DOCSLIB.ORG

The Imaginative Tension in Henry David Thoreau's Political Thought

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text

Load more

THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA Arcadian Exile: The Imaginative Tension in Henry David Thoreau’s Political Thought A DISSERTATION Submitted to the Faculty of the Department of Politics School of Arts and Sciences of the Catholic University of America In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree Doctor of Philosophy © Copyright All Rights Reserved By Joshua James Bowman Washington, D.C. 2016 Arcadian Exile: The Imaginative Tension in Henry David Thoreau’s Political Thought Joshua James Bowman, Ph.D. Director: Claes G. Ryn, Ph.D. Henry David Thoreau‘s writings have achieved a unique status in the history of American literature. His ideas influenced the likes of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., and play a significant role in American environmentalism. Despite this influence his larger political vision is often used for purposes he knew nothing about or could not have anticipated. The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze Thoreau’s work and legacy by elucidating a key tension within Thoreau's imagination. Instead of placing Thoreau in a pre-conceived category or worldview, the focus on imagination allows a more incisive reflection on moral and spiritual questions and makes possible a deeper investigation of Thoreau’s sense of reality. Drawing primarily on the work of Claes Ryn, imagination is here conceived as a form of consciousness that is creative and constitutive of our most basic sense of reality. The imagination both shapes and is shaped by will/desire and is capable of a broad and qualitatively diverse range of intuition which varies depending on one’s orientation of will. The criterion for determining the quality of the orientation of will and imagination is experiential reality of a certain kind. The moral and philosophical life constantly involves a struggle between an attunement or will to reality and a revolt against, or an evasion of, reality. The former characterizes the higher will and the corresponding moral imagination, while the revolt or evasion distinguishes the lower will and the idyllic imagination. Despite studies acknowledging the importance of imagination for Thoreau, no one has located the tension in Thoreau's work within his imagination, nor appreciated the importance of this tension for his political thought. To remedy this oversight, this study outlines a theory of imagination and applies it to an analysis of the moral-idyllic tension in Thoreau’s moral and political thought. Thoreau’s preference for an abstract, ahistorical “higher law,” his radical concept of autonomy, and his frustration with government and community foster an impractical political thought characteristic of the idyllic imagination. Nevertheless, Thoreau demonstrates a moral imagination in his emphasis on the inescapable relationship between the moral order of individuals and the order of political communities. This study further applies the theory of imagination to Thoreau’s view of nature and the non-human world and is considered alongside environmentalism’s considerable debt to his work. On the idyllic side is the Thoreau who longs for an escape from human community and social obligations by withdrawing to nature and by idealizing the non-human world as a perfect companion and as divine. On the moral side is the Thoreau that awakens his neighbors to the under-appreciated sanctity, beauty, mystery and value of the non-human world. Thoreau is much more complex than what other political theorists admit, but his overall vision ultimately creates significant problems with which environmentalists, in particular, still struggle. While Thoreau’s emphasis on freedom and the immaterial aspects of human and non- human nature are of considerable value to later readers, his abstract political morality, misanthropy and escapism must be resisted both for the sake of environmental well-being and human dignity. This dissertation by Joshua James Bowman fulfills the dissertation requirement for the doctoral degree in Politics approved by Claes G. Ryn, Ph.D., as Director, and by David Walsh Ph.D., and Dennis J. Coyle, Ph.D., as Readers. ____________________________________________ Claes G. Ryn, Ph.D, Director. ____________________________________________ David J. Walsh, Ph.D, Reader ____________________________________________ Dennis J. Coyle, Ph.D, Reader ii Solo Deo Gloria To Melissa, Micah and in memory of Gary Anderson iii CONTENTS INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................1 1. IMAGINATION, MORALITY AND POLITICS...............................................23 2. THOREAU ON POLITICAL MORALITY AND HUMAN NATURE.............66 3. IMAGINATION IN FRIENDSHIP AND COMMUNITY.................................89 4. RESISTANCE AND