No description available.

This study examines how the five tales built around the central figure of Natty Bumppo reflect the growth of Cooper's mythic imagination. It also attempts to demonstrate how the myth of Leatherstocking serves to interpret the American experience, and it argues that Cooper's myth is important not merely because of its historical position in the development of American literature but because of its intrinsic literary merits as well.

Because of his portrayal of noble and heroic Indians in the Leatherstocking Tales, James Fenimore Cooper has often been regarded as a writer very sympathetic to the Indian people in their struggle against dispossession by white society. Because they include many statements which support concepts of aboriginal land rights for the Indians, the Leatherstocking Tales appear to support this understanding of Cooper. However during the time in which Cooper wrote and published the five Leatherstocking Tales, Pioneers (1823), Last of the Mohicans (1826), Prairie (1827), Pathfinder (1840), and Deerslayer (1841), the United States debated and adopted a policy of Indian removal. As a result of this policy, most Indian peoples living east of the Mississippi were removed to unfamiliar lands west of the Mississippi. While some Indians agreed to this policy, others, most notably the Cherokee, objected and tried to maintain themselves as a people on their traditional lands. A treaty, endorsed by an unrepresentative minority of the Cherokee people, ceded these lands and the Cherokee were expelled from their homeland; some four thousand Cherokee people died on this "Trail of Tears" to their new home. Although Cooper was politically active and aware, he did not protest the actions of the government. In Notions of the Americans (1828), a fictional travel narrative, the presumed author, who, in many respects, can be identified with Cooper, speaks of removal as a "great, humane, and . . . rational project." Otherwise, Cooper does not appear to have addressed himself to the removal controversy. The thesis, therefore, re-examines the Leather-stocking Tales in the light of the removal controversy; it seeks to determine what understanding these novels give of the Indian people, of Indian-white relations, and of Indian rights to the land. The first three Leatherstocking novels were written during the debate on Indian removal. Although Indian rights to the "land are frequently mentioned, other aspects of these novels work to deny the validity of the Indian claim. The last two Leatherstocking novels, written after the removal policy had come into effect, do not have as much rhetoric about Indian land rights; like the earlier Leatherstocking Tales, however, they see the Indian and white civilization as mutually exclusive. Although Cooper presents good and noble Indians, in opposition to his Indian villains, they lack the necessary qualities to become a happy and worthwhile part of American life and culture. Critics accused Cooper of patterning his Indians too much after those described by Rev. John Heckewelder, one of Cooper's major sources. However, as this thesis shows, Cooper significantly altered Heckewelder's view of the Indians and of Indian-white relations; Cooper plays down the importance of white savagery, which Heckewelder had stressed and detailed, and, in contrast, emphasizes and details Indian acts of savagery and cruelty. The thesis concludes that Cooper saw the Indian primarily as material for romance; wrongs done to the Indian and statements about Indian rights to the land are included in the novels because they added to the picture of the Indian as a romantic figure. Basically, Cooper did not have any political or social commitment to the Indian people. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

No description available.

No description available.

Thèse numérisée par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

This thesis starts with an overview of the historical record tied to the birth of a new nation studied by Alexis de Tocqueville and Henry Steele Commager. It singles out the works of Henry Nash Smith and Eugene D. Genovese for an understanding, respectively, of the "myth of the frontier" tied to the conquest of the American West and the "plantation myth" that sustained slavery in the American South. Both myths underlie the concept of hybridity or cross-cultural relations in America. This thesis is concerned with the representation or lack of representation of hybridity and the roles played by female characters in connection with the land in two seminal American novels and their film versions---James Fenimore Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans, and Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind---and Alice Randall's rewriting of Mitchell's novel, The Wind Done Gone , as a point of contrast. Hybridity is represented in the mixed-race bodies of these characters.

