"Civil Wildness": England's American Dream and the Redefinition of the Pastoral Ideal

dc.contributor.advisorBovilsky, Laraen_US
dc.contributor.authorNance, Jessieen_US
dc.date.accessioned2015-01-14T15:56:10Z
dc.date.available2015-01-14T15:56:10Z
dc.date.issued2015-01-14
dc.description.abstractThis project analyzes the intersections between idealized representations of nature in both pastoral literature and early modern exploration literature published before the establishment of England's first successful American colony at Jamestown in 1607. Scholars have often seen the use of the golden age trope by early modern explorers of the Americas as nothing more than propaganda. At the same time, in literary studies, scholars have not done enough to appreciate the symbolic potential of idealized landscapes. By examining the landscapes depicted in both types of texts, this project seeks to change how we view pastoral settings. These settings reveal more than just fantasy landscapes; they tell us about English attitudes towards humanity's place in the natural world. Rather than offering overly sentimentalized, naïve representations of nature, authors depict pastoral settings that idealize labor, including a georgic trope for its ability to shape and control the natural world. Labor, then, not leisure becomes the new ideal for pastoral works, as it is through cultivation and the establishment of "place" that the English feel that they can demonstrate power and sovereignty.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1794/18705
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherUniversity of Oregonen_US
dc.rightsAll Rights Reserved.en_US
dc.subjectLandscapeen_US
dc.subjectNew Worlden_US
dc.subjectPastoralen_US
dc.subjectPhilip Sidneyen_US
dc.title"Civil Wildness": England's American Dream and the Redefinition of the Pastoral Idealen_US
dc.typeElectronic Thesis or Dissertationen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineDepartment of Englishen_US
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Oregonen_US
thesis.degree.leveldoctoralen_US
thesis.degree.namePh.D.en_US

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