RIGHT............................................................................109 5. ENVIRONMENTAL IMAGINATION AND POLITICAL THOUGHT.........138 6. THOREAU AND THE ARCADIAN LONGING............................................165 7. THOREAU, THE ARCADIAN EXILE............................................................198 8. INFINITE ARCADIA.......................................................................................217 CONCLUSION.....................................................................................................250 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY..................................................................................263 iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A dissertation is always much more than an intellectual and creative enterprise. It requires a considerable sacrifice of time and energy on the part of the writer and the writers’ friends and family. Without these individuals this project would not have made it beyond the first sentence. I am deeply indebted to the inspiration, friendship and wisdom of more people than can be mentioned here. To my dissertation committee, Dennis Coyle, David Walsh and my esteemed director, Claes G. Ryn, I can never repay you for your generosity, wisdom and example. In and out of the classroom you exemplify what it means to be the kind of scholars and teachers whose impact will span generations. I am honored to be your student. Conversations and collaboration with a number of other scholars and friends have provided considerable encouragement and insight along the way. I must specifically thank Paul DeHart, Justin Garrison, Joseph Byrd, Michael Federici, Luke Sheahan, Philip DeMahy, Anne Thomas, Walter Luttrell, Matthew Grizzle, Micah Watson, Ben Clark, H. Lee Cheek, Joe Hartman, Michael Needham, Allen Kannapell, Steve Swindle, Peter Haworth, Dan Haworth and others too numerous to mention. I am grateful for the generous support of Annette Kirk and the Russell Kirk Center for providing me with a quiet place to write and edit in the Fall of 2015, and to The Van Horn Family Foundation as well as the Intercollegiate Studies Institute for providing critical fellowships and support throughout this study. v My family has been exceptionally supportive during my graduate career, and I would not be where I am today without the unfailing love and sacrifice of my mother and father. My mother’s constant encouragement and my father’s love of the outdoors and politics were pivotal in leading me towards a study of environmental political thought, the imagination and Thoreau. There are no adequate words to express the debt which I owe to my wife, Melissa. Whether offering her thoughts on the draft or caring for our son while I typed away, her sacrifice of time and energy is immeasurable. When this dissertation was only in the proposal stage I lost a member of my family who had long provided encouragement and always challenged me to think in new ways and ask new questions. Gary Anderson was a teacher of politics at Zeppelin University in Friedrichshafen, Germany and died of lung cancer in 2012. He was my friend and cousin, and I am a better thinker and writer because of his investment in me. The individuals listed above were the embodiment of God’s grace throughout this project, and whatever is of value in the following pages is a product of their love and friendship. I alone am responsible for any shortcomings herein. vi INTRODUCTION Henry Thoreau has probably been more wildly misconstrued than any other person of comparable literary stature. – E.B. White, “The Individualist” – Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) has been analyzed at length by both admirers and critics, but he remains inadequately understood in the history of political thought. He is often employed as an inspiration for specific ideological or political persuasions by theorists who overlook many of his ideas. His writings and example are claimed as representative of an extraordinary diversity of perspectives – many of which contradict each other. He has been labeled an anarchist, abolitionist, democrat, liberal, republican, Marxist, misanthrope, prophet, mystic, socialist, humanist, hermit, escapist, romantic, transcendentalist, post-modernist, environmentalist, naturalist, as apolitical and more. The only non-controversial description his readers would agree upon is his unquestionable opposition to slavery and his love of nature. The presence of such complexity and tension has profound meaning for his political thought and legacy. If Thoreau's political thought is to be appreciated as comprehensively and accurately as possible, a correspondingly thorough and intricate framework is necessary. As this study will demonstrate, analyzing Thoreau’s thought through the framework of a theory of the imagination allows the tensions within his political
Recommended publications
  • Tearing out the Income Tax by the (Grass)Roots