O presente trabalho dedica-se a analisar comparativamente as obras The Pioneers (1823), The Last of the Mohicans (1826) e The Deerslayer (1841) de James Fenimore Cooper; e O Guarani (1857), As Minas de Prata (1863-65) e Iracema (1865) de José de Alencar sob a perspectiva historiográfica. Tal abordagem justifica-se por estas obras estarem inseridas no contexto de formação de uma cultura histórica no mundo ocidental, intensificado ao final do século XVIII, e que acabou por dar origem à História como disciplina. Logo, considera-se pertinente abordar o romance histórico, assim como outras formas de expressão cultural do período – entre eles a arte pictórica e os museus -, por fazer parte do surgimento do que hoje concebemos como historiografia. Assim, considerando as obras acima como representações do passado, conceito do historiador britânico Stephen Bann, procura-se estudar como elementos da história local – principalmente a paisagem e o passado indígena – articularam-se com convenções do romance romântico europeu, mais precisamente da tradição iniciada por Mme. De Staël, René Chateaubriand, Walter Scott, entre outros. Ao longo da análise, percebeu-se que entre as notas de roda-pé e eventuais referências ao longo das narrativas, tanto Cooper como Alencar referiam-se a documentos de época, o que tinha claramente o objetivo de garantir a veracidade e a verossimilhança de suas criações. Além disso, tais documentos, principalmente no caso de Alencar, onde a produção historiográfica encontrava-se centralizada principalmente no Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, eram similares aos utilizados por historiadores do período. Dessa forma, verifica-se que os primeiros traços da tentativa de se constituir uma literatura original – em contraposição à européia – nesses dois países tinham uma estreita relação com o fazer histórico, o que é o cerne desta contribuição para a compreensão da cultura histórica oitocentista. / The object of this study is to analyse comparatively the works The Pioneers (1823), The Last of the Mohicans (1826) and The Deerslayer (1841) by James Fenimore Cooper; and O Guarani (1857), As Minas de Prata (1863-65) and Iracema (1865) by José de Alencar under a historiographic perspective. Such approach is justified by the fact that these novels are part of the context of formation of a historical culture in the western world, intensified in the end of the eighteenth century, which lies in the origin of History as a discipline. It is, thus, pertinent to study the historical novel, as well as other means of expression – pictorial art and museums among them –, since they are involved in the forthcoming of historiography proper. Hence, considering these literary works as representations of the past, a concept developed by British historian Stephen Bann, we aim to analyse how elements of local history – mainly the landscape and native populations – were articulated with conventions belonging to romantic novels, specifically the tradition initiated with Mme. De Staël, René de Chateubriand, Walter Scott and others. Throughout the analysis, it was perceived that among footnotes and references in the texts themselves, both Alencar and Cooper reffered to documents of the time, which was clearly an attempt to achieve veracity and verisimilitude in their creations. Furthermore, such documents, especially in the case of Alencar, where the historiographic production was centered mainly in the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, were similar to those used by historians of the time. Therefore, it is verified that the first traces of the effort in constituting an original literature – as opposed to European literature – in these two countries has a straight bond with History writing, which is the focus of this contribution to the understanding of nineteenth-century historical culture.

O presente trabalho dedica-se a analisar comparativamente as obras The Pioneers (1823), The Last of the Mohicans (1826) e The Deerslayer (1841) de James Fenimore Cooper; e O Guarani (1857), As Minas de Prata (1863-65) e Iracema (1865) de José de Alencar sob a perspectiva historiográfica. Tal abordagem justifica-se por estas obras estarem inseridas no contexto de formação de uma cultura histórica no mundo ocidental, intensificado ao final do século XVIII, e que acabou por dar origem à História como disciplina. Logo, considera-se pertinente abordar o romance histórico, assim como outras formas de expressão cultural do período – entre eles a arte pictórica e os museus -, por fazer parte do surgimento do que hoje concebemos como historiografia. Assim, considerando as obras acima como representações do passado, conceito do historiador britânico Stephen Bann, procura-se estudar como elementos da história local – principalmente a paisagem e o passado indígena – articularam-se com convenções do romance romântico europeu, mais precisamente da tradição iniciada por Mme. De Staël, René Chateaubriand, Walter Scott, entre outros. Ao longo da análise, percebeu-se que entre as notas de roda-pé e eventuais referências ao longo das narrativas, tanto Cooper como Alencar referiam-se a documentos de época, o que tinha claramente o objetivo de garantir a veracidade e a verossimilhança de suas criações. Além disso, tais documentos, principalmente no caso de Alencar, onde a produção historiográfica encontrava-se centralizada principalmente no Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, eram similares aos utilizados por historiadores do período. Dessa forma, verifica-se que os primeiros traços da tentativa de se constituir uma literatura original – em contraposição à européia – nesses dois países tinham uma estreita relação com o fazer histórico, o que é o cerne desta contribuição para a compreensão da cultura histórica oitocentista. / The object of this study is to analyse comparatively the works The Pioneers (1823), The Last of the Mohicans (1826) and The Deerslayer (1841) by James Fenimore Cooper; and O Guarani (1857), As Minas de Prata (1863-65) and Iracema (1865) by José de Alencar under a historiographic perspective. Such approach is justified by the fact that these novels are part of the context of formation of a historical culture in the western world, intensified in the end of the eighteenth century, which lies in the origin of History as a discipline. It is, thus, pertinent to study the historical novel, as well as other means of expression – pictorial art and museums among them –, since they are involved in the forthcoming of historiography proper. Hence, considering these literary works as representations of the past, a concept developed by British historian Stephen Bann, we aim to analyse how elements of local history – mainly the landscape and native populations – were articulated with conventions belonging to romantic novels, specifically the tradition initiated with Mme. De Staël, René de Chateubriand, Walter Scott and others. Throughout the analysis, it was perceived that among footnotes and references in the texts themselves, both Alencar and Cooper reffered to documents of the time, which was clearly an attempt to achieve veracity and verisimilitude in their creations. Furthermore, such documents, especially in the case of Alencar, where the historiographic production was centered mainly in the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, were similar to those used by historians of the time. Therefore, it is verified that the first traces of the effort in constituting an original literature – as opposed to European literature – in these two countries has a straight bond with History writing, which is the focus of this contribution to the understanding of nineteenth-century historical culture.

