“자연의 나라”: 국가 건설과 자연의 재발견 (“Nature’s Nation”: Nation Building and the Rediscovery of Nature)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 서울대학교 미국학연구소
· 수록지 정보 : 미국학 / 32권 / 2호 / 121 ~ 158페이지
· 저자명 : 신문수

초록

This paper aims to examine the changing views of nature in American
society and the development of ecological thinking propelled by these
changes over the period roughly from America’s independence to the age of
Jackson. Nature was very often seen as “a howling wilderness” or the
obstacles which blocked the progress of civilization in the Puritan period,
but a shift in its view occurred at the turn of independence. It now began
to be celebrated as an important source of national identity or pride urgently
sought in the process of nation building, and then as a sacred place where
God’s grandeur and providential order was revealed. Such a new attitude
to nature is typically demonstrated in the poems of Philip Freneau and
William Cullen Bryant and in the sublime landscape paintings of the Hudson
River School. Another important aspect of the post-Revolutionary view of
nature is found in William Bartram’s Travels, one of the first important
natural histories in America, which shows the diversity and plenty of
American flora and fauna and insists on a rare biocentrist belief that
nonhuman lives warrant respect in their own right. Despite all this view
of nature, its utilitarian function was never abandoned in American society.
While inviting an image of numinous nature, the wilderness spectacle also
suggests the means for commerce and industry. Fenimore Cooper’s The
Pioneers dramatizes the clash between these two visions of nature; one
appreciative of the wilderness as it is and the other leaning toward its
transformation for civilization.

영어초록

This paper aims to examine the changing views of nature in American
society and the development of ecological thinking propelled by these
changes over the period roughly from America’s independence to the age of
Jackson. Nature was very often seen as “a howling wilderness” or the
obstacles which blocked the progress of civilization in the Puritan period,
but a shift in its view occurred at the turn of independence. It now began
to be celebrated as an important source of national identity or pride urgently
sought in the process of nation building, and then as a sacred place where
God’s grandeur and providential order was revealed. Such a new attitude
to nature is typically demonstrated in the poems of Philip Freneau and
William Cullen Bryant and in the sublime landscape paintings of the Hudson
River School. Another important aspect of the post-Revolutionary view of
nature is found in William Bartram’s Travels, one of the first important
natural histories in America, which shows the diversity and plenty of
American flora and fauna and insists on a rare biocentrist belief that
nonhuman lives warrant respect in their own right. Despite all this view
of nature, its utilitarian function was never abandoned in American society.
While inviting an image of numinous nature, the wilderness spectacle also
suggests the means for commerce and industry. Fenimore Cooper’s The
Pioneers dramatizes the clash between these two visions of nature; one
appreciative of the wilderness as it is and the other leaning toward its
transformation for civilization.

참고자료

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