China Goodwill or Badwill Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

China Goodwill or Badwill - Essay Example Just as all the rising great powers in the world history does, China will have to take measures in order to survive and secure her position as a super. An increasingly powerful China is most likely going to try to dislodge the threat of the United States out of Asia. One scholar paints a picture of an ideal rising China who is more reasonable, flexible and nonviolent; another draws a dark image of a calculating rising China who is aware of her weaknesses (especially in the military capability), and who is wisely trying to extricate herself from the internal and external threats of these weaknesses so as to secure the commanding position in the global balance of power in the future. In lieu of the principles of debate, Mearsheimer's arguments shine through. He was able to defend his stance by providing public historical accounts of the actions of past powerful nations. However, this does not prove that Brzezinski's view is not well-founded. There are, in fact several scholars who share his notion of a reasonable and powerful China based from the country's present peaceful dealings. But just as Mearsheimer had stated, we cannot know what political reality is going to look like in the year 2025. At present, China's actions possibly is a sincere att empt for peaceful progress but 45 years from now when China has grown powerful and far-reaching, who will be capable of preventing them from trying to dominate Asia, prevent them from dictating the boundaries of acceptable behavior in their region and prevent them from translating their economic strength into military might that could create all sorts of trouble for the current regional hegemon that is the United States As competition in all aspects goes, one dedicated player strategizes and tries to outmaneuver his competitor in order to be on top. China is competing for economic prosperity and the United States is trying to preserve his position as title holder. Conflicts are inevitable. China is a threat to the United States. Goodwill or bad will It depends on the players' future behaviors. There will be inevitable frictions as China's role increases and as Chinese "sphere of influence" develops however, Brzezinski believes many negative consequences that often accompany the rise of new powers can be avoided. True. It is possible in an ideal world. Unfortunately, we are not living in one. Everything depends on the stage players' actions. According to Brzezinski, the current Chinese leaders appear much more flexible and sophisticated than many previous aspirants to great power status and therefore would not follow the path of violence like the past great nations have done. Mearsheimer rebuts that China is expected to act the same way as the US-She will want to maintain regional hegemony to get back Taiwan as well as dominate Asia the way US does Western hemisphere. In his words: Are they more principled, more ethical, less nationalistic or less concerned of their sur vival Mearsheimer believes China is none of these things. In my perspective however, who is Mearsheimer to assume authority over the Chinese leaders' intentions And again I state, China is a threat but the reality of this threat depends on the stage players' future actions. Over a decade ago, China did not enjoy full diplomatic relations with several countries due to border disputes, the June 1989 killing of civilians in Beijing, their public attempt to export their

Marketing Communications Mix Strategies | Tesco

Marketing Communications Mix Strategies | Tesco Although the 4P characterization has led to widespread use of the term promotion for describing communications with prospects and customers, the term marketing communications is preferred by most marketing practitioners as well as by many educators. Consider that we may want to use marketing communications to refer to the collection of advertising, sales promotions, public relations, event marketing, and other communication devices. Promotion is considered as Sales Promotion. (Shimp 2007) {Terence A. Shimp (2007), Integrated Marketing Communications in Advertising and Promotion, 7th Edition, Ohio, Thomson South-Western, P: 4.} Marketing Communication is used by organisations to communicate with customers with respect to their product offerings. In this sense, Marketing Communication is one side of the communication process with customers. Market research, in which suppliers seek to elicit information on consumer requirements from consumers, is the complementary component of the communication process. The following summarises this very simply: (Rowley 1998). Source: Promotion and marketing communications in the information marketplace. According to Rowley producer should communicate to reach the customers and in turn should listen to the customers needs and requirements to enhance the product and service. Tesco proudly announced that one of the reasons to its Success is listening to their Customers and its suppliers. Tesco has adopted multiple qualitative research techniques to reach their customers such as focus groups, accompanied shops, home visits to collect the feedback in order to straighten the things and respond quickly. Modestly they say Its simple we listen and respond, providing customers with what they tell us they want. { [online] < http://www.tesco.com/talkingtesco/listening/> (March 19, 2010)}. Marketing Communications Mix also know as Promotional Mix consists of Advertising, Personal Selling, Sales Promotion, Direct Marketing, Internet Promotion and Publicity. Marketing communications Mix strategies: Source: Promotion and marketing communications in the information marketplace. Push Strategies: A promotion strategy that calls for using the sales forces and trade promotion to push the product through channels. The producer promotes the product to wholesalers, the wholesalers promote to retailers and the retailers promote to consumers (Kotler et al. 2005). Pull Strategy: A promotion strategy that calls for spending a lot on advertising and consumer promotion to build up consumer demand. If the strategy is successful, consumers will ask their retailers for the product, the retailers will ask wholesalers and the wholesalers will ask the producers (Kotler et al. 2005). Push Strategy aims at Intermediaries, its make good use of Sales promotion and Personal Selling. Pull Strategy aims at direct customers, its make good use of Advertisements. Advertising: Source: You tube : Tesco Christmas 2009 advertisement. [Online]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8y85QTa1g8 (March 19, 2010) This Advertisement is about promotional offers at Tesco for Christmas, It states that everyone could enjoy a finest Christmas at Tesco with an affordable range of products. Advertising is a paid form of non-interactive showcase of products and services to the consumer through print media or other common advertising channels (Rowley 1998). Advertising Models: AIDA Model: Attention: Making customer aware of the product. Interest: Developing an interest in the product. Desire: Making customer think that he needs the product. Action: Purchase is made. Designing communication strategies is important to identify whether the objective is to draw to attention, cultivate interest, stimulate desire or provoke action(Rowley 1998). Communication Objectives: Source: Promotion and marketing communications in the information marketplace. From the above objectives, AIDA is strongly recommended (Rowley 1998). According to Rowley a communication strategy should have a message and it should go along with its communication objective. The message should reflect the unique selling proposition (USP) of the products. The organizations should concentrate on elements of the message that need to be considered are: Content, Structure, Format and Source. Importantly these Advertisements should be target oriented; the Organisations should often have a strategy on the market to target. Impact of Advertisements: A good communication strategy would yield results per expectations. It should be market oriented and should reach market without any cost to the market. Directive would leave an impact, provided its ethical. Positives of Advertisements: It can create awareness in the targeted market. It can reach markets far and wide. Positioning of the product and Brand image could earn customers trust. Negatives of Advertisements: It cannot answer the customer queries. Always may not provoke customers to purchase decision. Too many Advertisements may cause audience loose concentration. Personal Selling According to Baker (2003) personal selling can be defined as the personal contact with one or more purchasers for the purpose of making a sale. To be effective, marketing management needs to integrate personal selling with other promotional elements, with other organizational functions such as distribution and production, and with the customer and competitive structures prevailing in the market. Different stages in Personal Selling: Generating leads and identifying prospects Pre-call planning The approach The presentation Overcoming objections Closing Follow-up. Baker says Personal selling is a two-way approach and it employs push strategy and is relatively expensive per contact and according to a 2001 survey, the average cost of an outside salesperson is in excess of 55,000 pounds per annum. The actual time spent on face-face customer communication is typically around 20-30 per cent of working hours. Sales management issues: Selection of sales Team Training Leadership and supervision Remuneration Evaluation and control Impact of Personal Selling: Efficient sales force often yield results Personal selling increases the customers interest and desire on the product and it could lead to purchase Personal Selling should act as forum for answers to all the customers queries Positives of Personal Selling: High Interactive communication between the buyer and the seller Detailed product information and features Relationships can develop Negatives of Personal Selling: Cost oriented Team Not appropriate approach towards thousands of prospective buyers Sales closure time could lead to customer dissatisfaction Sales Promotion: Sales promotion consists of short-term incentives to encourage purchase or sales of a product or service (Kotler et al. 2005). As per the above definition, sales promotion offers reasons that would achieve immediate sales. It seeks to lure people to buy now. Promotional Tools: Samples Coupons Rebates Price packs Premiums Advertising specialties Patronage rewards Point-of-purchase Competitions, lotteries and games Impact of Sales Promotion: It helps to lure consumers and attract them from competitors Customers