    Tearing out the Income Tax by the (Grass)Roots

    FLORIDA TAX REVIEW Volume 15 2014 Number 8 TEARING OUT THE INCOME TAX BY THE (GRASS)ROOTS by Lawrence Zelenak* Rich People’s Movements: Grassroots Campaigns to Untax the One Percent. By Isaac William Martin New York: Oxford University Press. 2013. I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................. 649 II. A CENTURY OF RICH PEOPLE’S ANTI-TAX MOVEMENTS ......... 651 III. EXPLAINING THE SUPPORT OF THE NON-RICH .......................... 656 IV. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE FLAT TAX AND THE FAIRTAX? ............ 661 V. THE RHETORIC OF RICH PEOPLE’S ANTI-TAX MOVEMENTS: PARANOID AND NON-PARANOID STYLES .................................... 665 VI. CONCLUSION ................................................................................. 672 I. INTRODUCTION Why do rich people seeking reductions in their tax burdens, who have the ability to influence Congress directly through lobbying and campaign contributions, sometimes resort to grassroots populist methods? And why do non-rich people sometimes join the rich in their anti-tax movements? These are the puzzles Isaac William Martin sets out to solve in Rich People’s Movements.1 Martin’s historical research—much of it based on original sources to which scholars have previously paid little or no attention—reveals that, far from being a recent innovation, populist-style movements against progressive federal taxation go back nearly a century, to the 1920s. Although Martin identifies various anti-tax movements throughout the past century, he strikingly concludes that there has been “substantial continuity from one campaign to the next, so that, in some * Pamela B. Gann Professor of Law, Duke Law School. 1. ISAAC WILLIAM MARTIN, RICH PEOPLE’S MOVEMENTS: GRASSROOTS CAMPAIGNS TO UNTAX THE ONE PERCENT (2013) [hereinafter MARTIN, RICH PEOPLE’S MOVEMENTS].
  • Radical Environmentalism: the New Civil Disobedience?

    Radical Environmentalism: the New Civil Disobedience?

    Seattle Journal for Social Justice Volume 6 Issue 1 Fall/Winter 2007 Article 35 November 2007 Radical Environmentalism: The New Civil Disobedience? Cesar Cuauhtemoc Garcia Hernandez Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/sjsj Recommended Citation Hernandez, Cesar Cuauhtemoc Garcia (2007) "Radical Environmentalism: The New Civil Disobedience?," Seattle Journal for Social Justice: Vol. 6 : Iss. 1 , Article 35. Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/sjsj/vol6/iss1/35 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Publications and Programs at Seattle University School of Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Seattle Journal for Social Justice by an authorized editor of Seattle University School of Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 289 Radical Environmentalism: The New Civil Disobedience? César Cuauhtémoc García Hernández1 God said, “I have given you every seed-bearing plant which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree that bears fruit with seed. It will be for your food. To every wild animal, to every bird of the sky, to everything that creeps along the ground, to everything that has the breath of life, I give every green plant for food.” So it was. God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. Book of Genesis2 We know that the white man does not understand our ways. One portion of land is the same to him as the next, for he is a stranger who comes in the night and takes from the land whatever he needs.
  • Co-Operatives Unleashed from the Grassroots

    Co-Operatives Unleashed from the Grassroots

    Co-operatives Unleashed from the grassroots July 2020 About CCIN and the Policy Labs The Co-operative Councils’ Innovation Network (CCIN) is a non-party political active hub, founded in 2012 to achieve co-operative policy development, innovation and advocacy which is: Action-focused: a vehicle for helping councils translate co-operative policy and principles into practice. Membership-based: funded by modest membership subscriptions from its member councils. Open to all UK councils: members share the belief that working co-operatively with communities holds the key to tackling today’s challenges. Part of the local government family: the network is a Special Interest Group registered with the Local Government Association (LGA) where we work to promote innovation in local government. Established in 2016, the Policy Lab programme is an opportunity for any CCIN Member to present an idea and receive funding for collaboration with other CCIN members to fund co-operative solutions to the challenges facing local government. To find out more about joining the CCIN contact: [email protected] CCIN Accountable Body: Oldham Council, Oldham Civic Centre, West Street, Oldham OL1 1UL T: 0161 770 5691 Acknowledgements As Author, I am indebted to the following people and organisations whose contributions have proved invaluable in compiling this report: Co-operatives UK Congress fringe event participants and Plymouth City Council colleagues across multiple departments who, provided the foundation for our understanding of the relationship between co-operatives and councils. CCIN members, including representatives of 15 member councils at the LGA conference stand and also colleagues from Oldham Council, Preston City Council, Rochdale Borough Council, Sunderland City Council and Glasgow City Council, who contributed case studies and gave their time for many detailed discussions.
  • Man and Machine in Thoreau. Joseph Lawrence Basile Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College

