喪失の幻影:The American Innocence (1) : 「金メッキ時代」と児童文学
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When if comes to define a National identity, the United States have always shown an almost obsessive attachment to the image of innocence. This innocence seems to owe much to the pastoral view of the new continent which involves the idealization of nature. The idea of the pastoral itself goes as far back as the Roman Empire in European thought, but as Leo Marx has shown in his Machine in the Garden, discourses inside America presenting itself as a pastoral Arcadia fully develops in the later 18^<th> century which coincides with the rise of nationalism during the conflicts with Britain to gain independence. Another type of narrative that develops in this period is the spirited statement of marking a break from the traditional European social system and predictions of happiness which will spring from the unprecedented formation of a superb democratic society. Looking into these narratives charged with pride of being a new breed of "European" people-such as Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, Crevecceur's Letter III from the Letters from an American Farmer and Theodore Parker's support of Manifest Destiny- one can observe that the basic idea of American Innocence was formed through antithetical imagination borrowing the European pastoral and attacking the European feudal. Yet, as being an antithetical image, contradictions occur when, for instance, the native American presence comes into the picture. In many ways, this reactionary concept of innocence is a white imagination which develops into a very ideological discourse. In the early to mid 19^<th> century, although industrialization has begun its move in the background, the ideological bloom of Transcendentalism works to reinforce the romantic aspect of the concept. However, it becomes more and more difficult to hold these values as the economical shift after the Civil War introduces Capitalism in full accompanying urbanization of communities and commercialization and mechanization of farming which of course led to disastrous results in Midwestern farms. Imperialism was also characteristic of this stage of history. Children's Literature which is most often associated with the image of innocence, inspired many writers to engage in works which recorded how the threatened innocence got lost in the rapid transitions of industrialization. Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz all project what happened to the American psyche which tried to hold on to the self-image of innocence during the Gilded Age. This essay observes how each of these authors handled the issue in their different ways under a difficult time, and how, as a result their works became not only their best known masterpieces, but also uniquely controversial classics of American Literature.
- 2005-12-26
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関連論文
- 喪失の幻影:The American Innocence (1) : 「金メッキ時代」と児童文学
- 喪失の幻影 : The American Innocence (2) : フェニモア・クーパーと西部の物語の創造