trying our products, giving a chance to retain them Positives of Sales Promotion: Increase immediate sales Interim strategic tool Negatives of Sales Promotion: Not for long-term usage, as customers may get used to this. Too much involvement into sales promotion may harm the brand image Seasonal Promotions: Advertisement Models: Internet promotion: Its interlinked with Place i.e. Mix in Mix. Sales Promotion: Public relations: Promotional Strategies: Pull Strategy: Push Strategy: Mercer (1996), in emphasizing that communication must be a two-way process, says (p. 309): The ideal form of promotion is the conversation which takes places between the expert sales professional and his or her customer. It is interactive and conversation is specific to the needs of both. Other forms of promotion, which deal in the average needs of groups of people can only hope to approximate to this ideal. Promotional Mix: Place: Introduction: The main purpose of this report is to determine the importance of the Location in retailing. It includes an analysis of Tesco and Corner Shop locations by taking into account all the factors of well chosen place for retail store as well as current situation on the Market. Report discusses the role location played in the success of those retailers. It also tries to assign the importance of the Location in comparison to other elements of the retail Marketing Mix. First Tesco Metro has been opened in 1992 and are usually located in the town and city centre locations (http://www.tescocorporate.com/page.aspx? pointerid=3DB554FCAE344BD88EEEEFA63D71B831). They are usually smaller than ordinary Tesco store but bigger than Tesco Express with the size varying between approximately 7,000 to 15,000 sq.ft. Source: Online Available http://www.tesco.com/talkingtesco/stores/. Psychology Analysis: The Epic of Gilgamesh Psychology Analysis: The Epic of Gilgamesh Jungian analysis is a deep psychology of the unconscious and includes the interpretation of dreams as well. Jung believes that most dreams are attitude-compensations. The attitudes that dreams balance are those of the ego. Carl Jung believed that myths and dreams were the main way to the self-realization because he believed that they allowed humans to understand and relate to parts of their psyches which would have otherwise been unreachable. Dreams offer the ego information, advice, constructive criticism, and even sometimes wisdom. If the ego is open to acceptance rather than defensive, it can evaluate these alternative perspectives and decide whether to accept or reject them. Jung developed a process called individuation, which was the therapy he created which tries to deepen a persons experiences psychologically. Responding to dreams required interaction of many aspects of the personality, which he titled the archetypes: the Self, shadow, animus, and anima. He defined an archetyp e as a universal and recurring image, pattern, or motif representing a typical human experience. Archetypes are patterns and behaviors; are primordial images which are part of our psyche and social systems. Archetypes can grow on their own and present themselves in many different ways. When people dream, they form images unconsciously. The images that are formed in these dreams correspond to the sacred images, stories, and myths of primitive people. Archetypes are similar to instincts and they also reveal themselves in peoples unconscious by these powerful symbolic images; they are collective meaning they are held in common by a social group. They appear simple on the surface, but they are very complex. The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest written stories in the history of earth and it comes from ancient Sumeria. Many believe it was first written on clay tablets, showing the adventures of the historical King of Uruk-Gilgamesh. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, he travels between his c onscious and unconscious in order to solve inner problems and grow out of his own fear of death. Through the Jungian analysis one can determine how the myth of Gilgamesh fits into the unconscious of every human. Gilgamesh is a king that oppresses his kingdom and forces his people to build a wall around his land, which inside he is guilty of committing atrocious acts. Gilgamesh is one third mortal and two thirds divine, because his mother was a goddess. He is an arrogant king who constantly oppresses and wrongs the people of his kingdom. He is struggling throughout the epic with the gods, his kingdom, and most importantly, himself. In order for an individual to reach their unconscious, there needs to be a specific dreamer established an in Gilgamesh, the dreamer is the hero of the story-Gilgamesh. He must go through the process of individuation, which is the psychic life of the individual, the archetypes interact in a pattern which both reflects and fosters the development of the personality (Devinney and Thury, 2005). The natural process that individuals go through which causes the need for self-realization and leads people to explore and integrate parts of themselves which they have never l ooked into before is individuation. It helps people become different from others in their society. In order for Gilgamesh to discover and uncover who he truly is, he must encounter the shadow, the animus and anima and most importantly-the self. In the epic, the ego is the conscious I of the self that works to produce and preserve its self-defined identity. In the process of individuation, the conscious coming-to-terms with ones own inner self usually begins with a cutting off of the individuals personality and the hardships that go along with that process. The second archetype in the individuation process is the anima and animus. Jung stated the anima was the unconscious feminine component of males and the animus was the unconscious masculine component of females. Jung believed the anima and animus act as guides to the unconscious, and that every individual must form one and building that connection is a very difficult but rewarding process, and that it is necessary for psychological growth. They are determined by the gender of the dreamer themselves. Due to Gilgamesh being a male, he has an anima, which is the personification of all feminine psychological tendencies in a manes psyche. The first animia in the epic is Gilgameshs mother, the goddess Ninsun. In the beginning of the myth the reader discovers that Gilgamesh is worshiped like a god, even though he is part human as well. His mother acts as a guide and confidant throughout the myth, and he receives word of Enkidu through dreams that his mother interprets for him. She leads him to the next stage of growth for himself by giving him the information about his new companion, Enkidu. For Gilgamesh, he still is unaware of a lot of his own personality and this is where the third archetype comes into play. The shadow is the same sex as the individual, but has the complete opposite personality and self-image. The shadow for Gilgamesh is Enkidu, he is a replica god of Gilgamesh himself-but he is uncivilized and beast-like. He represents the great opposite of Gilgamesh, but they are identical in authority and vigor. He first appears to Gilgamesh as an enemy, informing the shepherds that he will go to Gilgameshs kingdom and will challenge him in front of his people and state that he is the strongest around. They quarrel in Gilgameshs city and he beats Enkidu which caused them to become friends and also causes Gilgamesh to have a bigger insight to his unconscious. When Gilgamesh and Enkidu travel through the forest, they encounter another shadow archetype. Together they embark on a trip into the forest where Humbaba, the king of this forest lives. Humbaba signifies all t he personality characteristics that Gilgamesh wants, including strength, courage and glory. Gilgamesh believes that by killing Humbaba he will create some immortality for himself and his people. On their way back home, Gilgamesh comes to an anima, Ishtar the goddess of fertility. She is drawn to Gilgameshs beauty and strength and she recommends for him to marry her, but Gilgamesh refuses and continues to insult her with stories of her past lovers, which causes her to become extremely angry with him. Ishtar is a negative anima, who can cause Gilgamesh to demolish himself. Ishtar sends the Bull of Heaven to kill Gilgamesh but Enkidu kills the bull, which causes him in the end to suffer a slow death from the gods, and ultimately hurts Gilgamesh because he lost his comrade. With Enkidus death, Gilgamesh goes crazy and eventually becomes his shadow and takes on those characteristics. Gilgamesh turns away from his kingdom and takes on the beast-like personality Enkidu displayed when they first met. A third shadow archetype is displayed in the land of Utnapishtim, where Gilgamesh winds up on his search for immortality. Utnapishtim is the land of gods, where they live and thrive. Gilgamesh longs for the gods immortality, it is shown here the fear that he has for death and why this search is so important to him. The gods inform him if he stays awake for seven days and seven nights and they will grant him with immortality-but he fails at this challenge and therefore he fails at reaching his goal of becoming immortal. On his return back to his kingdom Gilgamesh has won his wish of immortality in a different sense, he found his self through the journey. By encountering all the archetypes Gilgamesh builds his inner self and builds his personality in many different ways. The archetypes he encountered represented his unconscious dreams and wishes, and he discovers his self through his unconscious discoveries. Using Jungs theoretical perspective to analyze the epic myth of Gilgamesh, one discovers Jungs belief that myths and dreams were intertwined. Jung attempted to uncover ways that individuals could determine their inner selves and he found that myths and dreams were a way to reach into ones unconscious. Through Jungian analysis, a reader can interpret a myth to better understand the personality characteristics of humans. The fear of death that haunted Gilgamesh also haunts many individuals in our society and societies prior. This epic shows the reader that any individual can discover their inner self through understanding different archetypes including, shadows, animas and animus, and lastly inner selves which will help them break into their own unconscious. Gilgameshs heroic journey has been dignified because it is more than just a great journey story; it is also an unbelievable academic quest. Gilgamesh has courage and determination which is important for him to defeat the obstacles he was faced with during his journey, but he also must have undeterred tolerance, internal strength, and willful self-examination.

