Savage and Scott-ish Masculinity in The Last of the Mohicans and The Prairie: James Fenimore Cooper and the Diasporic Origins of American Identity

2009 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 137-162 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juliet Shields
Keyword(s):  
Native Americans ◽  
Social Development ◽  
James Fenimore Cooper ◽  
American Identity ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
Westward Expansion ◽  
Historical Romances ◽  
Walter Scott ◽  
Last Of The Mohicans

This essay reassesses James Fenimore Cooper's literary relationship to Walter Scott by examining the depiction of Scots in The Last of the Mohicans (1826) and The Prairie (1827). Read as companion texts, these novels represent the imperial migrations of Scots as a cause of Native Americans' unfortunate, but for Cooper seemingly inevitable, eradication. They also trace the development of an American identity that incorporates feudal chivalry and savage fortitude and that is formed through cultural appropriation rather than racial mixing. The Last of the Mohicans' Scottish protagonist, Duncan Heyward, learns to survive in the northeastern wilderness by adopting the Mohicans' savage self-control as a complement to his own feudal chivalry; in turn, The Prairie's Paul Hover equips himself for the challenges of westward expansion by adopting both the remnants of this chivalry and the exilic adaptability and colonial striving that Cooper accords to Scots. I suggest that the cultural appropriation through which Heyward and Hover achieve an American identity that incorporates Scottish chivalry and savage self-command offers a model for the literary relationship between Cooper's and Scott's historical romances. The Leatherstocking Tales borrow selectively from the Waverely Novels, rejecting their valorization of feudal chivalry while incorporating their representation of cultural appropriation as a mechanism of teleological social development.

SUBLIME TRANSLATION IN THE NOVELS OF JAMES FENIMORE COOPER AND WALTER SCOTT

2004 ◽  
Vol 59 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
A. NEWMAN
Keyword(s):  
Native Americans ◽  
American English ◽  
James Fenimore Cooper ◽  
Indigenous Languages ◽  
German Romanticism ◽  
The Sublime ◽  
Mother Country ◽  
Walter Scott

In the first four volumes of his Leatherstocking Tales (1823-1840), James Fenimore Cooper employs an arcane motif in which scenes of communication between Anglo-Americans and native Americans are set in sublime locations and, typically, interrupted by animals. Cooper has borrowed this motif of ““sublime translation”” from Walter Scott; the paradigm is the ““Highland Minstrelsy”” chapter of Waverley (1814). ““Sublime translation”” is crucial to the thematics of both sets of romances. In the works of Scott, Cooper finds a use of the sublime that is particularly suitable to his aesthetic agenda of differentiating his usage of English from that of the mother country. The motif figuratively naturalizes American English and links it to the indigenous languages, and it also transfers the quality of sublimity from the dying native tongues to the new American one. Thus the ultimate elevation of Reason over Nature that characterizes the Kantian sublime (Scott was strongly influenced by German Romanticism) takes on a new meaning in colonial and postcolonial contexts.

"Without a Cross": The Cultural Significance of the Sublime and Beautiful in Cooper's The Last of the Mohicans

1997 ◽  
Vol 52 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven Blakemore
Keyword(s):  
James Fenimore Cooper ◽  
Racial Ideology ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Cultural Significance ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
The Sublime ◽  
The World ◽  
Indian Tribes ◽  
Last Of The Mohicans ◽  
Historical Moment

This essay demonstrates that James Fenimore Cooper was incorporating the language and values of Edmund Burke's A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (1757) into the "world" of The Last of the Mohicans (1826). In the Enquiry Burke's distinction between the sublime and beautiful centers on traditional distinctions between men and women-an "eternal distinction" that Burke continually underscores. In Mohicans Cooper initially incorporates the beautiful into the sublime, in an intentionally illusive "mix" that corresponds to the illusory mixing of the white and Indian races. He then reinscribes Burke's distinction between the sublime and beautiful as an eternal distinction between whites and Indians-writing "out" the problem of the "Other" (gendered "femininity" and alien, "red" beauty) in a meditation of the significance of culture and race in America. In retrospect, Mohicans is a novel of ambiguous "crosses" and complicitous combinations-a novel of fatal and fruitful mixes comprising a series of covert traces telling a secret story contradicting Cooper's overt, racial ideology. Yet it is this "pristine" ideology that finally overpowers and double-crosses the novel's "other" message. Written in 1826, at a specific historical moment when the Indian tribes were being removed or destroyed, the novel reaffirms a racial ideology tortured with its own historical ambiguities.

