This dissertation applies the concept of utopia to literature surrounding the English exploration and colonization of America. The term "utopia" refers to both a literary form and to that concept in human consciousness which catalyzes change in physical reality. Authors express utopia in the visionary aspects of their written representations. Visionary representations produce expectations of what the future may hold, and in this way they helped bring European civilization to America. Studying these representations is valuable for historical clarity and because these representations reveal utopia's function in affecting the course of the future.The study of early English-American literature requires terminology that the current reservoir of utopian terminology does not provide. I offer new terminology. This study defines four broad types of utopian vision specifically applicable to the English exploration and colonization of America. Active Complex visions prioritize maximum manipulation of the landscape to accommodate all the needs of a large and diverse population. Active Simple visions center on one staple venture, like sheepherding, to accommodate the needs of a small population. Divine Patent visions prioritize conformity to values inscribed in theistic religious literature. Natural Primitive visions prioritize the elimination of social infrastructure to achieve harmony with nature. These four types of utopian vision correspond to myths of the past that authors projected as hope for an ideal future.The four types of utopian vision appear throughout the narratives collected by Richard Hakluyt. Voyages by explorers like Sir John Hawkins, Sir Humphrey Gilbert, and Sir Walter Raleigh generated representations of America that expressed Active Complex, Active Simple, or Divine Patent visions. These representations also provided imagery that led to Natural Primitive visions of America. Captain John Smith's narratives about Virginia and New England reveal visions of Active Complex utopias. Puritan authors like William Bradford, Edward Winslow, John Winthrop, and Cotton Mather represented New England with Divine Patent visions. All of these utopian representations influenced later authors, including Thomas Jefferson, Hector St. John de Crevecoeur, and Timothy Dwight. They also continue to influence the way we imagine the United States of America today.

The thesis explores the work of two disparate figures, John Ruskin (1819-1900) and Albert Smith (1816-1860) who, together, helped transform the way the Alps were perceived in the mid nineteenth century. Both esteemed the Alps in their own way, although Ruskin’s cultural aestheticism contrasting markedly to the popular showmanship of Smith. Nevertheless, both Ruskin’s five-volumed Modern Painters (1843-1860), and Smith’s theatrical shows describing his ascent of Mont Blanc (1852-1858), contributed significantly to the growing popularity of the landscape resulting in the Alpine Club (1857) and the birth of modern tourism in the region. This work examines in detail the work and interests of both characters. This includes Ruskin’s drawings, art theory (especially in relation to his admiration of Turner), geological interests, religious convictions, and poetry. These reveal his desire to centre ideas of the sublime around his scientific interest in the area and the legacy of his Evangelical upbringing. The thesis investigates the tension between these elements. Smith’s climb of Mont Blanc (1851) and his subsequent shows highlighted his desire to thrill and entertain. For him, presentation of the Alps was a matter of showmanship and the thesis investigates his success, tracing its roots in elements of Victorian popular entertainment. Both Smith’s shows, and works like Of Mountain Beauty (Volume IV of Modern Painters (1856)), inspired many to explore the landscape for themselves. For Ruskin, this led to a decline in his interest in the Alps following the development of the rail network and the expansion of popular tourist sites, including his beloved Chamonix. For Smith, the public’s increasing familiarity with the region, and the popularity of other stories of Alpine ascents by members of the Alpine Club, led to a decline in interest in his shows by the end of the 1850s. Due to their interest in the region, the Romantic appreciation of the Alps in the early nineteenth century associated with theories of the sublime became a much more diverse phenomenon illustrating a number of key features of Victorian culture, including: the relationship of ‘high’ and ‘popular’ culture; the increasing influence of mass tourism; and the ways in which major figures in Victorian Britain explored and utilised foreign destinations. The thesis will also, from time to time, examine the relationship between cultural and visual forms and key elements in Victorian intellectual controversy, including the relationship of religion and science.

Thesis (D.M.A.)--University of North Texas, 2004. / System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Accompanied by 4 recitals, recorded Mar. 25, 2002, Mar. 10, 2003, Oct. 6, 2003, and Oct. 18, 2004. Includes bibliographical references (p. 54-55).

John Smith (1618-1652), the 17th century Cambridge Platonist, employed the traditional language of the spiritual senses of the soul to develop an early modern theological aesthetic central to his religious epistemology and thus to his philosophy of religion and systematic theology. Smith's place in this tradition has been under-appreciated by scholars working on the Cambridge Platonists and the spiritual senses. However, as a Christian Platonist, Smith advocated intellectual intuition of Divine Goodness as the key to theological knowledge and spiritual practice. Furthermore, Smith's theory of prophecy rests on the reception of sensible images in the imagination. In order to demonstrate this the dissertation first presents an interpretive summary of the spiritual senses tradition and proposes a functional typology that registers three uses of non-corporeal perception throughout the history of Christian theology: (1) accounts of the origin and methods of theological knowledge, (2) descriptions of spirituality, and (3) attempts to systematically present or defend Christian theology. Additionally, Smith's historical and intellectual context in early seventeenth century England is discussed with particular attention to how his education prepared him to contribute to the mystical tradition of the spiritual senses of the soul. Through a close reading of his extant writings it is shown that Smith's theories of theological knowledge, method, and prophecy rest on his development of the spiritual senses tradition, combining intellectual intuition and imaginative perception. Likewise, the role of spiritual aesthetics in Smith's prescriptive account of Christian piety is presented. Here the spiritual senses are both means and reward in the spiritual life through the process of deification (theosis). Moreover, it is shown how Smith's theology forms a coherent system with intellectual intuition informing natural theology and revelation being supplemented by spiritual perception via the imagination. The central uniting feature therefore is the spiritual perception of theological truth. Finally, the dissertation closes with a summary of Smith's various uses of the spiritual senses and proposes future research on his influence upon later figures including Jonathan Edwards, John Wesley, and suggests future constructive work inspired by Smith's combination of reason and experience in religion.

Historical narratives and anecdotes concerning Captain John Smith have been told and retold throughout the entire history the United States of America, and they have proved to be sacred, influential, and contested elements in the construction of the individual, sectional, regional, and national identity of many. In this thesis, I first outline some of the history of how narratives and discourses surrounding Captain John Smith were directly connected with the identity of many Americans during the 18th and 19th century, especially Virginians and Southerners. Then I outline how these narratives and discourses from the 18th and 19th centuries have continued and evolved in the 20th and 21st centuries in American scholarship and popular culture. I demonstrate how Captain John Smith went from being used as a symbol for regional and sectional identity to a symbol for broader national American identity, and how he has anachronistically come to be considered an American. I then show how Captain John Smith has continued to be constructed, to a seemingly larger degree than previous centuries, as a hero of almost mythic proportions. Finally I demonstrate how this constructed American hero is used as a posterchild for various interest groups and ideologies in order to legitimize the places of certain discourses and behavior within constructed and contested American identities.

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