Conceptualizing Nature: New England Nature Writing

This thesis examines five New England nature writers from three distinct historical literary periods―William Cullen Bryant from the era before industrialism (up to 1830), Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau from the Industrial Revolution (1830-1850), and Robert Frost and Henry Beston from the modernist period (1920-1950).  These writers are connected by a shared and intense love of nature; however, because they write during different moments in history, their approaches to and definitions of “nature” vary.  This thesis engages with these writers and their times in light of the historical development of industrialism and how it has worked to undermine the importance of connecting with the natural world.  Over the course of three chapters, this thesis traces the development of environmental thought among New England writers and takes account of how industrialism changes attitudes about nature.  In pre-industrial New England, Bryant is free to adopt a strong Romantic conception of nature—one that is largely absent of concerns about protecting or conserving the environment.  However, once the Industrial Revolution sweeps across New England, Emerson and Thoreau issue warnings about the dangers of industrialism severing humanity from the natural world.  By the twentieth century, Beston and Frost have to grapple with being lovers of nature in a world that is irreversibly industrialized.  Frost is pessimistic about humanity’s ever-decreasing connection with the natural world, while Beston remains hopeful that we can engage meaningfully and spiritually with the environment even in modern times.  Industrialism and its effects have forced these authors to focus on how to protect American environments and landscapes.  Learning about the history of environmental writing in nineteenth-century America helps us to understand better contemporary concerns related to environmentalism.