    Man and Machine in Thoreau. Joseph Lawrence Basile Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College

    Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses Graduate School 1972 Man and Machine in Thoreau. Joseph Lawrence Basile Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses Recommended Citation Basile, Joseph Lawrence, "Man and Machine in Thoreau." (1972). LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses. 2194. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_disstheses/2194 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 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.
  • Gandhi Writes About Henry David Thoreau Source 2

    Gandhi Writes About Henry David Thoreau Source 2

    Handout Source 1: Gandhi writes about Henry David Thoreau Many years ago, there lived in America a great man named Henry David Thoreau. His writings are read and pondered over by millions of people… Much importance is attached to his writings because Thoreau himself was a man who practised what he preached. Impelled by a sense of duty, he wrote much against his own country, America. He considered it a great sin that the Americans held many persons in the bond of slavery. He did not rest content with saying this, but took all other necessary steps to put a stop to this trade. One of the steps consisted in not paying any taxes to the State in which the slave trade was being carried on. He was imprisoned when he stopped paying the taxes due from him. The thoughts which occurred to him during his imprisonment were boldly original. [From Gandhi. Indian Opinion. Quoted in M.V. Kamath. The United States and India 1776-1976. Washington, D.C.: Embassy of India, 1976. 65.] Source 2: Gandhi’s Influence on Dr. Martin Luther King When King arrived one cold day in New Delhi, as a guest of the Government of India, his first words were a tribute to Gandhi. “To other countries,” King said, “I may go as a tourist, but to India I come as a pilgrim. This is because India means to me Mahatma Gandhi, a truly great man of the age.” King heard of Gandhi from Dr. Mordecai Johnson, President of Howard University, who had returned from a visit to India and was speaking at Philadelphia.
  • 'New Era' Should Have Ended US Debate on Beijing's Ambitions

    'New Era' Should Have Ended US Debate on Beijing's Ambitions

    Testimony before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission Hearing on “A ‘China Model?’ Beijing’s Promotion of Alternative Global Norms and Standards” March 13, 2020 “How Xi Jinping’s ‘New Era’ Should Have Ended U.S. Debate on Beijing’s Ambitions” Daniel Tobin Faculty Member, China Studies, National Intelligence University and Senior Associate (Non-resident), Freeman Chair in China Studies, Center for Strategic and International Studies Senator Talent, Senator Goodwin, Honorable Commissioners, thank you for inviting me to testify on China’s promotion of alternative global norms and standards. I am grateful for the opportunity to submit the following statement for the record. Since I teach at National Intelligence University (NIU) which is part of the Department of Defense (DoD), I need to begin by making clear that all statements of fact and opinion below are wholly my own and do not represent the views of NIU, DoD, any of its components, or of the U.S. government. You have asked me to discuss whether China seeks an alternative global order, what that order would look like and aim to achieve, how Beijing sees its future role as differing from the role the United States enjoys today, and also to address the parts played respectively by the Party’s ideology and by its invocation of “Chinese culture” when talking about its ambitions to lead the reform of global governance.1 I want to approach these questions by dissecting the meaning of the “new era for socialism with Chinese characteristics” Xi Jinping proclaimed at the Communist Party of China’s 19th National Congress (afterwards “19th Party Congress”) in October 2017.
  • Civil Disobedience

