Landscape And The Formation Of American National Identity In Cooper's Frontier Novels

James Fenimore Cooper,one of the prolific and popular American writers in the19~thh century,is now mainly remembered for his frontier novels and sea-stories.In Cooper's age,Americans were still immersed in the joy and enthusiasm of getting rid of the colonial domination of Britain,but it was imperative for American writers to establish their national identity in the field of literature.Inspired by the frontier landscapes,Cooper found the way to establish American national identity in the Leatherstocking Tales.The picturesque frontier landscapes depicted by Cooper are highly acclaimed by readers.The critics once compared Cooper's landscapes with the paintings of the Hudson River School and praised him as a painter with words.Today his novels have become part of the cultural heritage of the world,and his frontier landscapes also turned into the symbols of the national images of the United States and the common memories of the Americans.In the field of literary criticism,landscape is no longer simply relevant to geography and nature,but also has close relations with politics,power,history and aesthetics.Its cultural trait endows Cooper's landscape representation significant meanings.Landscape conveys the nation's history and ideology of the area,which can be represented by paintings,texts or photos.Cooper's representation of frontier landscapes reflects his point of views of American national identity.The Pioneers,The Last of the Mohicans and The Deerslayer have many similarities on the description of frontier landscapes.Therefore,this thesis will take these three novels as the main line to study how landscape affects the formation of American national identity and what kind of identity is formed.This thesis consists of three parts,the introduction,the main body(three chapters)and the conclusion.Through the analysis of Cooper's depiction of the house in the three novels,the American settlement history of the settlers is studied in chapter one.As an essential part of the frontier landscapes,the house can reflect the settlers'aesthetic shift,the social development and the change of ideology.The American settlement history is the common memory of the whole nation,which is an important part of American national identity.Through the analysis of Cooper's depiction of the wilderness in the three novels,the American cultural ideology is studied in chapter two.Different from the British manors and tranquil rural landscapes,American wilderness provides the settlers with a kind of barbaric culture that endows America unique personalities.The cultural ideology cultivated from the wilderness unites all the settlers who own various cultural backgrounds.Through the analysis of Cooper's depiction of the battlefields in the three novels,the American national consciousness is studied in chapter three.The battlefields are scattered in every corner of the frontier landscapes,which is usually full of violence,struggles and the yearning for freedom.The depiction of the battlefield is one of the features of Cooper's novels.Cooper's battlefield is an epitome of the War of Independence.It shows Americans'national pride and cohesion and Cooper's sense of great powers.In conclusion,the image of an independent,proud and great nation that shares the same history of the settlement and culture ideology is constructed by various landscape representation in Cooper's three novels.