1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910812187003321

Autore

Sweet Timothy <1960->

Titolo

American georgics : economy and environment in early American literature / / Timothy Sweet

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Philadelphia, : University of Pennsylvania Press, c2002

ISBN

0-8122-0318-6

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (232 p.)

Disciplina

810.9/355

Soggetti

American literature - History and criticism

Environmental literature - History and criticism

Pastoral literature, American - History and criticism

Didactic literature, American - History and criticism

Economics and literature - United States - History

Agriculture in literature

Economics in literature

Nature in literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. [203]-214) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Introduction -- Chapter 1. Economy And Environment In Sixteenth-Century Promotional Literature -- Chapter 2. "God Sells Us All Things For Our Labour" John Smith's Generall Historie -- Chapter 3. "Wonder-Working Providence" Of The Market -- Chapter 4. "Admirable Economy": Robert Beverley's Calculus Of Compensation -- Chapter 5 Ideologies Of Farming: Crèvecoeur, Je.Fforson, Rush, And Brown -- Chapter 6. Cherokee "Improvements" And The Removal Debate -- Chapter 7 "Co-Workers With Nature": Cooper, Thoreau, And Marsh -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Index -- Acknowledgments

Sommario/riassunto

In classical terms the georgic celebrates the working landscape, cultivated to become fruitful and prosperous, in contrast to the idealized or fanciful landscapes of the pastoral. Arguing that economic considerations must become central to any understanding of the human community's engagement with the natural environment, Timothy Sweet identifies a distinct literary mode he calls the American georgic. Offering a fresh approach to ecocritical and environmentally-



oriented literary studies, Sweet traces the history of the American georgic from its origins in late sixteenth-century English literature promoting the colonization of the Americas through the mid-nineteenth century, ending with George Perkins Marsh's Man and Nature (1864), the foundational text in the conservationist movement.