Introduction

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-9
Author(s):  
Nicolas G. Rosenthal ◽  
Liza Black
Keyword(s):  
Native Americans ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Art History ◽  
Film Studies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Native People ◽  
Cultural Appropriation ◽  
Dominant Culture ◽  
Indian Culture ◽  
Research Journal

Together, the articles in this special issue of the American Indian Culture and Research Journal offer a discussion of how Indigenous peoples have represented themselves and their communities in different periods and contexts, as well as through various media. Ranging across anthropology, art history, cartography, film studies, history, and literature, the authors examine how Native people negotiate with prominent images and ideas that represented Indians in the dominant culture and society in the United States and the Americas. These essays go beyond the problems of cultural appropriation by non-Indians to probe the myriad ways Native Americans and Indigenous people have challenged, reinforced, shifted, and overturned those representations.

scholarly journals Aportaciones historiográficas y estéticas a propósito de la co-autoría fílmica de The Last of the Mohicans (1920), de Maurice Tourneur y Clarence L. Brown

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Guiralt Gomar
Keyword(s):  
Visual Analysis ◽  
James Fenimore Cooper ◽  
Silent Film ◽  
Professional Relationship ◽  
The Real ◽  
Clarence Brown ◽  
Last Of The Mohicans ◽  
Analysis Of The Images ◽  
Degree Of Participation ◽  
Seriously Ill

El largometraje silente norteamericano The Last of the Mohicans (1920), sobre la famosa novela homónima de James Fenimore Cooper, se estrenó como co-dirigido por Maurice Tourneur y Clarence L. Brown. Tourneur era el productor y al inicio el único director, con Brown traba-jando como su ayudante. No obstante, poco después de iniciarse la filmación cayó gravemente enfermo, y Brown realizó la película casi al completo en su lugar. De ahí que Tourneur decidiera otorgar a su discí-pulo la mitad del crédito. Pese a ello, la polémica al respecto de su autoría ha rodeado siempre al film. Tal controversia surge a raíz de que The Last of the Mohicans está considerada por unanimidad como la obra maestra de Tourneur. Este artículo se centra en dicha problemática autoral, con objeto de establecer las verdaderas atribuciones de los dos directores. Para ello, previamente se ha analizado su relación profesional, que abarcó desde 1915 hasta 1921. Con posterioridad, a fin de establecer el grado de participación de cada uno de ellos, se han reconstruido los hechos relativos al rodaje a través de entrevistas de los que participaron en él (muchas de ellas hasta la fecha inéditas), así como de materiales publicados por la prensa de la época. Se ha llevado a cabo la consulta y confrontación de abundante material bibliográfico y, finalmente, el análisis plástico de las imágenes de la cinta.Abstract:The American silent film The Last of the Mohicans (1920), based on the famous homonymous novel by James Fenimore Cooper, was released as co-directed by Maurice Tourneur and Clarence L. Brown. Initially, Tourneur was the producer and the only director, with Brown being his assistant. However, shortly after shooting began he fell seriously ill. As a result, the film was almost entirely directed by Brown. Hence Tourneur decided to share the credit with his disciple. Still, the controversy concerning authorship has always surrounded the film. Such polemic arises from the fact that The Last of the Mohicans is considered unanimously Tourneur’s masterpiece. This article focuses on that authorial problematic, with the aim of determining the real responsibilities of both directors. In order to achieve this objective, their professional relationship (which spans from 1915 to 1921) has been previously analysed. Subsequently, to establish the degree of participation of each of them, the facts of the shooting have been reconstructed using interviews (many of them unpublished) from those who took part in it, as well as through contemporary trade papers. In addition, research and confrontation on extensive bibliography have been carried out. Finally, the visual analysis of the images of the film has been evaluated.Palabras clave:Maurice Tourneur; Clarence Brown; Hollywood; Associated Producers, Inc.; cine mudo.Keywords:Maurice Tourneur; Clarence Brown; Hollywood; Associated Producers, Inc.; Silent film.