The Political Community in Guatemala Essay -- essays research papers

The Political Community The â€Å"social apartheid† that exist in Guatemala separates Guatemala into two places and does not allow the country to be united, both democratically socially. The indigenous population is separated from opportunities. Without the minimal conditions, necessary for citizens to exercise their rights in practice there is not citizenship and therefore no â€Å"true† democracy. New democratic institutions must both address the anxiety existing among Ladinos and prove to be responsive to a sizeable segment of the national community that has previously been excluded based on language and ethnicity. Authoritarian regimes which retain considerable power and the democratic transition is never fully consolidated, stable, or lasting. Dealing not only with the elimination of military control, but also addressing the country’s historical problems, including massive social inequalities. More than half of Guatemalans are descendants of indigenous Mayan peoples. Westernized Mayans and mestizos (mixed European and indigenous ancestry) are known as Ladinos. Most of Guatemala's population is rural, though urbanization is accelerating. Although the official language is Spanish, it is not universally understood among the indigenous population. According to the World Bank, Guatemala is the country with the second-greatest income disparity between rich and poor in Latin America, behind Brazil. On which sides of that divide Guatemalans sit depends largely on whether they are Indian...

Ageplay

Gentry, Kristin Jennifer Cherry English 101. 04 Spring 2012 Ageplay: Emotionally Gratifying, Socially Taboo! Ageplay, or the often sexually- taboo act of role playing, where one consenting adult personifies a minor child, while the other serves as a caretaker for the â€Å"minor child†, is a highly common phenomenon that shocks and perplexes many, but serves as profound emotional fulfillment for those who participate in the lifestyle. Throughout the following pages it is my intent to explore the many facets of age play and especially dissect, with integrity, the â€Å"why† behind this unique subject matter.Overwhelmed with a wealth of information, I have broken down the subtopics, for convenience and ease in reading. I have incorporated a variety or research sources varying from books written by esteemed sexologists to personal interviews from age players right here in the community. To protect their identity some have chosen to anonymously contribute to the paper while others have allowed me to use and alias. What is this age play thing all about? Ageplay is type of role playing mostly practiced amongst the kink community.In some cases, ageplayers will limit â€Å"sceneing† or â€Å"play† to the â€Å"vanilla† world, sexless, or seemingly blase, 9-5, mundane life, but, it is far less frequent than the sexually- driven alternative. There are three common age ranges that are explored in this kink. The first is Adolescentilism, where a relationship is formed around a person who identifies as a young adult or high school aged person. Often, a â€Å"naughty school girl† fantasy falls into this category.Authors Gloria and William Brame and Jon Jacobs, educated Sexologists and experts in the BDSM arena, wrote about this in the candid, wildly-popular book: Different Loving: The World of Sexual Domination and Submission. On page 129 it reads â€Å"[in this type of ageplay] the fantasy is likely of only temporary duration. â₠¬  Paul Rulof, a lifestyle educator and conference presenter raises a good, supportive point in his writings that suggests why this might be true. On page 52 of his first book, he sheds a new perspective about this particular age range of role play.He notes the following: â€Å"The teenage years are often ones of exploration of the self-identity, interactions with others, and many different experiences. Many firsts often happen during this time: first kiss, first date and first romantic partner. † The attraction of new and exciting events is most likely short-lived once those first experiences have occurred. When prompted during an interview, â€Å"Draven†, a Bloomington-Normal based Daddy had to say this about the appeal of this age range. The naive instincts of a pre-teen appeal to the hero complex that most men possess. We like to be needed and especially when we can offer our insight about sexual discovery. I personally enjoy watching my baby girl grow emotionally and become a sweet young lady as a result of my influence. † The next age group fetish mentioned in the trio-penned â€Å"Different Loving† was the Juvenilism range. This includes littles who personify, or emotionally connect with 6-12 years of age.Punishment is a cornerstone of functionality in this age range. Littles who identify as a juvenile are typically more sensitive and require great emotional care. Most littles who have a bratty, or disobedient streak, fall into this group, thus the frequency in punishment for these preteen boys and girls. Brame, Brame and Jacobs had this to say about unique, therapeutic punishment tactics for littles in this age range, â€Å"The parent figure may ask embarrassing questions about the submissive’s personal or sexual habits.By stripping away the submissive’s privacy, the dominant exposes not only the submissive’s body but also her inner nakedness and vulnerability. In some juvenilist scenarios the dominant role plays as the erotic guide. † Surprisingly, despite the small amount of littles who fall into the pre-teen category, the Juvenilism age range is not the most popular. The last age fetish, Infantilism, or â€Å"ABDL†s (Adult Baby/Diaper Lovers), is the most commonly known age play fetish (Different Loving, p 137).This class of ageplayers is, by far, the most controversial and is what has been most depicted in the media, in documentaries, and even on reality shows since the 1980’s when a Phil Donahue episode practically turned daytime television viewers inside out with discomfort. The episode featured an adult baby, his Mommy and clips of footage showing his daily routines as an ABDL. Visions of an adult willingly soiling himself or fully relying on another adult to feed him, when he was physically capable to feed himself, shocked the studio audience, and home viewers, alike.Very young myself at the time, less than 9 years old, I had so many questions and the i mages burned into my memory, mostly from fascination and wonder. I was so very confused and yet, so afraid to ask my very judgmental and cynical grandmother why everyone was yelling at this big baby and his Mommy. I filed the images away into the back of my mind and, on occasion, when I hear stories of bigotry and discrimination surrounding ageplayers, that particular story comes flooding back to me.The controversy behind age play absolutely stuck me for over two decades. During my research for this paper I was surprised to find that two of the interviewees, a couple, not involved in the lifestyle in any way, for the Brames’ and Jacobs’ book referenced the same Donahue show in their testimonial: â€Å"We saw a [Phil] Donahue [show] about infantilism and were amazed at the outrage that some people felt about infantilists, who are engaged in something completely innocent.They enjoy being in baby clothes and get a certain amount of satisfaction from recreating their earl y childhood. Statistically, nobody knows whether it’s normal or not. The psychiatrist on the show was very clear on the fact that these people were doing nothing wrong. † (p137) The experts who scripted â€Å"Different Loving† had this to say about this controversial group of littles: â€Å"Many D&Sers ( BDSM participants) express discomfort with infantilism, as well, perhaps because it is difficult to understand why someone would wish to be as helpless as and infant. (p137) History has taught us that anger and fear are products of ignorance. I believe that this is a solid explanation for the public’s response to ABDLs in the media. The intolerance is most likely fueled, further, by the notion that most adult babies are typically of male gender, which contradicts, completely, the general standard of patriarchy in our society. Unfortunately, with minimal awareness and exposure I do not see a wave of acceptance and empathy any time soon from the greater pop ulation.Despite the negative talk about adult babies, and/or their caretakers, and the lifestyles that they lead, of the three categories, Infantilism offers one unique aspect that neither of the other two can offer. The ABDL model is the perfect erotic outlet for those that are afflicted with disabilities that affect fine and gross motor skills and mobility, as well as neurological conditions that may affect the ability to control bodily functions.In all age ranges the caretaker will make decisions and approach their relationship with their little as they would a person who is biologically the age that their little feels. This includes physical and emotional care. In my observation of a social setting, where several couples were gathered for a kinky birthday party for a local Daddy, I saw first-hand how this plays out between a top (the roleplayer of authority) and the bottom ( the role player with the least amount of obvious power), or in this case, a Daddy and his daughter.During the birthday party the little was feeling feisty and apparently a little bratty. Much like an over-stimulated, attention-seeking, sugary-cake-filled six year old would, the little aimed to be the center of attention and repeatedly was speaking over her Daddy and interrupting him as he attempted to make announcements about the food to his party guests. Excited, the little would bounce up and down in front of him in attempt to get him to listen to her not-at-all-related-to-birthday-cake story.Despite the Daddy’s firm verbal prompts to calm down and fully fueled by an adoring on-looking crowd, the little continued to be a nuisance. Finally, the Daddy grabbed the little by the arm, guided her to a nearby