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. Silver prints of "photographs" may be ordered at additional charge by writing the Order Department, giving the catalog number, title, author and specific pages you wish reproduced. University Microfilms 300 North Zeeb Road Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 A Xerox Education Company 73-2064 MATTSON, Jeremy Lawrence, 1936- THE CONFLICT OF CIVILIZATION AND THE WILDERNESS: A STUDY OF A THEME IN AMERICAN LITERATURE AND PAINTING OF THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1972 Language and Literature, modem University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan © Copyright by Jeremy Lawrence Mattson 1972 THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED. THE CONFLICT OF CIVILIZATION AND THE WILDERNESS: A STUDY OF A THEME IN AMERICAN LITERATURE AND PAINTING OF THE EARLY NINETEENTH CENTURY DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Jeremy Lawrence Mattson, B.A., M.A. The Ohio State University 1972 Approved by PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have indistinct print. Filmed as received. University Microfilms, A Xerox Education Company ACKNOWLEDGMENTS For the pursuance and completion of this study I am indebted to the following: The Graduate School, The Ohio State University, for financial assistance to cover the photographic work necessary for the analysis. Dorothy Bishop, Department of Arts and Sciences, International Business Machines Corporation; John K. Howat, Associate Curator in Charge of American Paintings and Sculpture, The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Peter 0. Marlow, Curator of Painting and Sculpture, Wadsworth Atheneum; Linn Orear, Reproductions Secretary, Fogg Art Museum; Susan Platt, Curatorial Assistant, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design; and Mrs. Patricia Zarelli, Department of Paintings, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; for their assistance in gaining access to both paintings and reproductions. Sue Duckworth, University College, Michigan State University, for the typing and proofreading of the manuscript, with considerable patience. Julian Markels, who provided the continuing critical evaluation of the manuscript, and without whose perspective on the material I could not have completed the study. And finally my wife, Joan, whose encouragement and love kept me going throughout. ii VITA April 25, 1936 . Born - Evanston, Illinois 1958 ............. A.B., Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio 1963-1965 ....... Graduate Assistant, English Department, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1965 ........ M.A., The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1965-1970 ....... Teaching Associate, English Department, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1970-1972 ....... Instructor, Department of American Thought and Language, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan FIELDS OF STUDY Major Field: Nineteenth-Century American Literature Studies in the Relationship of Literature and Painting. Professor Julian Markels Studies in Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century American Architecture and Interior Design Studies in the Relationship of Violence and Technology in Twentieth- Century American Culture iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .......................................... ii VITA .................................................... iii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS........................................................................................................................................... V INTRODUCTION ........................................... 1 CHAPTER I: James Kirke Paulding ........................ 10 CHAPTER II: Washington Irving .......................... 31 CHAPTER III: Washington Allston ......................... 51 CHAPTER IV: William Cullen Bryant 77 • CHAPTER V: Thomas C o l e ............................... 99 CHAPTER VI: James Fenimore Cooper ........................ 152 EPILOGUE ................................................ 201 LIST OF WORKS CONSULTED......................... 206 iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Plate Page I Washington Allston, Landscape, 1798 ........................ 54 II Washington Allston, Rising of a Thunderstorm at S e a ....... 57 III Joshua Shaw, The Deluge................................. 59 IV Washington Allston, Elijah in the Desert .................. 63 V Washington Allston, Moonlit Landscape ...................... 68 VI Washington Allston, Landscape: Evening .................... 70 VII Washington Allston, American Scenery .................... ‘75 VIII Thomas Cole, View of Monte V i d e g o ........................ 103 IX Thomas Cole, View Near Ticonderoga ........................ 105 X Thomas Cole, View Near Conway, New Hampshire ............... 108 XI Thomas Cole, Beach Mountain House ........................ 113 XII Thomas Cole, Mt. Chocorua................................. 118 XIII Thomas Cole, Northwest Bay, Lake Winnepesaukee ........... 120 XIV Thomas Cole, View of the White M o u n t a i n s .................. 124 XV Thomas Cole, Sunny Morning on the Hudson River ............. 127 XVI Thomas Cole, Landscape with Tree Trunks .................. 132 XVII Thomas Cole, The Last of the M o h i c a n s .................... 138 XVIII Thomas Cole, John the Baptist in the Wilderness........... 142 XIX Thomas Cole, Expulsion from the Garden of E d e n ............. 146 XX Thomas Cole, Kaaterskill Falls ........................... 148 v vi XXI Thomas Cole, Wolf in the G l e n ........................... .. XXII Thomas Cole, Landscape (reverse of Watkin's Glen) ....... 152 INTRODUCTION During the first third of the nineteenth century, a period of extreme national self-consciousness, the American artist attempted to define his nationality by contrasting it with the English or European varieties. It was an obvious ploy; the Frenchman, for example, was a known entity, and so was the Englishman. But who was the American? It was the American who had to prove himself, and no one felt the necessity of this more than James Kirlce Paulding, a New Yorker by birth, a writer by inclination, and a government offi­ cial by profession. Much of his writing was an implicit attempt to define the American nationality by contrast with the English; the titles of two works make this concern explicit: John Bull and Brother Jonathan (1812) and A Sketch of Old England, by ja New England Man (1822). In a short passage from the latter work he took the English to task for their royal customs, so notably absent in the young American democracy. The section is entitled "The Royal and the Presidential Household": To me it was really amusing to note the uncouth names of these [royal] offices, and the pitiful functions of others, that are filled by some of the highest no­ bility of the kingdom. It is in these, as well as in more important particulars, that the radical, essential, and irreconcilable difference between this people and government, and ours, is clearly indicated. Our people would laugh ready to split their sides, or, if they did not laugh, they would groan in spirit, to see these men, to whom they had been accustomed to look 1 2 up with reverence or respect, deriving dignity, impor­ tance, and wealth, from the performance of the most menial offices, such as the lowest white man among them would not deign to discharge for the highest. It was quite true that the President of the United States was not encumbered with anything like the English Royal household; this was part of the past that Paulding and other Americans, with such relish, were breaking away from. But in the overt attempt to escape the English past, Paulding produced an analysis of that past rather than a positive treatment of the American present. Thus Paulding's self- consciousness led him, ironically, to a consciousness of England. The self-conscious approach to American nationality was generally quite sterile. Doctor Walter Channing, brother of the Unitarian