New York Local Narrative in The Pioneers and the Production of Frontier Territory in the United States

Abstract

Abstract: The novel The Pioneers depicts the development of a town in New York in the four decades after the American Revolution. The writer endows the town space with political meanings. And he uses the prosperity of the New York area to reflect the achievements of the republican government of the United States after its overthrow of the British oppression, extolling the territory practice of the pioneers in the frontier town. This article analyses the novel The Pioneers from the perspective of the production of the national territory, observing the features of the writer's unique local narrative about the frontier cities and towns in the historical context. It probes into the implicit mechanism of how the national sovereignty was established in the frontier in the decades after the signing of the Paris Treaty, and endeavors to discover the causes, the policy operation methods and the result of the development of the American frontier in the area to the east of Mississippi after the American Revolution.

Key words: James Fenimore Cooper, The Pioneers, New York local narrative, production of frontier territory

Guo Wei. New York Local Narrative in The Pioneers and the Production of Frontier Territory in the United States[J]. Foreign Literature Studies, 2017, 39(2): 83-92.

References

[1] Bennington, Geoffrey.“Postal Politics and the Institution of the Nation.” Nation and Narration. Ed. Homi Bhabha. London: Routledge, 1990. 121-37.
[2] Billington, Ray.America's Frontier Heritage. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1966.
[3] Brenner, Neil and Stuart Elden. “Henri Lefebvre on State, Space, Territory.”International Political Sociology 3(2009): 353-77.
[4] Butterfield, Lyman H.“Cooper's Inheritance: The Otsego Country and its Founders.” New York History 35.4(1954): 374-411.
[5] Cooper, James Fenimore.The American Democrat and Other Political Writings. Ed. and Intro. Bradley J. Birzer and John Willson. Washington, D. C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2000.
[6] ---. Notions of the Americans: Picked up by a Travelling Bachelor. Vol. 2. Philadelphia: Carey, Lea, & Blanchard, 1835.
[7] ---. The Pioneers, or the Sources of the Susquehanna. A Descriptive Tale. New York: Riverside P, 1872.
[8] Cooper, William.A Guide in the Wilderness; or, the History of the First Settlements in the Western Countries of New York, with Useful Instructions to Future Settlers. New York: George P. Humphrey, 1897.
[9] Forstall, Richard L.Population of States and Counties of the United States: 1790-1990. Springfield: National Technical Information Service, 1996.
[10] 何军:《美国公共土地政策历史演变的制度分析(1781-1862)》,辽宁大学博士论文,2013年.
[He Jun.“Institutional Analysis on Historical Evolution of American Public Land Policy.”Diss. Liaoning University, 2013.]
[11] 何顺果:《美国边疆史——西部开发模式研究》.北京:北京大学出版社,1992年.
[He Shunguo.The History of American Frontier — Study on the Model of the Western Development. Beijing: Peking UP, 1992.]
[12] 梁立佳:《北美易洛魁人与白人文明关系的变迁(1609—1815)》,东北师范大学博士论文,2014年.
[Liang Lijia.“The Transformation of Civilization Relations between the Iroquois and the Whites in North America (1609-1815).”Diss. Northeastern Normal University, 2014.]
[13] 普特:《共和主义自由观对自由主义自由观》,《二十一世纪评论》8(1999):21—30.
[Putte, Andre Van de. “The Concept of Freedom of Republicanism and of Liberalism.”Review of the 21st Century 8(1999):21-30.]
[14] Robbins, Roy.Our Landed Heritage: The Public Domain, 1776-1935. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1942.
[15] Russell, Lynette, ed. and intro. “Introduction.” Colonial Frontiers: Indigenous-European Encounters in Settler Societies. New York: Manchester UP, 2001.
[16] Taylor, Alan.William Cooper’s Town: Power and Persuasion on the Frontier of the Early American Republic. New York: Vintage Books, 1996.
[17] Turner, Frederick Jackson.“The Significance of the Frontier in American History (1893).” The Frontier in American History. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1920. 1-38.
[18] Wood, Gordon S.The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1998.
[19] 周淑娟:《想像家国:论〈拓荒者〉中的美国牧歌迷思》,《英美文学评论》8(2005):1—32.
[Zhou Shujuan.“The Nation Imagined: The Myth of the American Pastoral inThe Pioneers.” Review of British and American Literature 8(2005):1-32.]