    Civil Disobedience

    Civil Disobedience Henry David Toreau Civil Disobedience Henry David Toreau Foreword by Connor Boyack Libertas Institute Salt Lake City, Utah Civil Disobedience Thoreau’s essay is out of copyright and in the public domain; this version is lightly edited for modernization. Supplemental essays are copyrighted by their respective authors and included with permission. The foreword is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution- ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. LIBERTAS PRESS 770 E. MAIN STREET, SUITE 255 LEHI, UT 84043 Civil Disobedience / Henry David Toreau — 1st ed. First printing, June 2014 Cover Design by Ben Jenkins Manufactured in the United States of America For bulk orders, send inquiries to: [email protected] ISBN-13: 978-0-9892912-3-1 dedicated to Edward Snowden for doing what was right “Te most foolish notion of all is the belief that everything is just which is found in the customs or laws of nations. Would that be true, even if these laws had been enacted by tyrants?” “What of the many deadly, the many pestilential statutes which nations put in force? Tese no more deserve to be called laws than the rules a band of robbers might pass in their assembly. For if ignorant and unskillful men have prescribed deadly poisons instead of healing drugs, these cannot possibly be called physicians’ prescriptions; neither in a nation can a statute of any sort be called a law, even though the nation, in spite of being a ruinous regulation, has accepted it.” —Cicero Foreword by Connor Boyack Americans know Henry David Thoreau as the author of Walden, a narrative published in 1854 detailing the author’s life at Walden Pond, on property owned by his friend Ralph Waldo Emerson near Concord, Massachusetts.
  • Spatial Practices of Icarian Communism

    Spatial Practices of Icarian Communism

    Brigham Young University BYU ScholarsArchive Theses and Dissertations 2008-03-25 Spatial Practices of Icarian Communism John Derek McCorquindale Brigham Young University - Provo Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd Part of the French and Francophone Language and Literature Commons, and the Italian Language and Literature Commons BYU ScholarsArchive Citation McCorquindale, John Derek, "Spatial Practices of Icarian Communism" (2008). Theses and Dissertations. 1364. https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/etd/1364 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by BYU ScholarsArchive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of BYU ScholarsArchive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. A SPATIAL HISTORY OF ICARIAN COMMUNISM by John Derek McCorquindale A thesis submitted to the faculty of Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Department of French & Italian Brigham Young University April 2008 ABSTRACT A SPATIAL HISTORY OF ICARIAN COMMUNISM John Derek McCorquindale Department of French and Italian Master of Arts Prior to the 1848 Revolution in France, a democrat and communist named Étienne Cabet organized one of the largest worker’s movements in Europe. Called “Icarians,” members of this party ascribed to the social philosophy and utopian vision outlined in Cabet’s 1840 novel, Voyage en Icarie , written while in exile. This thesis analyzes the conception of space developed in Cabet’s book, and tracks the group’s actual spatial practice over the next seventeen years. During this period, thousands of Icarians led by Cabet attempted to establish an actual colony in the wilderness of the United States.
  • The Birth of Communism

    The Birth of Communism

    Looking for a New Economic Order Tensions across Europe mounted in the 1830s and 1840s, as republican (anti-royalist) movements resisted the reigning monarchies. The monarchy in France had been restored after Napoleon Bonaparte’s final defeat at Waterloo in 1815, albeit with great divisions and debate throughout the country. Italy, Germany, and Austria were likewise ruled by monarchies, but faced growing protest. In addition to tensions about forms of government and freedoms, workers were becoming more vocal and unified in protesting conditions in factories, mines, and mills. The Birth of Communism Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels are regarded as the founders of Marxist ideology, more colloquially known as communism. Both were concerned about the ill effects of industrialism. Marx was an economist, historian, and philosopher. Engels was a German journalist and philosopher. After a two-year stay in Manchester, England, Engels wrote his first book, The Condition of the Working Class in England, which was published in 1845. It was in Manchester that Marx and Engels met for the first time. Although they did not like each other at first, they ended up forming a life- and world- changing partnership. Marx was the more public figure of the partnership, but Engels did much of the supporting work, including providing financial assistance to Marx and editing multiple volumes of their publications. In 1847, a group of Germans, working in England, formed a secret society and contacted Marx, asking him to join them as they developed a political platform. At Engels’s suggestion, the group was named the Communist League. Marx and Engels began writing the pamphlet The Communist Manifesto, composed between December 1847 and January 1848.
  • A Political Companion to Henry David Thoreau