chair, firmly guided her bottom into the seat, bent over to her eye level and sternly ordered to her sit down, stop talking and to make no attempt to get up without his permission. It looked like a scene I have seen a million times myself as a parent and former preschool classro om assistant.The little was petite in stature and sported short, pink hair in a pixie styled haircut and natural looking make-up. It was certainly believable to the party attendees and understandably so. The little was acting like a typical child the age the same age of her inner little would act and her Daddy was acting like any loving parent would. For Bigs and littles, this relationship is not a scripted, â€Å"fairytale-esque† , theatrical experience. The bond between the pair and their interactions are easily solidified by a fascinating concept called â€Å"headspace†.Once a scene begins between a caretaker and a little, the reality and natural roles melt away and, almost like a person with multiple personalities, the emotions, thoughts, habits, preferences, and behaviors of the inner personality surfaces and the person that they function as during their vanilla life dissipates, even if for a little while. It is very much trance-like in some cases, and almost alwa ys, in sexual scenes. In order to best understand what age play is all about there are terms that one should become familiar with.These terms are pivotal to communicating with those who identify as minors or caretakers. The lifestyle breeds a whole new language of its own and knowing the lingo fosters a relatable nature when building trust amongst the kink community members. You will note new definitions and terms you have most likely not been introduced to prior to the reading of this paper. For example, the most common term is â€Å" a/the little†, referring to the person who identifies as the minor.The term â€Å"Big† is intentionally capitalized, and can refer to the little when they are functioning as their genuine, or â€Å"real life† age; it can also be used as a term to describe the caretaker, or counterpart to the little. Another popular word often heard in conversations about age play is â€Å"inner little†. This refers to the distinct feeling o f being â€Å"small†, or younger, than one’s true age, a separate entity, if you will, from who they are forced to be every day in their â€Å"adult life†. There have been great debates when it comes to phrasing the description of littles and their personal connection with their inner little.I recently surveyed a group of littles, in a discussion forum, online ( that shall not be named for the protection of the contributors), as to how they speak of their inner little. The great phrasing debate is typically split between themselves as â€Å"having a little† or â€Å"being a little†, while on a rare occasion, some will say that they â€Å"are little†. This particular description is the least common as very few people desire, or are able, to live the lifestyle 24/7. When I posed the question: â€Å"How do you refer to your relationship with your little? in a discussion forum, open only to littles, I was bombarded with an avalanche of response s. After filtering through and reading the ample list of opinions over 50% of the littles speak of ownership of their little, as if their body hosts a shell for their little to live and safely surface when the need strikes. Slightly over 25% of the all-female responders would represent their little by saying â€Å"I am a little â€Å", while the rest commented that they do not ever leave the feeling of being little therefore it is senseless to refer to it at all.Littles have preferences, much different than their Big (in this case I am referencing the vanilla person who â€Å"hosts† the inner little), in everything from hobbies, to fashion, to sleep habits, to comfort rituals, to sexual fantasies, to even how they talk, behave and relate to those around them. In most things ageplay when a debate arises, there is no consensus, as the ageplay community is still evolving. It is adaptable, based on personal preference and relationship history, to whatever extent the partners ar e comfortable with, in any facet that they so choose.There are no societal expectations with ageplay, as there are with traditional parent/child roles. There are no social norms to adhere to within the community. The world of ageplay is very pliable and the appeal is very transparent once you begin to take a close look at the logistics of ageplay. Who age plays? As someone who is rarely surprised by taboo or kinky concepts and ideas, I am generally taken back by the diversity of those involved in the ageplay community. No one is excluded from having unique sexual preferences and, certainly, no one is ever exempt from personal hurt and â€Å"baggage†.In ageplay, the egalitarian roles serve as unconventional, therapeutic tool for people from all walks of life. In my personal interviews and connections that were made with the local ageplayers I have met everyone from the college-educated, pre-med student all the way the blue collar, entry-level, fast food worker. Like profession or education level, other demographics do not limit who participates in such a lifestyle. I have met participants as young as 18 years old and as old as 72. Sexual kinks and taboos are not dictated by demographics and age play is no exception.Why age play? The beauty in this way of life is that it is customizable to individual needs. As an aspiring sex therapist I find immeasurable worth in personalizing what works for healing old hurts and sorting through hang ups with the tools you have before you. If someone is to grow from their pain and rise above it the method has to be something they believe in and trust will work. With ageplay, both partners steer the ship, so to speak, and the whole intent is to do so with their partner’s well-being in mind.The caretaker, also referred to as the â€Å"top†, â€Å"master†, â€Å"Daddy†, â€Å"Mommy†, or â€Å"Big†, depending on those involved and to what extent they interact, parents the little with loving guidance and reassurance while the little fills a need to almost â€Å"ego stroke† their Big and construct a confidence and self-esteem boost within them. There is a mutual understanding, and a simultaneous bond between the two, that buffs out the unfulfilled emotional needs of each other and brings great joy and liberation from those wounds. During an e-mail conversation with â€Å"Mr.Beck†, a local Daddy and leader in the BDSM social scene here in Bloomington-Normal, Illinois , that I have had the fortune of befriending, I discovered that the â€Å"why† is a sensitive topic that some choose not explore for themselves. In response to a question asking if he thought there was a direct link between trauma and eroticism (a personal attempt to deconstruct Sexologist Gloria Brame’s theory on the matter, stating that there is no direct link ( Different Loving, p127) he responded as follows: â€Å"I believe that every form of sexual expression exists o n a spectrum.Some people are gay with only one person. Some people are into the â€Å"lifestyle† only with younger people. So on and so on. There isn't a one size fits all with any form of sexual expression. There are littles working out issues, of course. I have been with a little who had been groped by her father but wanted to call me â€Å"Daddy† during sex. When I asked she was clear that her biological father and the â€Å"Daddy† figure of her fantasies were completely different people. I think that age play is, at the heart of it, about finding a role that makes sense and embracing it.There are â€Å"kittens† and experts are not rushing out to find out what role the family cat played in their upbringing. Those who are attempting to push age play out into the realms of the broken homes and disquieted minds are, in my opinion, wanting to push uncomfortable questions, about their own sexual landscape, out at arm’s length. † This particular Daddy is what is called a â€Å"24/7 Daddy†, or a Daddy who lives the lifestyle around the clock, at every opportunity. There aren’t many spaces where he would edit his words or interactions with his little. When questioned about his version of the â€Å"why ageplay? He seemed to be passive aggressive in his response, and evasive to a complete, personal answer. I would say that he was defensive in his wording and not at all comfortable in examining his personal motivation for entering a relationship of the age play nature. For some members of the kink community doing self-reflective exercises unveils some scary and uncomfortable truths that are too intense in nature to comprehend and deal with. This is a common issue when looking at most taboo practices. Many age players share in Mr. Beck’s mentality mentioned in his interview.The idea behind trying to understand the origin for the kink is usually â€Å"just go with it and embrace it†¦it is what it is. à ¢â‚¬  For those like myself and Paul Rulof, Chicago- based age play educator and Daddy, we believe that there is a certain, natural connection, through ageplay, to â€Å"righting the wrongs† of the past that children have no control over. Rulof speaks to this theory in his book: â€Å"Ageplay: From Diapers to Diplomas â€Å"when he wrote: â€Å"For many, ageplay is an opportunity to connect with an aspect of themselves that they have forgotten or set aside†¦some people like to explore alternate models of who they could have been with ageplay. p. 65) As a researcher of this social phenomenon I am on the fence about making a claim that 100% of ageplayers are motivated by deep, unmet, emotional need. I would still say that the majority of ageplayers are gaining a sense of control over an area in their life that they felt they lost early on, but I don’t ever care to categorize any group of people, in its entirety, and attach it to one label or judgment, no matter how concrete the evidence is proving that the label is justified.Rulof listed some of his thoughts on the reasons why people partake of this lifestyle, some sexually motivated, some