is Cooper's first realistic Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. sea story. In its protagonist’s suffering due to his smug sense of self, his pride, and his having faith only in things seen, Wing-and-Wing represents a significant depar ture from the early novels that it resembles in some ways. Afloat and Ashore chronicles the moral and spiritual struggles within Miles Wallingford, whose education, in his experience of the adult world by way of various voyages, is a nautical rite of passage comparable to that of M elville’s Redburn. Here for the first time Cooper exploits the natural spectacle so abundantly available with the genre of the sea story. The Sea Lions is Cooper’s last sea story, and in ways it is the climax of his development as a Chris tian writer. Using twin ships and twin captains. Cooper employs a doppelganger theme to probe the division within man of body and soul and the struggle within him between good and evil. Rather than the nautical novel’s being simply a vehicle for escapism, here the symbolic voyage allowed Cooper to make an inner exploration into the universal truth, for him, of the spiritual nature of reality. Chapter six includes brief treatments of two stories. Ned Myers is a biography, a slice of a sailor’s life that is a readable but lim ited account which climaxes with Ned’s spiritual rebirth. Jack Tier is, except for Mercedes of C astile, the worst of Cooper’s nautical tales. Written in 1848, it is an unexpected reversion to the romantic type of story Cooper was writing between 1824 and 1842. It is Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. a novel flaw ed by many im p r o b a b ilitie s and p eopled w ith characters even more unreal and uninvolving than the marionettes of the early tales. This chronological study of Cooper's nautical fiction reveals his growth as a writer, particularly in his crea tion of more realistic and believable