No description available.

"Dark Nature" examines literary representations of fears of nature in American literature, from the seventeenth through the mid-nineteenth century. Critiquing some dominant trends in ecocriticism, this project fills a gap in the field by studying texts that represent nature as a threatening force. By calling attention to such representations, I identify many of the cultural sources of those anxieties about nature at different historical moments. In the process, this project reveals that there has always been a Gothic subtext in the long history of literature about nature in the United States. "Dark Nature" begins by examining representations of Puritan fears of nature in New England, looking at authors such as William Bradford, John Winthrop, and Mary Rowlandson to show how the Puritan worldview established a "pre-Gothic" way of envisioning nature. It then moves to the post-Revolutionary era, using Charles Brockden Brown's "Edgar Huntly" to describe national anxieties about American wilderness and the ways those anxieties undermined contemporary Enlightenment ideals. The third chapter looks at the "darkness" within the work of that most canonical of nature writers, Henry David Thoreau. Despite the optimism of his Transcendental view of nature, I reveal that Thoreau's writing is often pervaded by moments of anxiety and even fear of the natural world. A further chapter about slave narratives shows how Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs present nature as darker than anything their romantic contemporaries produced, often consciously employing Gothic nature imagery as a rhetorical tool of resistance against their white oppressors. Finally, this study concludes with by exploring how some of Herman Melville's writing exemplifies a changing worldview in light of Charles Darwin's theories about natural selection and survival of the fittest. After the mid-nineteenth century, Gothic representations of nature tend to signal different types of fears based no longer on Puritan conceptions of nature, but rather on a post-Darwinian view. In calling attention to this overlooked lineage of writing, "Dark Nature" helps widen the discourse of ecocritical studies, arguing that there is much to be learned from studying representations of nature that are not only un-Romantic, but outright dangerous, violent, and terrifying.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine Robert Frost's use in his poetry of ambivalent views of nature, of varieties of human character, and of interrelationships between man and nature.

Artist Statement I am fascinated with colors in nature and how it affects our moods. The colors of a sunset and moonlit sky; the feeling of a brewing storm; the laziness of a cold, gray day; the roar of an ocean; and the feel of sand on your feet are elements that I want to capture in my drawings and paintings. In addition to the natural environment, animals are an integral part of nature that I incorporate in my work. Pets are the unspoken blessings that bring joy and laughter to my life. Pets, especially dogs, are proven to relieve stress, to brighten emotions, to contribute to healing, to be forgiving, and to be loyal. Finally, my family features prominently in my work. The best times in my life have all been a result of relationships and special moments with them.

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

In this study, I have investigated what some of the crusaders thought of and how they were affected by the nature they encountered during the crusades. This have been done based on written sources from the crusades using the concept of Environmental imagination in medieval texts. The texts in this study have been chosen depending on their availability and their translation. The crusaders found themselves in a new nature that they were not prepared for and in which the enemy could hide in. The nature could also work as a moral boost for the crusaders confirming that God was on their side or work as a death-trap when they were led astray. It is clear that the crusaders experienced both physical and psychological effects from the nature that they encountered during the crusades. / I denna studien så har jag undersökt vad några korsfarare ansåg om naturen och hur de blev påverkade av den när de mötte den under korstågen. Detta har undersökts med hjälp av skrivna källor som härstammar från tiden då korstågen genomfördes. Texterna har valts ut beroende på deras tillgänglighet och hur väl de har varit översatta. Den använda metoden och teorin som har använts är ’Environmental imagination’. Korsfararna hamnade i en Natur de inte var beredda på att möta och som deras fiender kunde använda sig av för att gömma sig i. Naturen kunde också vara moraliskt upplyftande då de ibland tolkade som att Gud var på deras sida genom händelser i naturen men naturen kunde också fungera som en dödsfälla när de var på okänd mark. Det är klart att korsfararna blev både fysiologiskt och psykologiskt påverkade av naturen.

No description available.