not. His reasons were listed, as follows, on pages 19-34, the biggest chapter in the book: The participants get to: * Relive their childhood – â€Å"†¦ a great number of people have experienced childhoods that they look back upon as desirable or ideal times†. Paul goes on to write that adult life can be viewed as boring and mundane, whereas childhood is generally the complete opposite. Mr.Rulof paints this point as an obvious motivator for ageplaying. (p19) * Rewriting their childhood – â€Å"For littles, rewriting or re-envisioning their childhood is one reason that ageplay might be appealing. However, ageplay is not simply a reaction to one’s own childhood events. Some ageplayer’s own personal childhood or possible negative events may not influence their play mu ch at all†¦Everyone has something in their childhood that they would like to change: disappointments, lacks, incompletion and missed opportunities. (p19) I felt that the author seems to have waivered in his stance on this particular justification, however, at a closer look, and full reading of his book, his claim strongly supports that point I mentioned earlier about how subjective this lifestyle truly is. Sure! Some people do use the little part of themselves to mend the past through conscious actions as an adult while others may focus more on specific hurtful events and relationships. The third option is that ageplay benefits them in some way not at all linked to negative childhood experiences.This group of participants, I gather, based on my interviews, are the ones that are working to address something they would improve about themselves in their current phase of life, be it confidence, the ability to connect with others, building trust in intimate relationships, mastering discipline and will power issues, or just filling a need to be needed†¦which brings me to Paul’s next theory for reasoning. * Practicing Caregiving – â€Å"When caregivers play, they are able to explore the naturally ingrained caregiving traits that they have. (p23) I view this as playing â€Å"grown up house†, or maturing the favored childhood role play game to better hone in on nurturing skills in a less threatening way than what usually occurs in vanilla relationships. * Exploring Gendered Childhoods – â€Å"Especially for transgendered individuals, ageplay provides opportunities to explore childhood experiences as the gender they feel more closely associated with and different than their biological sex. † (p23) During my research I found a podcast whose subject matter is solely based on ageplay.One of the hosts, a lively and entertaining male, â€Å"scenes†, or role plays, as a female baby. Spacey, the host is one of three regular hosts of the show. He recently helped produce an episode of the podcast that completely focused on â€Å"sissies†, or male adults who roleplay as young, adolescent or baby girls. The guests on the show were two â€Å"sissies†, one of which who exercises his civil rights, even in instances of airport pat downs, to live his sissy life around the clock.The gentleman went by the name â€Å"Sissy Stephanie† and he spoke about some of the challenges he encounters living the lifestyle but felt that they emotional payoff is worth the attacks. The second guest, â€Å"Bunny†, talked about his transgendered ageplay and how his youthful, female persona serves as a mechanism to relate to others through a sweet and vulnerable personality, as his vanilla, male self struggles with connection, relatability and trust, typically. Taking Different Options – Much like rewriting your childhood, this theory talks supports the idea that there are particular details in the ageplayer’s childhood that they would like to â€Å"re-do†. Paul writes, on page 24: â€Å"For example, ‘good girls’ can be tease, tramps, or hang out with the â€Å"wrong type of guys†. He went on to offer that some littles appreciate the chance to earn praise for poor or disappointing choices from their past, or even a shot at living on the wild side and pushing boundaries that were obviously unsafe to do as children, such as actually going with the creepy neighbor who offers little kids candy. Shrinking Childhoods – This point was very interesting me, as I had never heard of such an idea about role playing as a minor, but Mr. Rulof wrote about how one might be dissatisfied with their timing of hitting developmental, social or emotional milestones in their childhood and ageplay offers them the a shot at restoring their self-image and confidence in their abilities. * Innocence – â€Å"†¦the loss of a childlike innocence and be coming jaded with the world seems to be a reoccurring theme with some ageplayers.The realization that there are not magical places, fanciful creatures, and happy endings is difficult for some to accept. The desire to regain innocence and escape adult responsibilities could factor in to a desire for ageplay. † (p25) * Relaxing and Enjoyable – Page 26 of Paul Rulof’s book highlights how ageplay encompasses the simplicity and carefree nature of childhood and how the escape from everyday adulthood is sometimes just enough reason, alone, to partake in a non-sexual form of age play. A combination of Popular Fetishes – Paul, not only an author and educator, is a creator of CAPcon, Central Illinois’ premiere ageplay convention. He has a wealth of knowledge on the subject matter and did fervent research, himself, while penning his book and the statistics he uncovered proved to be helpful in supporting this point. Page 27, in Ageplay, describes how this form of role playing is ranked 51st, out of the 100 top favored fetishes. Three of the main components that make for good role play are fetishes in themselves and were also ranked on the top 100 list.Upon reaching out to Mr. Rulof, I discovered that his statistics came from a kinky social networking site, much like Facebook; it is a hub, the high ground, for those in the kink community at large. The site listed role-play itself as the 23rd most popular fetish, followed by cuddling in 81st place and costumes barely squeezing in under the 100 mark as the 92nd most practiced kink. These items were ranked in order based upon serving as the number one kink choice for the site members. For example, Mrs.Smith may like to be spanked during intercourse but being bitten is her favorite fetish so biting would have been her vote. This supports how well age play involves three majorly ranked fetishes, out of thousands, literally, and wraps them up into one kinky, therapeutic ball of goodness. * Enhan cing Roles – â€Å"Ageplay presents a different mental framework through which you can view your partners or others. † Paul wrote for three pages examples that show how a dominant personality or a submissive personality can flourish in this type of role play.People who may not typically be drawn to this type of play just may participate because of the ability to fine-tune egalitarian roles in this medium. * Filling Psychological Needs – I am a huge fan of how the author referenced â€Å"Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs† to prove, what I personally see as the greatest motivator for role playing as a Big or little. There are essential human physical and emotional needs that human’s require fulfillment of to develop in a healthy and productive fashion. Much like ageplay, there is a parallel between the progression of human development from birth to adulthood and beyond.Many ageplayers will identify with multiple ages and, depending on their mood, re quire different things from their caregiver. Often, littles will not â€Å"morph†, for a lack of a better term, into a different age until they feel satisfied with their needs being met at their current age. In Maslow’s model, humans cannot progress or develop in the natural way without having their basic needs met at their current stage in life. * Playing with the Taboo – This idea hones in the basic human calling to be rebellious, or go against the grain, if you will.There is something engrained in us, as a society formed from hunters and gatherers ages ago, that tugs at our moral compass and prods us to be daring and bold and to break the mold of what is socially acceptable. Men especially are often deduced to a walking set of procreating DNA who lack in the ability to make ethically-upstanding choices without challenge. This set up allows all role players to abandon what is socially acceptable and what is defined as â€Å"normal† and escape to a place where it is ok to break the rules and enjoy it. Fetishes -Different from the supporting point earlier that highlighted similarly ranked fetishes, this last reason speaks to the flexibility for exploration into other, new kinks, that ageplay allows. Because of the disciplinary aspects of ageplay there are countless punishment-based fetishes that could be brought into a scene, as well breast-feeding, diapering, play date, schoolgirl, dollification, and many, many other adjacent fetishes for those who wish to dabble in new sexual discovery.Ageplay is often a starting point for kinksters who wish to slowly introduce themselves to harsher, less – nurturing-based fetishes. Though the BDSM pioneer took a seminal approach in analyzing the logic and motivation behind â€Å"sceneing† with ageplay principles, is all truly speculation and the reasoning varies for each individual. In addition to varied gains between top and bottom roles, personal needs manifest from each role play er, independently, and there rarely a clear understanding of why this is such a comforting, natural expression for anyone.The reasons for entering this lifestyle can be many and completely askew, much like rewards. The Power Exchange Book series, written by Dr. Bob Rubel, includes a book about ageplay. The Doctor shared first-hand accounts and experiences from fellow ageplayers that he interviewed during his research for the literature. The most profound and beautifully moving words were from a woman who goes by â€Å"Bethie Hope O. †. On page 70, the next to last page of the book, these words were composed what following her heart and investing in her Daddy has added to her life: I remember the first few times I visited my Daddy, looking at him or being around him, or even just talking to him on the phone felt like someone was shining a light into the world that was not there before. It was like the world was covered in clouds all the time and when he was around the clouds p arted and the sun came out and shone down on everything and I felt warm. I remember the days before my Daddy like a kind of dream, and really, that is how I lived, like I was sleepwalking. I got by, but I did not thrive. Now I feel like I truly live, like the sun is shining on me all of the time.Part of the reason for that is because I’ve learned so much about myself and I’ve found the freedom to just be me, and to do what makes me happy. Part of the reason is my Daddy and how he is with me and how he makes me feel. Part of it is how I love him and how loving someone so much makes me feel. People seem to think that it’s an unhealthy thing to have such strong attachments to just one person and maybe it is but my Daddy is my everything. He is my Daddy, my Master, My partner, my best friend, my confidant, my lover†¦I love him as if I were bore from his own body! †

