美國國家公園之誕生的醞釀：試探美國早期自然史書寫中的國族建構與環境關懷傳統

The Burgeoning of American National Parks: The Construction of National Culture and the Creation of a Tradition of Environmental Concern in Early American Natural History Writings

盧莉茹(Lu-Li Ru)

《語文與國際研究》 3期 (2006/12) Pp. 103-120

https://doi.org/10.7084/LIS.200612.0103

摘要

在主流自然書寫的研究疆域中，梭羅廣被公認為美國自然書寫(nature writing)的「鼻祖」。換言之，遠在梭羅之前的早期自然書寫一直廣受忽視與排除。有鑑於此，本文不但欲指出美國遠在梭羅以前早已存在著書寫自然史(natural history)的自然作家，而且還欲指出－早期自然史書寫(early natural history writings)其實與美國國家公園誕生的蘊釀息息相關。美國早期自然史書寫一方面呈現本土地理風貌，因而與國族文化建構緊密扣連；另一方面早期自然史書寫亦藉由刻劃日漸消逝的原始生態環境而建塑了一套同情自然、保存荒野的初期生態關懷傳統，進而醞釀了一八七二年美國第一座國家公園的誕生。在此論述脈絡下，本文聚焦於美國建國初期的兩位自然史作家－克瑞弗克爾(Hector St. John de Crevecoeur)以及傑佛遜(Thomas Jefferson)，檢視其自然史書寫中的國族文化建構與環境關懷傳統如何醞釀了十九世紀後期美國國家公園的誕生。

關鍵字

美國國家公園誕生之醞釀 ； 美國早期自然史書寫 ； 國族建構 ； 環境關懷傳統 ； 克瑞佛克爾 ； 傑佛遜

並列摘要

For a very long time, America's early natural history writings have received little attention from eco-critics. This paper, however, will focus on the late-eighteenth-and early-nineteenth-century natural history writings in America, analyzing how these writings construct a distinctively national culture by describing the impressive natural resources in America, document the natural history of an evanescent frontier and its nonhuman inhabitants in New England, help introduce a pattern of ecological thinking in American culture and initiate a tradition of environmental concern into American environmental history, and eventually catalyze the birth of America's first national park in the mid-nineteenth century. In this paper, I shall investigate the natural history writings of two late-eighteenth-and early-nineteenth-century American naturalists-Hector St. John de Crevecoeur and Thomas Jefferson. Closely analyzing their natural history discourses, this paper wishes to examine the following questions: what are the status and function of American natural history writings around the turn of the nineteenth century? If natural history writing is regarded as both science and belles letters, what is the larger relationship between American natural history discourses and the rise of a uniquely American culture during the turn of the nineteenth century? How do early naturalists' representations of the relationship between human and nonhuman nature contribute to the environmental concern that eventually catalyze the birth of America's first national park -the Yellowstone National Park-in 1872?

並列關鍵字

the birth of American national parks ； America's early natural history writings ； the construction of national culture ； a tradition of environmental concern ； Hector St. John de Crevecoeur ； Thomas Jefferson

參考文獻

Armbruster, Karla,Kathleen R. Wallace(eds.)(2001).Beyond Nature Writing: Expanding the Boundaries of Ecocriticism.Charlottesvilles:UP of Virginia.

Branch, Michael P.(ed.)(2004).Reading the Roots: American Nature Writing be/are Walden.Athens:U of Georgia P.

Branch, Michael P.,Cheryll Glotfelty,Harold Fromm.(Ed.)(1996).The Ecocriticism Reader: Landmarks in Literary Ecology.Athens:U of Georgia P.

Branch, Michael P.,John Elder.(Ed.)(1996).American Nature Writers.New York:Scribner`s.

Branch, Michael P.,Karla Armbruster,Kathleen R. Wallace(Ed.)(2001).Beyond Nature Writing: Expanding the Boundaries of Ecocriticism.Charlottesvilles:UP of Virginia.