    A Political Companion to Henry David Thoreau

    University of Kentucky UKnowledge Literature in English, North America English Language and Literature 6-11-2009 A Political Companion to Henry David Thoreau Jack Turner University of Washington Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Turner, Jack, "A Political Companion to Henry David Thoreau" (2009). Literature in English, North America. 70. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_english_language_and_literature_north_america/70 A Political Companion to Henr y David Thoreau POLITIcaL COMpaNIONS TO GREat AMERIcaN AUthORS Series Editor: Patrick J. Deneen, Georgetown University The Political Companions to Great American Authors series illuminates the complex political thought of the nation’s most celebrated writers from the founding era to the present. The goals of the series are to demonstrate how American political thought is understood and represented by great Ameri- can writers and to describe how our polity’s understanding of fundamental principles such as democracy, equality, freedom, toleration, and fraternity has been influenced by these canonical authors. The series features a broad spectrum of political theorists, philoso- phers, and literary critics and scholars whose work examines classic authors and seeks to explain their continuing influence on American political, social, intellectual, and cultural life. This series reappraises esteemed American authors and evaluates their writings as lasting works of art that continue to inform and guide the American democratic experiment.
  • Nature, Spirituality, and the Self in American Transcendentalism and Beat Generation Literature Caitlin Cater University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

    Nature, Spirituality, and the Self in American Transcendentalism and Beat Generation Literature Caitlin Cater University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

    The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English Volume 10 | Issue 1 Article 4 2008 In Search of America: Nature, Spirituality, and the Self in American Transcendentalism and Beat Generation Literature Caitlin Cater University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/tor Part of the American Literature Commons, and the Literature in English, North America Commons Recommended Citation Cater, Caitlin (2008) "In Search of America: Nature, Spirituality, and the Self in American Transcendentalism and Beat Generation Literature," The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English: Vol. 10 : Iss. 1 , Article 4. Available at: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/tor/vol10/iss1/4 This Article is brought to you by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in The sO wald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English by an authorized editor of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. In Search of America: Nature, Spirituality, and the Self in American Transcendentalism and Beat Generation Literature Keywords Beat movement, Transcendentalism, American Literature This article is available in The sO wald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English: https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/tor/vol10/iss1/4 13 In Search of America: Nature, Spirituality, and the Self in American Transcendentalism and Beat Generation Literature Caitlin Cater University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania ntroduction IIn their intellectual history of post-war America, Jamison and Eyerman identify the Beat movement as one of several instrumental forces behind the societal transformations of the 1960s.
  • Rewilding, "The Hoop," and Settler Apocalypse Bruno Seraphin

    Rewilding, "The Hoop," and Settler Apocalypse Bruno Seraphin

    Document generated on 09/27/2021 10:41 a.m. The Trumpeter Journal of Ecosophy Rewilding, "the Hoop," and Settler Apocalypse Bruno Seraphin Radical Ecologies in the Anthropocene Article abstract Volume 32, Number 2, 2016 This paper presents an ethnographic account of a grassroots network of mostly white-identified nomads who travel in the northwest United States’ Great Basin URI: https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1042989ar and Columbia Plateau regions. Living mostly on National Forest land, this DOI: https://doi.org/10.7202/1042989ar movement of “rewilders” appropriates local Indigenous peoples’ traditional ecological knowledge in order to gather and replant wild foods in a seasonal See table of contents round that they refer to as the “Sacred Hoop.” I discuss the Hoop network in order to explore the environmental ethics of a group that is at once strikingly unique and also an embodiment of the problems of settler colonialism within the broader environmentalist movement. I begin by introducing the group's Publisher(s) ecologies and ethics, and subsequently move into an examination of the Athabasca University Press multiple and sometimes-contradictory lines of apocalyptic narrative logic at work in Hoopster discourse. I assert that the Hoopsters’ conflicting accounts of the Anthropocene, and the temporality of its disasters, are a manifestation of ISSN their ongoing work grappling with their own racial positionality. Despite the 1705-9429 (digital) Hoopsters’ uncompromising critiques of colonialism, capitalism, and environmental exploitation, they struggle to come to terms with their role in Explore this journal ongoing colonialism and the marginalization of Indigenous peoples. In this way, the Hoopsters echo the troubled narratives at work in broader North American environmental thought, which consistently reveres the idea of Indigenous cultures while failing to enter into solidarity relationships with Cite this article contemporary Indigenous communities and their efforts toward Seraphin, B.