Constructing A Cosmopolitan National Character Between The Civilizations Of The Red-skin And The White-skin

Before the Independent Revolution,American nationality had been an issue attracting attention from people around the world.Fenimore Cooper's response to this issue is worthy of special concern,not only because he had witnessed the historical period when the so-called “American nationality” emerged,but also because he had made the “mental independence” of America his life-long object,towards which he had also made great achievements.However,the misunderstanding that Cooper had suffered during his later years,the radical historical changes brought about by the Civil War and the problems of traditional Cooper biographies,all had resulted in the comparative weak Cooper scholarship in the West.In terms of the study of Cooper as a“rooted cosmopolitan”,which is the main focus of current study,some attempts have been made in the West,which,however,focused more on Cooper's sojourn in Europe while comparatively ignored Cooper's Indian writings and thus still await deeper research.Domestically,although Cooper as a classic novelist has been widely recognized,Cooper scholarship is still at a preliminary stage,and Cooper's thought on cosmopolitanism remains a “virgin land” at home.Still,some attempts have been made to the study of some literary classics other than Cooper's from the perspective of cosmopolitanism.In terms of American literary studies,American culture has been widely seen as a “local” culture without cosmopolitan features.However,in spite of the fact that homogeneity is what the Anglo-Saxon-Protestant culture originated from the puritan tradition in New England pursued,New York had not been “assimilated” into this cultural tradition.On the contrary,New York,as a former colony of the Netherlands and one of the earliest and biggest metropolises,has a unique history and a culture characterized mainly by opening,diversity and free choice,all of which ultimately led to the cosmopolitan ethics which formed one of the sources of Cooper's thought on cosmopolitanism.To some extent,the core of cosmopolitanism is universal values and one's responsibilities to the human beings,therefore,it rejects the hierarchical and the slavery institutions,colonial exploitation,anthropocentrism,and “regional loyalty” towards a city,a nation or a country.The cosmopolitan subjectivity means that a person is simultaneously individualistic and “worldly”,who can be involved in a different kind of culture open-mindedly.In Cyrus R.K.Patell's words,they know “how to make a virtue out of discomfort” and they know how to “cultivate comfort and discomfort simultaneously”.In Kwame Anthony Appiah's words,the cosmopolitans “have obligations to others” and they “take an interest in the practices and beliefs that lend[particular human lives] significant”.In Ulrich Beck's words,the cosmopolitans“acknowledge the otherness of those who are culturally different(other civilizations and other modernities)” and they are eager to learn from them.Therefore,cosmopolitanism is sentiments more than ideology.Fenimore Cooper as a “rooted cosmopolitan” also envisions a “New Man” with such a subjectivity.In Cooper's imagination,the civilization of the white Anglo-Saxon American and that of the Native Americans respectively form a moral reference for the construction of a new American nationality,or,to borrow D.H.Lawrence's words,“The true American,who writhes and writhes like a snake that is long in sloughing”.To put it more specific,the cultural features that are against the spirit of cosmopolitanism,which can be traced far back to the puritan tradition in the Great Britain,are those that Cooper tried to “abandon”,such as the hierarchical tradition,the ingrained racial superiority and pride.However,it should be noted that Cooper did not deny the Anglo-Protestant culture as a whole,which,in contrast,formed the orthodox source of education for him,and he also advocated the better tastes,manners of the Europeans and their advanced instrument civilization.Cooper indeed constructed a new national identity by integrating these elements with those of the Indian civilization,like the thought of Panpsychism and the understanding of human beings as an integral part of Nature.In a word,the ideal American culture that Cooper constructed is a crystallization of the better elements that he recognized from different cultures.Therefore,Cooper criticized the narrowness of the New England descendants,or Yankees,through the depiction of some Yankees in both “The Littlepage Manuscripts”,including Satanstoe(1845),The Chainbearer(1845),and The Redskins(1846)and some of his early works,including The Spy(1821),The Pioneers(1823)and The Pilot(1824).However,Cooper also reconstructs the image of the Yankee by purging their sins(e.g.Harvey Birch)or by distancing them from the influences of the Yankee culture(e.g.Bumppo and Coffin).In other words,the Yankee as a “New Man” depicted by Cooper is not a typical or traditional one.Besides,in Homeward Bound and Home as Found,the “home” series published in 1838,Cooper makes a comparison between the cosmopolitan and the provincialist represented,again,by the Yankee,and thus puts forward that the European civilization should not be denied thoroughly,which reveals Cooper's expectation of American culture as a cosmopolitan one that integrates the strong points of foreign cultures.On the other hand,in the “Leatherstocking Tales”,including The Pioneers(1823),The Last of the Mohicans(1826),The Prairie(1827),The Pathfinder(1840)and The Deerslayer(1841),Cooper compares the “the Nonecological White Man” with the“Ecological Indians” whose ecological ethics towards both the Nature and the other living creatures are distinct from that of the dominant Anglo-American culture.To put it another way,Cooper reflects or even “dissolve” the anthropocentrism of the dominant culture with the ecological ethics of the “Ecological Indians”.What's more,Cooper reconstructs the ideal “American Adam” by integrating these ecological ethics and by ideologically representing the landscape,which also reveals his doubts of the on-going Westward movement and his not being a “regional loyalist”.To conclude,the patriot Cooper is rooted in America,and although the dominant culture in Cooper's time is the new England culture that stresses more on homogeneity,Cooper recognizes more the cosmopolitan ethics of New York,the core of which can be termed “egalitarianism”.In Cooper's literary world,such egalitarianism means the recognition of the inner dignity of the common man,including the non-white races who were mostly regarded as inferior by the dominant culture,and the lower-class people.It also means the dissolvement of anthropocentrism and Cooper's doubts on the ongoing imperial expansion movement.The cosmopolitan subjectivity of Cooper allows him to acknowledge the “otherness” of other people with an open mind,and thus he could make a virtue out of the discomfort that he sensitively felt at the very first when he encounters different cultures.With such a cultural root,Cooper also manages not to lose himself in the tides.Natty Bumppo,the “beau-ideal” that Cooper constructs,is the spokesman for Cooper's cosmopolitan ideal.Natty personally benefits from the cultures of both the white and the Native Americans,and in turn,his bilingual proficiency and integrity allows him to play the intermediary role in-between.Like Cooper who is a cultural embassy of the trans-Atlantic world,Natty is also a cultural embassy between the white and the Native Americans.They both manage to win the recognition of people with different cultural backgrounds with their proficiency and personality,and they both concern about the world with a critical mind.