Nature Writing, and the Problem of Canonical Elision Essay

The research paper is quite possibly the most common assignment in English courses at CGU. For tips on how to approach your research papers, see our brochure on Writing in English Courses. The Paper| The struggle now being waged in the professoriate over which writers deserve canonical status is not just a struggle over the relative merits of literary geniuses; it is a struggle among contending factions for the right to be represented in the picture America draws of itself. (Tompkins 201) In 1850, with the help of her well-known father, James Fenimore Cooper, Susan Fenimore Cooper publishedRural Hours, a natural historical account of one year in the Otsego Lake area of New York state. I mention her father’s name in order to situate Susan Fenimore Cooper in literary history, or, more accurately, to position her book in relation to our understandings of literary history. For truthfully, if literary history were faithful to the developments of, and reactions to, literature of the past, Susan Fenimore Cooper’s name would be well-known to all scholars of nineteenth-century American literature. Her book was immensely popular both in America and abroad; it went through six printings by 1854, the publication year of Thoreau’s Walden. Rural Hours was reissued with a new chapter in 1868, reprinted again in 1876, and then abridged by 199 pages and reissued in 1887. When critics praised Rural Hours1 and the volume sold well, Susan Fenimore Cooper achieved literary fame as a writer of natural history. However, while many of her contemporaries knew her name, most scholars in the 1990s know only of her father. Why this oversight in the construction of literary history?2 In 1968, David Jones, a visitor to the Otsego Lake region in New York, reissued the 1887 edition of Cooper’s book. In his introduction he compares Rural Hours to the canonically established Walden and claims, â€Å"Rural Hours is not, like Walden, a multi-level book† (xxxvii). Instead Cooper’s text, Jones asserts, â€Å"tells us as [well] as a book can†¦how a representative part of the rural northeastern United States looked, sounded,  smelled, and even felt in the middle of the nineteenth century† (xxxvii-viii). Admittedly, portraying a location so fully is no small task, and although Jones intimates that Rural Hours provides enjoyable light reading, he clearly believes that Thoreau’s text far surpasses Cooper’s in its complexity and depth. I want to suggest that Jones’s evaluation of Rural Hours overlooks subtle but important textual intricacies, that Cooper’s text is multi-levelled, and is, in fact, concerned with much more than the local flora and fauna of the Otsego Lake region. One problem in determining the literary value of Rural Hours lies in our inability to classify its genre. The book takes the form of a nonfictional journal, but Rural Hours cannot be classified as autobiography in the traditional sense of one writer imparting the story of his or her life experiences. Cooper portrays her outside world as much as her personal experiences, and she relates her writings to her community more than to her own life. One is tempted to call Rural Hours â€Å"nature writing† and, in fact, her contemporary supporters do classify her text as such, but Cooper’s text does not meet the typical criteria for this genre, either. This is in part because of the imprecision of definitions of nature writing itself. Critics generally agree that nature writing is non-fictional prose in which the writer functions as an observer of the outside world, attempts to represent that outside world in language, and typically, reflects on the process of giving language to the natural world. It is commonly agreed that nature writing also evinces the author’s reflections of his or her individual spiritual growth. Sharon Cameron, in writing about Thoreau, suggests that â€Å"to write about nature is to write about how the mind sees nature, and sometimes about how the mind sees itself† (44). In his recent study of several nature writers, Scott Slovic echoes and expands Cameron’s definition: â€Å"[Nature writers] are not merely, or even primarily, analysts of nature or appreciators of nature–rather, they are students of the human mind† (3). We find, then, that according to our current definitions, â€Å"nature writers† write about their environment, but they also consider their personal relationship to it. Therefore, a writer like Cooper, who concerns herself more directly with her surroundings and less with her personal  reactions to them, somehow does not quite fit the criteria for the genre. How can a book such asRural Hours, rich with observations on the botany, ornithology, and natural history of an area, not be considered nature writing? I submit that we have been trained to read books about the natural world and the human relationship to it in ways that affect our abilities to find value in texts that deviate from the canonical Thoreauvian form–a form based on personal reflections regarding one’s relationship with nature, one’s connection to the community, the difficulties of conveying perceptions through language, and, most importantly, perhaps, the process of forming identity. When contemporary readers realize and examine the expectations that they bring to Rural Hours, and willingly suspend those expectations, thereby allowing the text to reveal its own agenda and voice its own concerns, they will discover that Cooper’s work is rich with insights regarding nineteenth-century America’s social, natural, and historical politics. Rural Hours is not so directly involved in exploring â€Å"how the mind sees nature† or â€Å"how the mind sees itself.† Instead, Cooper concerns herself with the ominous task of giving words to each aspect of her natural surroundings and to exploring the implications of this environment not for herself as an individual, but for her larger community, and ultimately, for the entire nation. We must ask, then, not only if Rural Hours has literary value, but also if we as critics can consider expanding our current conceptions of nature writing to accommodate a book such as Rural Hours. In his attempt to summarize what he considers to be the weaknesses of Cooper’s book, Jones quotes a description of autumn in Rural Hours and uses Cooper’s words to create an analogy concerning her prose: autumn, like Cooper’s prose, is â€Å"variable, changeable, not alike twice in succession, gay and brilliant yesterday, more languid and pale today† (xxxvii). â€Å"As literature,† Jones further explains, â€Å"Rural Hours varies from ‘brilliant’ in one passage to ‘languid and pale’ in another† (xxxvii). Jones offers very little support for this critical assessment of the book and, therefore, I cannot help but wonder why he truly found the narrative to be â€Å"languid and pale.† As we will see, Jones’s explanation for the â€Å"weakness of Miss  Cooper’s work† is circular and underdeveloped, and supports the conventional notion that quality nature writing portrays less of nature, and more of the author’s engagement with the natural world. Further examination of his criticisms will help to explain the exclusion of Rural Hours from most records of literary history. Jones explains, â€Å"[Cooper] brought realism and vitality to her portrait of rural life by revealing its ‘variable’ and ‘changeable’ nature, to be sure, but the very act produced a major flaw in the book† (xxxvii). Jones here suggests that Cooper’s realistic portrayal of the natural world is the very downfall of her book. However, her narrative dedication to the natural world, to its vitality and constancy, necessitates that portions of the text be purely descriptive. Jones thus seems to contradict himself: the â€Å"one level† at which Cooper’s text is â€Å"unsurpassed,† he asserts, is in its ability to so accurately and faithfully describe the natural world. This strength, however, is also the weakness of the book. Finally, Jones does not define this â€Å"flaw† at all; instead, he proceeds to discuss Thoreau’s Walden. Jones assumes throughout his introduction that Thoreau’s book is far superior to Cooper’s, that readers ofRural Hours will agree with this assessment, and that, therefore, his assessment requires no justification. This method of reasoning also presupposes that Walden and Rural Hours afford the same criteria for judgement, or, that they exhibit similar attempts at representing nature.3 If Cooper and Thoreau actually engage similar projects, this assessment is valid. If, however, these writers differ in their purposes, or represent–and react to–the natural world in distinct ways, then we need to examine these criteria of evaluation. How do we approach a text that attempts to represent the natural world on its own terms? Have we been taught to read