Civilness and Wilderization

Seminar paper from the year 2005 in the subject American Studies - Literature grade: sehr gut (10) University of Leipzig (Institut für Amerikanistik) course: Wilderness and Civilization in American Fiction language: English abstract: The writing of this paper was initiated by a seminar on the concepts and implications of civilization and wilderness in American fiction. When Frederick Jackson Turner analyzed the significance of the Frontier in American history he claimed that the true American character was not influenced by Europe but built by the constant strenuous interaction with and the heroically endured hardships of nature's wildness which presented itself to the pioneers along the frontier line up until 1890 when the frontier was considered officially closed (Turner 1893). Accordingly nature and wilderness play an important role in American history character and literature. Wilderness visualized as trees or the woods in general symbolizes a lawless place and thus not only allowing for the idea of beasts but also of criminals living there. The uncanny in this picture is obvious and allows for mystifications quite a lot. Besides symbolizing a place of evil wilderness has also been a space for the individual most evident in the Puritan idea of expelling non-conformist people sinners from the community and sending them to exile into the woods. In this regard Nathaniel Hawthorne's Scarlet Letter and its adulterous protagonist Hester Prynne serve as a perfect example from literature. In this instant it becomes clear that wilderness and civilization serve as binary oppositions that have been primarily favored as neatly separated categories in the Puritan thinking. Civilization has been praised as the ideal refining and humane state which can only be realized in the community and its democratic institutions. The missionary thought of bringing civilization to the continent and thus taming the wilderness evoked a new idea: that of Manife