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The Resource Narrating discovery : the romantic explorer in American literature, 1790-1855, Bruce Greenfield

Narrating discovery : the romantic explorer in American literature, 1790-1855, Bruce Greenfield

Creator
Summary
  • In Narrating Discovery Bruce Greenfield chronicles the development of the antebellum Euro-American discovery narrative. These narratives depicted the Euro-American advance westward not as a violent intrusion into occupied territories but as an inevitable by-product of science and civilization. Despite the centrality of indigenous peoples in the frontier narratives, the landscape was nevertheless sketched in biblical terms as "a terrestrial paradise ... unpeopled and unexplored," as writers insisted upon seeing "emptiness as the essential quality of the land." Beginning with the British writers Hearne, Mackenzie, and Henry, Greenfield then traces the early American narratives of Lewis and Clark, Pike, and Fremont, demonstrating how these agents of the first New World nation-state brought a distinct imperial mentality to the frontier, viewing it both as foreign and as part of their home
  • But Romantic writers such as Cooper, Irving, Poe, and Thoreau felt ill at ease with the colonialist discourse they inherited, and Greenfield shows how to varying degrees each altered a discourse openly based on subjugation to one highlighting profoundly personal and aesthetic responses to the American landscape. The book concludes with an illuminating discussion of Thoreau, who transformed the discovery narrative from its origins in conflict and institutional authority into the "expression of personal identity with the continent as a symbol of American potential." Written with clarity and insight, Narrating Discovery brings a fresh perspective to current debates over who "discovered" America and recovers the complexity of frontier experience through a searching look at some of the vivid narrative accounts
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Extent
x, 249 pages
Contents
  • Trading and telling : discovery and the British fur trade
  • Traveling for history
  • Discovery and narrative structure in Samuel Hearne's Journey to the northern ocean
  • Alexander Mackenzie's Voyages : discovery and the fur trade entrepreneur
  • Alexander Henry's Travels and adventures : narrating captivity
  • Early Western travels and the American self
  • Lewis and Clark's History : the search for authority
  • Zebulon Pike and John Charles Frémont : pioneers of popular self-discovery
  • Washington Irving : historian of American discovery
  • Irving's Columbus
  • Irving on the prairies
  • Irving's discovery of the Far West
  • Poe and Thoreau : the romantic discovery narrative
  • Discovery and violence : Poe's Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
  • Thoreau's discovery of America : a nineteenth-century first contact
Isbn
9780231079969
Instance
Label
Narrating discovery : the romantic explorer in American literature, 1790-1855
Title
Narrating discovery
Title remainder
the romantic explorer in American literature, 1790-1855
Statement of responsibility
Bruce Greenfield
Creator
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
  • In Narrating Discovery Bruce Greenfield chronicles the development of the antebellum Euro-American discovery narrative. These narratives depicted the Euro-American advance westward not as a violent intrusion into occupied territories but as an inevitable by-product of science and civilization. Despite the centrality of indigenous peoples in the frontier narratives, the landscape was nevertheless sketched in biblical terms as "a terrestrial paradise ... unpeopled and unexplored," as writers insisted upon seeing "emptiness as the essential quality of the land." Beginning with the British writers Hearne, Mackenzie, and Henry, Greenfield then traces the early American narratives of Lewis and Clark, Pike, and Fremont, demonstrating how these agents of the first New World nation-state brought a distinct imperial mentality to the frontier, viewing it both as foreign and as part of their home
  • But Romantic writers such as Cooper, Irving, Poe, and Thoreau felt ill at ease with the colonialist discourse they inherited, and Greenfield shows how to varying degrees each altered a discourse openly based on subjugation to one highlighting profoundly personal and aesthetic responses to the American landscape. The book concludes with an illuminating discussion of Thoreau, who transformed the discovery narrative from its origins in conflict and institutional authority into the "expression of personal identity with the continent as a symbol of American potential." Written with clarity and insight, Narrating Discovery brings a fresh perspective to current debates over who "discovered" America and recovers the complexity of frontier experience through a searching look at some of the vivid narrative accounts
Member of
Cataloging source
DLC
http://library.link/vocab/creatorDate
1951-
http://library.link/vocab/creatorName
Greenfield, Bruce Robert
Index
index present
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
bibliography
Series statement
Social foundations of aesthetic forms
http://library.link/vocab/subjectName
  • American literature
  • Narration (Rhetoric)
  • Geographical discoveries in literature
  • Romanticism
  • Explorers in literature
  • Travel in literature
  • Discoveries in geography in literature
  • Narration (Rhetoric)
  • America
  • America
Label
Narrating discovery : the romantic explorer in American literature, 1790-1855, Bruce Greenfield
Instantiates
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-244) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Trading and telling : discovery and the British fur trade -- Traveling for history -- Discovery and narrative structure in Samuel Hearne's Journey to the northern ocean -- Alexander Mackenzie's Voyages : discovery and the fur trade entrepreneur -- Alexander Henry's Travels and adventures : narrating captivity -- Early Western travels and the American self -- Lewis and Clark's History : the search for authority -- Zebulon Pike and John Charles Frémont : pioneers of popular self-discovery -- Washington Irving : historian of American discovery -- Irving's Columbus -- Irving on the prairies -- Irving's discovery of the Far West -- Poe and Thoreau : the romantic discovery narrative -- Discovery and violence : Poe's Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym -- Thoreau's discovery of America : a nineteenth-century first contact
Control code
26132676
Dimensions
24 cm
Extent
x, 249 pages
Isbn
9780231079969
Isbn Type
(alk. paper)
Lccn
92021030
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
n
System control number
(WaOLN)1488340
Label
Narrating discovery : the romantic explorer in American literature, 1790-1855, Bruce Greenfield
Publication
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references (pages 233-244) and index
Carrier category
volume
Carrier category code
nc
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
Contents
Trading and telling : discovery and the British fur trade -- Traveling for history -- Discovery and narrative structure in Samuel Hearne's Journey to the northern ocean -- Alexander Mackenzie's Voyages : discovery and the fur trade entrepreneur -- Alexander Henry's Travels and adventures : narrating captivity -- Early Western travels and the American self -- Lewis and Clark's History : the search for authority -- Zebulon Pike and John Charles Frémont : pioneers of popular self-discovery -- Washington Irving : historian of American discovery -- Irving's Columbus -- Irving on the prairies -- Irving's discovery of the Far West -- Poe and Thoreau : the romantic discovery narrative -- Discovery and violence : Poe's Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym -- Thoreau's discovery of America : a nineteenth-century first contact
Control code
26132676
Dimensions
24 cm
Extent
x, 249 pages
Isbn
9780231079969
Isbn Type
(alk. paper)
Lccn
92021030
Media category
unmediated
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
n
System control number
(WaOLN)1488340

Subject

Member of

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