1998 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary
The Representation of "Nature" in Nineteenth-Century British and American Literature and Picture
| Project/Area Number |
09410120
|
|---|
| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
|
| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
|---|
| Section | 一般 |
|---|
| Research Field |
英語・英米文学
|
|---|
| Research Institution | The University of Tokyo |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
HIRAISHI Takaki The Univ.of Tokyo, Graduate School of Humanities & Sociology, Professor, 大学院・人文社会系研究科, 教授 (10133323)
|
|---|
| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
HUGHES G.E.H. The Univ.of Tokyo, Graduate School of Humanities & Sociology, Visiting Professor, 大学院・人文社会系研究科, 外国人教師 (10281700)
OHASHI Youichi The Univ.of Tokyo, Graduate School of Humanities & Sociology, Associate Professo, 大学院・人文社会系研究科, 助教授 (20126014)
TAKAHASHI Kazuhisa The Univ.of Tokyo, Graduate School of Humanities & Sociology, Professor, 大学院・人文社会系研究科, 教授 (10108102)
FUJIKAWA Yoshiyuki The Univ.of Tokyo, Graduate School of Humanities & Sociology, Professor, 大学院・人文社会系研究科, 教授 (20083264)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
1997 – 1998
|
| Keywords | nature / orientalism / Turner / Ruskin / myth |
|---|
| Research Abstract |
The common purpose of our research was to examine various socio-cultural meanings given to Nature in the nineteenth century British and American literature, from Nature as an object of exploration and industrial exploitation, to Nature as an admirable basis for critical discussion on modern civilization. In Mark Twain's early writings, for instance, we repeatedly found out his ambiguous attitude to Nature. He jeered and despised the materialistic dream of the Gold Rush era, but it was also his own dream at that time, which exasperated him with repeated failure : further, when he visited Hawaii, he deplored its uncivilized condition of life and advised to "develop" it by means of capitalism and Christianity, but he did not fail on the other hand to refer to the pleasure of indolence native people there enjoyed, the kind of pleasure which was to become his trademark when he created Huckleberry Finn, which appeared all the more precious for his industrialism. We thus concluded that his (and Huck's) famous criticism of civilization originates in his ambiguous view of Nature ; that its capitalistic aspect, which obviously corresponded to the spirit of the era and therefore needed no literary appeals, was gradually made indistinct. His affinity to Nature was not independent of industrialism of the age after all ; it was merely the reverse side of the coin. However, we can not underestimate its energy and significance, because once born, it grew up as if independently to the extent that it put into question the whole system of modem civilizaition. Our conclusion was shown reasonable by other researches on other topics, which revealed similar ambiguities in the authors of the age.
|