O presente trabalho dedica-se a analisar comparativamente as obras The Pioneers (1823), The Last of the Mohicans (1826) e The Deerslayer (1841) de James Fenimore Cooper; e O Guarani (1857), As Minas de Prata (1863-65) e Iracema (1865) de José de Alencar sob a perspectiva historiográfica. Tal abordagem justifica-se por estas obras estarem inseridas no contexto de formação de uma cultura histórica no mundo ocidental, intensificado ao final do século XVIII, e que acabou por dar origem à História como disciplina. Logo, considera-se pertinente abordar o romance histórico, assim como outras formas de expressão cultural do período – entre eles a arte pictórica e os museus -, por fazer parte do surgimento do que hoje concebemos como historiografia. Assim, considerando as obras acima como representações do passado, conceito do historiador britânico Stephen Bann, procura-se estudar como elementos da história local – principalmente a paisagem e o passado indígena – articularam-se com convenções do romance romântico europeu, mais precisamente da tradição iniciada por Mme. De Staël, René Chateaubriand, Walter Scott, entre outros. Ao longo da análise, percebeu-se que entre as notas de roda-pé e eventuais referências ao longo das narrativas, tanto Cooper como Alencar referiam-se a documentos de época, o que tinha claramente o objetivo de garantir a veracidade e a verossimilhança de suas criações. Além disso, tais documentos, principalmente no caso de Alencar, onde a produção historiográfica encontrava-se centralizada principalmente no Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, eram similares aos utilizados por historiadores do período. Dessa forma, verifica-se que os primeiros traços da tentativa de se constituir uma literatura original – em contraposição à européia – nesses dois países tinham uma estreita relação com o fazer histórico, o que é o cerne desta contribuição para a compreensão da cultura histórica oitocentista. / The object of this study is to analyse comparatively the works The Pioneers (1823), The Last of the Mohicans (1826) and The Deerslayer (1841) by James Fenimore Cooper; and O Guarani (1857), As Minas de Prata (1863-65) and Iracema (1865) by José de Alencar under a historiographic perspective. Such approach is justified by the fact that these novels are part of the context of formation of a historical culture in the western world, intensified in the end of the eighteenth century, which lies in the origin of History as a discipline. It is, thus, pertinent to study the historical novel, as well as other means of expression – pictorial art and museums among them –, since they are involved in the forthcoming of historiography proper. Hence, considering these literary works as representations of the past, a concept developed by British historian Stephen Bann, we aim to analyse how elements of local history – mainly the landscape and native populations – were articulated with conventions belonging to romantic novels, specifically the tradition initiated with Mme. De Staël, René de Chateubriand, Walter Scott and others. Throughout the analysis, it was perceived that among footnotes and references in the texts themselves, both Alencar and Cooper reffered to documents of the time, which was clearly an attempt to achieve veracity and verisimilitude in their creations. Furthermore, such documents, especially in the case of Alencar, where the historiographic production was centered mainly in the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, were similar to those used by historians of the time. Therefore, it is verified that the first traces of the effort in constituting an original literature – as opposed to European literature – in these two countries has a straight bond with History writing, which is the focus of this contribution to the understanding of nineteenth-century historical culture.