From Land to Sea: Frontiers in Cooper's Novels and the Development of His National Consciousness

Foreign Literature Studies ›› 2017, Vol. 39 ›› Issue (3): 92-103.

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From Land to Sea: Frontiers in Cooper's Novels and the Development of His National Consciousness

Duan Bo

Online:2017-06-25 Published:2022-06-15
About author:Duan Bo is a Ph.D. and professor of English at Faculty of Foreign Languages, Ningbo University (Ningbo 315211, China). His research interests are British and American novels in general, and sea fictions in particular. Email: Duanbo@nbu.edu.cn.

Abstract

Abstract: Whenever we explore James Fenimore Cooper's frontier novels and sea fictions, frontier is often a recurring motif. Deeply rooted in the frontier tradition like his frontier writings which serve as literary notes to the historically influential “Frontier Thesis”, Cooper's sea writings, by creating Atlantic and Pacific national narratives to cultivate the ocean wildness and fluid frontiers, not only consolidates the “Frontier Thesis” in American history, but also extend the national consciousness as well as geographical consciousness to include not only the western frontiers but also the vast fluid frontiers.

Key words: Cooper, frontiers, ocean wildness, Pacific writings, Atlantic writings, national consciousness

Duan Bo. From Land to Sea: Frontiers in Cooper's Novels and the Development of His National Consciousness[J]. Foreign Literature Studies, 2017, 39(3): 92-103.

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From Land to Sea: Frontiers in Cooper's Novels and the Development of His National Consciousness

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