Dark Eden: The Swamp in Nineteenth-Century American Culture Contributor(s): Miller, David (Author) |
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ISBN: 0521147468 ISBN-13: 9780521147460 Publisher: Cambridge University Press OUR PRICE: $43.69 Product Type: Paperback Published: August 2010 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Literary Criticism | American - General |
Dewey: 810.9 |
Series: Cambridge Studies in American Literature and Culture |
Physical Information: 0.73" H x 7" W x 10" (1.34 lbs) 350 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: An important though little understood aspect of the response to nature of nineteenth-century Americans is the widespread interest in the scenery of swamps, jungles and other waste lands. Dark Eden focuses on this developing interest in order to redefine cultural values during a transformative period of American history. Professor Miller shows how, for many Americans in the period around the Civil War, nature came to be regarded less as a source of high moral insight and more as a sanctuary from an ever more urbanized and technological environment. In the swamps and jungles of the South a whole range of writers found a set of strange and exotic images by which to explore the changing social realities of the times and the deep-seated personal pressures that accompanied them. |