1990 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
The Transformation of the Typological Tradition in H. D. Thoreau
| Project/Area Number |
01510278
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Research Field |
英語・英文学(アメリカ語･アメリカ文学)
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| Research Institution | Hiroshima University |
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Principal Investigator |
ITOH Shoko Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences Professor, 総合科学部, 教授 (60071536)
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| Project Period (FY) |
1989 – 1990
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| Keywords | Thoreau and typological tratition / Thoreau and Charles Darwin / The Origin of Species and "Dispersion of Seeds" / American Gothic as Anti-Jeremiad tradition / Ecological history in Thoreau |
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| Research Abstract |
The aim of this project was a study of the transformation of th typological tradition in Henry David Thoreau's interpretation of American Nature. The study proceeded in the following stages.
First, I investigated Thoreau's typological point of view towards nature contrasted with that of his contemporaries, the British Romantics, especially focusing on their characteristic treatments of the imagery of birds. Birds in Walden was one of the most important instrument to realize natural millennium in Thoreau.
In the second stage, I examined Thoreau's last manuscript in his last years, called "Nature Notes" including "The Dispersion of Seeds." In this manuscript, he established the poetic and yet scientific point of view towards nature transformed from the traditional theological interpretation of nautre. In the process, I pointed out the influence of Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species (1859) on Thoreau in his persevering investigation and writing his various observations on the forest trees in Concord.
Finally, I have concluded that in his late years Thoreau has reached an ecological point of view towards American history and nature in his struggle with the slavery problem, mainly concerning John Brown, and in voluminous writing on natural history. Thoreau's social activities as an abolitionist have been interpreted as completely unrelated to his involvement with nature in his last years. However, this project proposed the assumption of an inner connection between the socialist Thoreau and the naturalist Thoreau in his pioneering ecological ideas about American history and nature.
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