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Early19thCenturyPerspectivesofNature.pptx

Early 19th Century Perspectives on Nature

Establishing a Context for What Comes Later

This presentation seeks to provide some additional early context for our subject, which basically begins in the 1840’s with the writings of Henry David Thoreau. The new American Nation, founded in 1776 in the wake of the American Revolution, enabled a generation of writers to articulate a relationship to the natural world on their own terms. Unfettered by the need to maintain cultural connections to Great Britain and the continent, early American writers engaged with the vast American wilderness in multiple ways and, though mindful of the traditions extending back to the ancient worlds of the Greeks and Romans, developed their own traditions of nature writing.

James Fenimore Cooper, Leatherstocking Tales

One such writer was James Fenimore Cooper, whose Leatherstocking Tales remain, along with his Last of the Mohicans, among the classics in early American Literature. These stories feature the uniquely American character of Natty Bumppo, who conjoins the best parts of Cristian civility and frontier sensibility. Engaging with early colonists and sometimes hostile Native Americans on his own terms, Natty combines the best elements of both as a sort of early frontier hero. Raised by missionaries but comfortable in the wilderness, Natty Bumppo stands as an early example of a new kind of literary character: the Christianized backwoodsman equally at home in wilderness and in civilized society.

Washington Irving, Prefact to Sketch Book

“I visited various parts of my own country; and had I been merely a lover of fine scenery, I should have felt little desire to seek elsewhere its gratification, for on no country have the charms of nature been more prodigally lavished. Her mighty lakes, like oceans of liquid silver; her mountains, with their bright aerial tints; her valleys, teeming with wild fertility; her tremendous cataracts, thundering in their solitudes; her boundless plains, waving with spontaneous verdure; her broad deep rivers, rolling in solemn silence to the ocean; her trackless forests, where vegetation puts forth all its magnificence; her skies, kindling with the magic of summer clouds and glorious sunshine; — no, never need an American look beyond his own country for the sublime and beautiful of natural scenery.”

Another early American Writer to recognize here is Washington Irving, whose Sketch Book records, documents, and recaptures the folklore of select localities in early America. Best known for the stories Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Irving also understood the distinctions between European and American culture as determined by landscape. His florid description of the vast American wilderness, included here, is intended to contrast with the historically infused, culturally established landscapes of Europe. Please pause and read this passage—a quick google search will allow you to access the entire piece and see the contrast more vividly. Basically, the “virgin” wilderness of America contrasts with the “storied” landscape of Europe, with its ruins, monuments, and historical baggage.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, on the character of Nature

“The happiest man is he who learns from nature the lesson of worship”

“The world is emblematic. Parts of speech are metaphors, because the whole of nature is a metaphor of the human mind.”

“Have mountains, and waves, and skies, no significance but what we consciously give them, when we employ them as emblems of our thoughts?”

“In the presence of nature, a wild delight runs through the man, in spite of real sorrows. Nature says, -- he is my creature, and maugre all his impertinent griefs, he shall be glad with me”

“The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood.”

Emererson, Nature

Still another important early American writer is Ralph Waldo Emerson, whose essay Nature is of clear relevance to our subject matter. A quick survey of the quotes included in this slide establishes Emerson’s belief, shared by many others, that the natural world assumes Godly forms and nourishes the human soul.

William Cullen Bryant, “A Forest Hymn”

All of this information serves as an important preface to the writer whose work I’ve asked you to read this week: William Cullen Bryant. His poem “A Forest Hymn” articulates—and reiterates—many of the key ideas expressed by his fellow early American writers about the unique, soul-nourishing character of American wilderness. Known for many other literary achievements across his storied career as a Victorian-era man of letters, Bryant’s poem serves as a useful starting point as we begin our progress through the rich topic of American Nature writing.

The Hudson River School

Sanford Robinson Gifford (1823-1880)

“New York Harbor”

Thomas Cole (1801-1848), scene from

“Last of the Mohicans”

Finally, the collective group of landscape artists, known as the “Hudson River School,” deserves mention here. The works of two of the better known figures within this movement, Stanford Robinson Gifford and Thomas Cole, are pictured here. You’ll note the unique character of the light and the generally pastoral effects that define both landscapes. A quick google search will put you into contact with a full field of other artists and dozens of images of their work. In many ways their works capture the same values articulated by Cooper, Irving, and Emerson about the vastness, power, and spiritual relevance of the American landscape.

Conclusions

Although Henry David Thoreau is generally considered to be an early “environmentalist” voice, the traditions for writing about nature—and crediting it with supernatural characteristics, was pervasive throughout 19th Century American culture.

From its early origins after the American Revolution, American literature, as expressed in the writings of Cooper, Irving, Emerson, and Bryant, and art, as captured in the many works produced by members of the “Hudson River School” of landscape artists, held distinct views about nature’s benevolence and spiritually uplifting capacities. These were at odds with the pioneering impulse and the ethos of expansion and development, but this is a contradiction that will be more present in works of later decades and eras.

Here are some concluding thoughts. Even though Henry David Thoreau is generally thought of as an early voice for nature and “environmentalism,” he writes within a distinct tradition, established in the early decades of the American nation, which understood the power and redemptive value of natural scenery. As we’ll see, many contradictions exist within this habit of seeing nature in these idealized terms. But for our purposes, it is important to recognize that these ideas have a clear history and pattern of development. That concludes this presentation, and thanks for listening!