Geology, Reform, and the Stratified Earth in American Literature, Long Nineteenth Century by Patr
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Manifesting Vertical Destiny: Geology, Reform, and the Stratified Earth in American Literature, Long Nineteenth Century by Patrick Morgan Department of English Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Priscilla Wald, Supervisor ___________________________ Michael D’Alessandro, Co-Supervisor ___________________________ Thomas Ferraro ___________________________ Timothy Marr ___________________________ Robert Mitchell Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English in the Graduate School of Duke University 2019 ABSTRACT Manifesting Vertical Destiny: Geology, Reform, and the Stratified Earth in American Literature, Long Nineteenth Century by Patrick Morgan Department of English Duke University Date:_______________________ Approved: ___________________________ Priscilla Wald, Supervisor ___________________________ Michael D’Alessandro, Co-Supervisor ___________________________ Thomas Ferraro ___________________________ Timothy Marr ___________________________ Robert Mitchell An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of English in the Graduate School of Duke University 2019 Copyright by Patrick Morgan 2019 Abstract My project, Manifesting Vertical Destiny: Geology, Reform, and the Stratified Earth in American Literature, Long Nineteenth Century, excavates the cultural impact of the concept of the layered earth—or strata—in American fiction, non-fiction, and poetry. In the nineteenth century, the concept of strata changed the planetary narrative, revising theological interpretations of earth history, shoWing that the earth Was much older than humanity and that humans Were one element out of many contributing to this narrative, and a recent one at that. As they encountered deep piles of distinct rock layers in Which humanity Was absent, scientists realized that in the long story strata told, humanity Was a new character rather than a central player. As they reached the general public, these stories elicited lively debates about the place of the human, anticipating many of the debates We are having today surrounding the question of the Anthropocene. Manifesting Vertical Destiny chronicles these debates and their social and political consequences. In four chapters, I place scientists and literary Writers side-by-side, demonstrating hoW they variously engaged the insights of geology provided by strata. Four thinkers exemplify the response to the neWfound diminishment of the human by finding a neW role for humans in this transformed cosmos. Literary Writers Nathaniel Hawthorne and Emily Dickinson assert the force of imagination for human preservation, using their literary Works to transform the erasing poWer of telluric force into a poWer to iv reclaim the human. Similarly responding to the smallness of the human, the geographer George Perkins Marsh and the early American geologist William Maclure channel the stratigraphic imagination into neW accounts of humanity Writ large. Together, these figures shoW hoW strata inspired neW Ways of imagining the place of the human in society, While the literary case studies in particular demonstrate hoW the lessons of strata Were Working their Way, metaphorically, into the collective imagination. Ultimately, in looking doWnWard, Americans discovered earth layers With no trace of the human. Such a conspicuous absence led these thinkers to pose the same question in the present: What are the limits of the human? In Manifesting Vertical Destiny, I shoW hoW the imaginative reconstruction of possible pasts Within earth layers inevitably led Americans to reconsider the present and a hoped-for future. Geology and reform are intimately linked because, as Americans learned hoW to read the layered earth, they realized that each transition from one stratum to another marked a radical transformation in environment: the verticality of stacked-up layers denoted alternative places and times, in the form of ancient environments, Within the same geographical point. The absence of the human Within these many earth layers led nineteenth-century thinkers to question the impact of humans in their contemporary moment, pushing the boundaries of What Was possible, from HaWthorne’s transformed literary vision to Dickinson’s argument for gender equality in the sciences, Maclure’s radical realignment of economic class, and Marsh’s evangelization of environmental ethics. For these v scientists and literary Writers did not merely dally in earthly depths—they claimed verticality. vi Dedication For my parents vii Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... iv AcknoWledgements ...................................................................................................................... x Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 1 Notes ....................................................................................................................................... 24 Chapter 1: Stratigraphic Estrangement: Nathaniel Hawthorne and the Imaginative Potential of the Layered Earth ................................................................................................... 26 The Geologic School of HaWthorne ................................................................................... 40 Aeolian Force in “The Ambitious Guest” ......................................................................... 48 Humanity’s Stratigraphic Estrangement .......................................................................... 59 Notes ....................................................................................................................................... 81 Chapter 2: Geologic Revolutions: William Maclure and the Radical Realignment of Economic Class ............................................................................................................................ 90 Re-Envisioning Social and Geological Strata .................................................................... 97 Radical Geology and the Politics of Perception ............................................................. 104 Demarcating the Divine in Early Nineteenth-Century Geology ................................. 118 Notes ..................................................................................................................................... 137 Chapter 3: Unsettled Strata: Emily Dickinson, Geologic Community, and the Poetry of Stratigraphic Uncertainty ......................................................................................................... 147 The Geologic School of Dickinson ................................................................................... 154 Strata and Soul in “Though the great Waters sleep” .................................................... 160 Stratigraphic Speculations, or the Politics of Plutonism ............................................... 176 Notes ..................................................................................................................................... 181 viii Chapter 4: Reimagining the Human: George Perkins Marsh, Theology, and the Proto- Anthropocene ............................................................................................................................ 197 Human Strata and the Anthropozoic Before Marsh ..................................................... 206 Demarcating the Divine in Geochronology .................................................................... 211 The Question of Agency in Earth’s Stratigraphic Story ................................................ 218 Notes ..................................................................................................................................... 242 Epilogue and Future Directions: Or, Stratigraphic Pasts and Futures .............................. 246 Works Cited ............................................................................................................................... 250 Biography ................................................................................................................................... 264 ix Acknowledgements I give thanks to everyone Who has encouraged me during my time at Duke. I would like to especially thank Priscilla Wald and Michael D’Alessandro for numerous conversations, advice shared, and countless encouragements. I give thanks to Thomas Ferraro for his passionate feedback, Timothy Marr for his exuberant response to both the details and the grand picture, and Rob Mitchell for teaching me about science-and- literature studies. I am thankful for all the colleagues Who have responded to my Work both at Duke and at conferences. The Winterthur Museum and Library supported my project through a one-month research felloWship in July 2018. The Winterthur librarians, students, and support staff all generously shared their time and ideas. Early in my project, When I was considering a chapter on Henry David Thoreau, I received support from the Morgan Library and Museum; I Was a reader in the Sherman Fairchild Reading Room in 2014 and 2015. In addition, I received support and advice from a 2015 NEH Summer Institute led by Sandy Petrulionis, “Transcendentalism and Reform