| "Contested Terrain: Nature Writing and the Shaping of American Culture" examines the connections among American literature, the American environment, and nationalism. In particular, it is an exploration of what the land has meant to Americans, especially from the period of early nationhood through the nineteenth century, and how it has been represented in literature. This exploration leads into the role that nature (both human and nonhuman) has played in defining America, particularly in the conjunction of wilderness and nation. The chapters discuss in some detail the physical environment encountered by early Americans; however, a great deal of the focus is on the conceptual and ideological uses of the land in creating a country known as "nature's nation."; While I discuss the physical aspects of the landscape, most of the focus is on how the land is converted into conceptual frameworks that, in turn, are used for ideological purposes, such as characterizing a nation and defining its national subjects. The study points towards the ways in which the land is enlisted through literature to define our notions about American citizens and about what constitutes an American nation. To this end, the study surveys how the politics, art, and literature of early America relied on the wild environment of the New World to define the nation. This leads into an analysis of the myths that arise from the "nature's nation" construct (America as a pristine wilderness, Americans as New World Adams, etc.) and to tracing the emergence of the first national heroes, like Daniel Boone and the fictional Natty Bumppo. I argue that these first national heroes are the forerunners of the great naturalists and nature writers of the later nineteenth century, as evidenced by Henry David Thoreau and John Muir. The study culminates in an examination of the ambivalence at the heart of the "nature's nation" construct, and it traces this same theme as it emerges a series a great landscape texts (Yosemite Valley, the Adirondacks, Yellowstone), which, with the help of American nature writing, become institutionalized in the form of our national lands---the national forests, parks, refuges, and monuments. |