scholarly journals Importance of Maternal Persistence in Young Children's Persistence

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masahiro Imafuku ◽  
Atsuko Saito ◽  
Kenchi Hosokawa ◽  
Kazuo Okanoya ◽  
Chihiro Hosoda
Keyword(s):  
Individual Differences ◽  
Environmental Factors ◽  
Social Development ◽  
Parenting Style ◽  
Personality Trait ◽  
Self Control ◽  
Maternal Factors ◽  
Social Success ◽  
Genetic And Environmental Factors

Persistence of a distant goal is an important personality trait that determines academic and social success. Recent studies have shown that individual differences in persistence involve both genetic and environmental factors; however, these studies have not examined the role of maternal factors on a young children's persistence. The present study examined whether mothers' persistence is associated with persistence in children aged 3–6 years. In addition, the associations between mothers' persistence/parenting style and children's self-control/social development (prosocial behaviors and difficulties) were examined. Our results showed that maternal persistence is essential for the child's persistence. Children's self-control and social development were also associated with the mothers' persistence and parenting style. Our findings suggest that a young child's persistence may develop under the influence of a familiar adult (i.e., mother) and characterizes their social development, highlighting the importance of persistence in parenting.

scholarly journals O ÚLTIMO DOS MOHICANOS e O GUARANI: DUAS VISÕES PARALELAS DO NOVO MUNDO

1975 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Consuelo M. Loureiro
Keyword(s):  
James Fenimore Cooper ◽  
Last Of The Mohicans ◽  
Jose De Alencar

Embora José de Alencar negasse qualquer afinidade entre o seuromance, O Guarani, e The Last of the Mohicans de James Fenimore Cooper, de fato as duas obras compartilham aspectos capitais a respeito de temática, propósito e caraterização. Ambas obras têm sido criticadas por apresentarem precisamente o que os autores pretendiam apresentar, quer dizer, uma versão idealizada em vez de historicamente exata do índio e da imensa floresta americana. Da mesma maneira que os românticos da Europa procuraram na Idade Média as virtudes de inocência, fé e coragem, Cooper e Alencar criaram os idênticos valores medievais nas regiões silvestres do Novo Mundo ao exaltarem o indígena já destruído pela civilização do branco. Peri e Uncas encarnam todas as qualidades de beleza física e excelência moral que os românticos tinham concedido a sua imagem simbólica

Indians Illustrated

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
John M. Coward
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Native American ◽  
Native Americans ◽  
Cultural Values ◽  
Cultural History ◽  
Visual Cues ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Westward Expansion ◽  
History Of

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Americans swarmed to take in a raft of new illustrated journals and papers. Engravings and drawings of “buckskinned braves” and “Indian princesses” proved an immensely popular attraction for consumers of publications like Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper and Harper's Weekly. This book charts a social and cultural history of Native American illustrations—romantic, violent, racist, peaceful, and otherwise—in the heyday of the American pictorial press. These woodblock engravings and ink drawings placed Native Americans into categories that drew from venerable “good” Indian and “bad” Indian stereotypes already threaded through the culture. The book's examples show how the genre cemented white ideas about how Indians should look and behave—ideas that diminished Native Americans' cultural values and political influence. The book's powerful analysis of themes and visual tropes unlock the racial codes and visual cues that whites used to represent, and marginalize, native cultures already engaged in a twilight struggle against inexorable westward expansion.

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