This study examines a small body of 19th-century American literature about the Antarctic: Adam Seaborn's (pseud.) Symzonia (1820), Edgar Allan Poe's "MS. Found in a Bottle" (1833) and The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym (1838), Peter Prospero's (pseud.) "The Atlantis" (1838-39), and James Fenimore Cooper's The Monikins (1835) and The Sea Lions (1849). These were written in a transitional phase in the history of the Antarctic. At the start of the period, the region was almost completely unknown. Towards the end of the period, however, the region had been mapped in its essence, and the existence of an Antarctic continent had been verified. For complex reasons, the region came into cultural focus in the U.S. during the 1820s to 40s, culminating in the first major American scientific expedition in 1838-42 to explore the South Seas and the Antarctic. The study is primarily historical, tracing ideas to their historical contexts in order to determine what these authors used the unknown space of the Antarctic for. These texts were written in imaginative response to contemporary notions of the Antarctic, which is reflected in the mode of representation. The literature is in the mode of speculative fiction-most of texts imagining a tropical, inhabited Antarctic-up until the region is explored, at which point it turns to realism. The texts fall into three categories: the utopian, liminal, and realistic. The utopian texts-Symzonia, The Monikins, and "The Atlantis"-are works of social criticism, using the blank space of the Antarctic to treat a diverse range of issues, including politics, evolutionary theories, race, and gender. Poe's "MS" and Pym represent the liminal category; they dramatize the anticipation of an imminent Antarctic discovery, narrating up to a point of revelation, only to stop short. The Sea Lions is the only realistic text, coming after the Antarctic is explored. Here the knowledge of the Antarctic has solidified into the environment we know today, but with religiously symbolical overtones.

This thesis is focused on the representation and characterization of female characters in the novel The Deerslayer from The Leatherstocking Tales pentalogy from James Fenimore Cooper in contrast to the concept of female characters in the book from Louisa May Alcott Little Women. There is analyzed images of female fictional heroines living in the American wilderness in the years 1740-1805, and these findings are compared with the representation of women in the 19th century domestic novel Little Women. The way of creating female characters is analyzed in relation to the other characters, the space in which they live, the storyline and contemporary values. This analysis should in a literary historical aspect reveal how much the role of a woman becomes a mere fulfillment of a simplified scheme and how it also has many meanings of full-fledged components in literary work. The author of this thesis also focuses on the influence of the environment on the formation of female characters and tracks their role not only in American novels but also in the society. Key words woman, gender, novel, cult of True Womenhood, James Fenimore Cooper, Louise May Alcott, topoi of the forest, home, american wildernes

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