texts whose straightforward depiction of the natural world is, seemingly, their main goal?4 If, as Jones suggests, Cooper’s prose remains so loyal to her subject that it is too realistic, and therefore borders on boring, we need to ask how we expect Cooper to represent nature so as to hold our attentions and why her  contemporaries were not also bored by her book. Many questions arise: what are contemporary readers’ expectations of writing that engages the natural world? How do our expectations differ from those of readers in the nineteenth century? Assuming that readers bought and consumed Cooper’s text because they found interest in both its subject matter and its perspective, how does Cooper’s direct conveyance of the natural world reflect her culture’s interests and concerns?5 What is the role of nature in such a text, as opposed to the role of people? How often do we require that a â€Å"realistic† portrayal of nature be replaced by metaphor or symbolism, thereby preventing â€Å"languid and pale† prose? How often do we want to read specifically about nature, and how often are we more interested in exploring the human presence in nature? Finally, is Rural Hours actually poorly written, or boring? Such questions, originating from an attempt to understand the immense success and warm reception of Rural Hours in the mid- to late-nineteenth century, cause us to examine our conceptions of how writers should relate to nature, how their relations should be represented through language, and how we–as readers–should read such texts. Read within our common understandings of nature writing, a conception that stresses writings influenced by the Romantics, Cooper’s prose may seem languid and pale, but if we approach Cooper’s text in other ways, as I will demonstrate, we will discern the richness of Rural Hours. Interest in writing that depicts the environment has increased in recent years. Clearly, texts such as Emerson’s â€Å"Nature† and Thoreau’s Walden have dominated our reading lists, but studies such as Cecelia Tichi’sNew World, New Earth and Annette Kolodny’s The Lay of the Land and The Land Before Her investigate the history of American interest in the environment and invite us to consider a variety of literary forms as important in understanding how Americans have related to their natural environment through the centuries. Tichi states, â€Å"Consistently since the seventeenth century [environmental reform] has formed an integral and important part of our cultural and literary history† (x). American interest in the land infiltrates our earliest documents, as Tichi proves in her study. In early  America, â€Å"the American spirit and the American continent were bonded ideologically,† and arguably continue to be bonded ideologically, albeit in different ways (Tichi ix). Another important study of Americans’ conceptions of the wilderness as reflected in literature is Bernard Rosenthal’s City of Nature. Rosenthal’s study focuses on Cooper’s predecessors and contemporaries, and concludes that two ideas of nature emerge in the writings of the American Romantics. He locates one idea of nature in the conception of wilderness as the space to be assumed by the emerging American city. The second idea of nature concerns the â€Å"new religious myth,† an individual journey into nature for the purpose of establishing what Rosenthal terms â€Å"the city of the self† (27). Put another way, â€Å"two irreconcilable connotations emerged as the most important definitions of the word nature†: one in which â€Å"nature represented commodity being transformed into civilization,† and one in which â€Å"nature became the metaphor for a new spiritual mythology† for the nineteenth-century individual (Rosenthal 31).6 Rosenthal suggests that, during the nineteenth century, the majority of Americans conceived of nature in this first way, and that most of the American Romantic writers worked within the second understanding of nature (71).7 These two conceptions of nature largely inform our readings of nineteenth-century texts that center, in some way, around the natural world. We have been taught not only to conceive of the natural world as a metaphor for our own society, but also to read texts that depict the natural world in terms of what they impart regarding the individual human spirit.8 We therefore approach texts that describe the natural world and that share personal reflections regarding the landscape with the expectation that they will either consider â€Å"the transformation of nature into its purest form, civilization,† or that they will explore nature â€Å"as spiritual place,† as the site of â€Å"an interior journey to a private place† in the spirit (Rosenthal 18), or that the author will attempt both visions of nature. 9 As readers we are taught that while purely descriptive prose may be poetically beautiful, it is boring, contains no metaphor or symbolism, and therefore lacks importance because it does not pertain to individual  spiritual growth. In the words of a colleague, â€Å"We skim over the flowers and birds and pretty things and look for what really happens.† However, what â€Å"really happens† often happens within the descriptive prose that we overlook. In relying on metaphor for our readings of such texts — either the metaphor of nature as civilization or nature as self — we fail to investigate the implications of capturing nature in language or the process by which a writer envisions elements of nature and transforms that vision into linguistic representation. We fail, finally, to ask how this investigation into the natural world functions not only for the individual or for society, but for the natural world itself. At this point, some may accuse me of oversimplifying nature writing; some may argue that metaphor and symbolism are the more complicated ways in which authors employ language, and that to dismiss these linguistic forms is to reduce nature writing to the parroting of knowledge of natural history, or the meaningless naming of colors, sounds, and sights. I am not, however, suggesting that nature writing texts not be considered for their metaphorical value, only that we consider the implications of only considering them in this way. Susan K. Harris makes a similar point in her study of nineteenth-century women’s sentimental novels written between 1840 and 1870: There appears to be an unspoken agreement not to submit nineteenth-century American women’s novels to extended analytical evaluation, largely†¦ because the evaluative modes most of us were taught devalue this literature a priori. (44) While Harris’s study focuses on fictional writings, the implications of her study for the study of nature writing and Susan Fenimore Cooper’s text are multiple and deserving of some attention. Harris finds that the criteria upon which scholars often scrutinize texts in order to determine their literary merit and the methods they employ in â€Å"analyzing† texts disregard important alternative aspects of texts. Harris suggests reading texts through a method she calls â€Å"process analysis,† a method of reading and interpreting a text that â€Å"foregrounds the relationship of the literary critical task to the critic’s stance in her own time† (145) and that considers the public, political and social context from which the  text emerged.10 Harris explains her belief that it is â€Å"important to establish the terms of the debate(s) in which the text participates the positions it takes, and how these positions are embodied in its textual structure† (46).11 Thus, as the language of the text is foregrounded, we look at the text as â€Å"both reactive and creative,† and disregard the traditional concern that the text â€Å"self-consciously embody ‘timeless truths'† (45). A text such as Cooper’s Rural Hours faces many of the obstacles in contemporary criticism that the sentimental novels that interest Harris face, especially when considered as part of the category of writing that has come to be called nature writing. Not only does Cooper’s book adopt a prosaic style that is contrary to those of canonized texts, but her book also forms part of a genre that itself is not very well established in the canon. She is, finally, a woman writing in a denigrated style within in a genre largely ignored by traditional scholarship. As critics have only recently begun to realize, historical and contemporary writers who represent their relationships to their surrounding environments exemplify differing ways of using language, and the linguistic methods these writers employ to represent and conceive of the natural world reflect, in complicated ways, the ideological implications of our cultural conceptions of nature. An understanding of the content of such writings, the issues they raise, and the methods of linguistic construction they employ will enable us, as literary scholars and historians, to realize how our language reflects our attitudes toward the earth, and more pointedly, how such attitudes have determined, prevented, or justified our actions against, and reactions to, the earth. The traditional approaches to such texts consider â€Å"timeless truths† in the forms of metaphors concerning nature as civilization or journeys to nature as journeys to the self. But these views often neglect to consider the author’s interest in the political and social opinions of the time concerning the proper relationship of society and the earth, and how writers in our society throughout history have coded such opinions in language.12 Studies such as Harris’s often center on cultural conceptions of gender in women’s fiction.13 The recent critical focus on issues of gender differentiation has lead contemporary critics to ask if women â€Å"naturally† relate to the outside world differently than men. In keeping with this interest, Annette Kolodny suggested in her 1975 study,The Lay of the Land, â€Å"that women’s writings and linguistic usages have all along been offering us alternate means of expression and perception† (ix) and that an examination of women’s writings on the subject of nature could