| Interest in swamp and jungle scenery as well as in other types of "desert" landscape (waste land) originated in the 1850s and 1860s and represents an important if neglected aspect of nineteenth century Americans' relationship to nature. The new resonance which "desert" images gained just prior to the Civil War reflected not only deep-seated cultural strain but the growing cosmopolitanism of the American middle class and a general shift in attitudes toward nature. This study rests upon the assumption that images play a dynamic role in the evolution of cultural sensibility. As it received attention, the swamp was not only symptomatic of emergent attitudes and repressed emotions; it gave form to moods and unarticulated insights created by new social realities. These nuances of meaning in turn imparted mystique to a landscape which hitherto had been shunned. During the Mid-Victorian period the swamp at least partly overcame its traditional association with evil and death and began to be appreciated for its distinctive imagistic features.; The core of the dissertation is thus an analysis of swamp and jungle images from a phenomenological point of view. The images as seen through contemporary descriptions and representations are contrasted with the prevailing aesthetic criteria to show how--once approached with fresh perspective--they challenged the Romantic-realist iconography. By reconstructing the mosaic of traditional associations, basic beliefs, empirical observations and metaphoric suggestions which comprised the cultural profile of the swamp image, the secondary intentions of this study are to develop an organic basis for comparing the responsiveness of various levels of culture to images and to highlight affinities between visual and verbal representations. The study considers such figures as Poe, Emerson, Thoreau, Simms, Stowe, T. W. Higginson, F. G. Tuckerman, the popular journalist "Porte Crayon," Lanier, Hearn and the painters Church and Heade. It quotes from such periodicals as Harper's, Putnam's, The Atlantic and The Crayon, gift books and travel books. Approximately sixty illustrations (paintings and engravings) are cited and many analyzed. |
