The historical development of plant representations in modern British literature concerning natural resources and human desires

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26284042
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
• Allocation Type: Partial Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: Literature in English
• Research Institution: University of Hyogo
• Principal Investigator: Ishikura Waka 兵庫県立大学, 環境人間学部, 教授 (10290644)
• Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha): 鷲津 浩子 筑波大学, 人文社会系, 教授 (30149372) ; 大橋 完太郎 神戸大学, 人文学研究科, 准教授 (40459285) ; 今村 隆男 和歌山大学, 教育学部, 教授 (90193680) ; 吉中 孝志 広島大学, 文学研究科, 教授 (30230775)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): SUGIYAMA MAO 岐阜大学, 教育学部, 准教授 (70625756) ; KAJI Riwako 山形県立保健医療大学, 保健医療学部, 准教授 (60299790)
• Research Collaborator: SHIROYAMA Yutaka 兵庫県立大学, 緑環境景観マネジメント研究科, 教授 ; TABUKI Nagahiko 北九州市立大学, 名誉教授 ; TACHIBANA Setsu 神戸山手大学, 教授 ; NOMA Haruo 関西大学, 教授 ; MITAMURS Tetsuya 兵庫県立大学, 環境人間学部, 准教授 ; RIE Maki 広島女学院大学, 教授 ; YAMAGUCHI Yoshinari 高知県立大学, 准教授 ; YAMAUCHI Tomoki 京都教育大学, 講師
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: イギリス文学 / 植物学 / 植物書出版 / ロマン主義 / 科学史 / 王立協会 / 植物園 / プラントハンター

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research project explored plant representations in modern British lterature and art in the social and scientific contexts of botanical and horticultural development, to set them as complementary to the human desires for natural resources which were derived from societal power structures. This project also endeavored to reveal that natural representations in literature and the arts were structured as correlative to the values of plants as resources. In this research, we also investigated various botanical scholars, horticulturalists and scientific patrons of plant cultures in the 17th, 18th and early 19th centuries, to detail how these social and scientific contexts influenced individual endeavors to delineate plants and their related information in the scientific or artistic fields. The results highlighted that literary representations of nature until the Romantic era were open to scrutiny and supported by historical objectification.

Free Research Field

ロマン主義期を中心としたイギリス文学