yield better understandings of American conceptions of the wilderness. Kolodny also states that â€Å"a conscious and determined struggle to formulate for themselves the meaning of their landscape characterizes the writings of nineteenth-century Americans† (Lay of the Land 71). Certainly both Cooper and Thoreau’s texts engage in this struggle, although their engagements take different forms. Although I am not aware of any critical investigations as to whether Cooper’s and Thoreau’s alternative narrative styles are based in gender differences,14 most recent critics of Cooper (of which there are few) do seize on the issue of gender when exploring her text. Unlike Jones, they quickly dismiss Thoreau from their studies, and instead suggest that Cooper’s text presents a representative depiction of woman’s relationship to the natural world in nineteenth-century America.15 The most recent study of Rural Hours appears in Vera Norwood’s Made from This Earth, in which the author devotes a chapter to Susan Fenimore Cooper and her arguable influence on the women nature writers subsequent to her.16 Norwood argues that Cooper represented a â€Å"literary domestic,†17 a woman writer who wrote to deliver the â€Å"scenes and values of middle-class homes to a wide readership† (27). Thus, Norwood suggests, Cooper used the occasion of her book not only to describe her natural surroundings, but also to impart valuable lessons to her readers in a non-threatening manner. Norwood asserts that Cooper turned to nature to discover what nature teaches about the roles of women in the domestic realm.18 For example, Cooper describes robins and praises the mother robin’s dedication to her young, implicitly suggesting that human mothers should emulate the robin’s self-sacrificing nature (Cooper 39-40/Norwood 37-8). Thus, Norwood sees a conversation in Rural Hours, a dialogue that Cooper creates in her text between the  natural and human worlds in which gender roles in nature inform and enlighten gender roles in human society. Finally, Norwood claims that Cooper â€Å"was consumed with understanding what nature suggests about female roles and family responsibilities, and how gender definitions and familial arrangements help people comprehend what they see in nature† (37). Cooper does occasionally focus on gender roles and responsibilities in Rural Hours, but to state that she is â€Å"consumed† with such issues greatly exaggerates her narrative interests. As Norwood points out, Cooper ruminates on the devoted mother robin, but she also, interestingly, refers to the â€Å"voluntary imprisonment† of the mother, and to her â€Å"generous, enduring patience† (Cooper 40). While this patience is clearly â€Å"a noble attribute of parental affection† for Cooper, the scene leaves her somewhat incredulous and stunned by the mother’s consistent, uncomplaining waiting: Cooper admits this is a â€Å"striking instance† of parental devotion (40). While she may advocate human parental devotion, she also recognizes that the natural world is more willingly generous than the human world,19 and that whereas humans can learn from nature, there are also aspects of the natural world beyond human comprehension.20 Interestingly, and perhaps even provocatively, Norwood does not point out that the voluntarily imprisoned mothering robin is accompanied by the â€Å"male† of the â€Å"little family,† who â€Å"occasionally relieves his mate by taking her place awhile† and â€Å"exerts himself to bring her food, and to sing for her amusement† (40). Cooper includes his participation in her description of â€Å"voluntary imprisonment†; his is also a â€Å"striking instance† of parental affection. If Cooper invokes the mother robin as a testament to giving mothering, her invocation of the father bird suggests his necessary assistance around the â€Å"nest.† Ultimately, then, to read Cooper’s text in terms of its interest in gender affords some intriguing insights: Cooper clearly remains within her position as a middle- to upper-class â€Å"lady† throughout her narrative and, just as clearly, seeks confirmation of gender divisions and domestic roles from the natural world.21 These instances, though, are rare in Cooper’s  text. The themes and issues that arise more often in Rural Hours concern the establishment of a national identity and history, and while Cooper does not divorce her gender from the concerns that inform her larger agenda, she also does not encompass her interest in nationalism within explorations of domesticity. Certainly one aspect of Cooper’s desire to explore the natural world in order to formulate a national identity concerns the place of women in society, but to read Rural Hours solely in terms of its attempt to explore the implications of gender roles as exemplified in the natural environment greatly simplifies the complexities and layers of Cooper’s book. I do not wish to suggest that traditional feminist readings of Cooper’s text are unwarranted or unnecessary, nor that such readings will prove unproductive. I do believe, however, that reading Cooper’s book through too narrow a focus is hazardous not only in seeking to establish her in the canon of â€Å"serious† and â€Å"teachable† writers, but also in that such a reading sidesteps many larger cultural issues that her text engages. A critical reading of Cooper’s text should investigate her representations and explorations of gender roles in mid-nineteenth century America as well as her other complex and overt concerns, such as the creation of an American history, the treatment of American Indians, the problems of deforestation, and the religious connotations of the natural world, all of which fall under the rubric, in Cooper’s text, of the establishment of a national identity.22 As Jones points out, the majority of Cooper’s text contains descriptions of her surroundings. Her reflections are not always couched in metaphor, as Jones also suggests, but this does not detract from the value of Cooper’s text, nor does it indicate that Cooper does not entertain significant issues in her writing. Cooper’s descriptions of her surroundings reflect and embody her larger concern for the development of a national identity based in the land. In her view, the establishment of a national identity is linked to individual conceptions of the land, its flora and fauna, its people, and the relationship of the country’s peoples to the land. Cooper depicts the landscape of Otsego Lake, relates the history of the land and  its peoples, and describes the indigenous plants, animals, and waters of the area in an attempt to create an identity of place. The landscape, and the life the land supports, create the identity of this place. Cooper’s â€Å"literature of place†23 serves not only to create a natural identity for the Otsego Lake region, but also to assert the need for a similarly constructed national identity. The creation of a national identity, then, is the â€Å"cultural work† of Cooper’s text; she seeks to locate the â€Å"natural† identity of her new nation. Cooper’s development of this theme — a national identity rooted in the landscape — is subtle and calculated, but a scrupulous reading of Rural Hours reveals the careful construction of Cooper’s text. The opening pages ofRural Hours share observations that reflect the intentions of the book as stated in Cooper’s 1850 preface: The following notes contain, in a journal form, the simple record of those little events which make up the course of the seasons in rural life. In wandering about the fields, . . . one naturally gleans many trifling observations. . . The following pages were written in perfect good faith, all the trifling incidents alluded to having occurred as they are recorded. (Preface) In her first chapter, we read of the coming of spring: snow thaws, buds appear, robins return to the area. These are seemingly â€Å"little events,† â€Å"trifling† in their lack of worldly significance. One almost immediately notices, however, the pride Cooper takes in plants and animals â€Å"peculiar† to her â€Å"native land,† those that are uniquely America’s own. In contrast to the European robin, â€Å"our robin never builds [a nest] on the ground† (21), and the â€Å"pretty† white-bellied swallow, which â€Å"has been confounded with the European martin† is, Cooper assures, â€Å"peculiar to America† (56). Cooper also explains the uniqueness of American plants, complaining that the â€Å"wild natives of the woods† are often crowded out by European plants that were introduced by the colonists and that â€Å"[drive] away the prettier natives† (81).24 In her discussion of autumn in America, Cooper ruminates, â€Å"Had the woods of England been as rich as our own† English writers would  have praised the season in their writings long ago (336). Instead, â€Å"one is led to believe that the American autumn has helped to set the fashions for the sister season of the Old World† (335). American writers’ reflections on the landscape have encouraged English writers to do the same, Cooper suggests. These â€Å"trifling† observations begin to speak together, and we find Cooper asserting the importance of knowing the natural forms indigenous to one’s place. Thus, for Cooper, determining which birds, animals, and plants are native to America, as well as which of these are unknown to Europeans, helps to define the American landscape, and therefore helps to establish a national identity. She takes pride in her land and in its natural wealth. Cooper also mourns the losses that her land incurs, suggesting that any depletion of the natural aspects of a place drastically alter its identity. Like her seemingly innocent cataloging of natural plants and animals indigenous to America, which emerges as a plea for national pride and definition based on the natural world, her repeated lamentings of disappearing or decreasing portions of the natural world emerge as a plea for the preservation of the wilderness. Like Cooper’s gently emerging concern for identifying indigenous plants and animals, Cooper gradually develops this theme of loss throughout her text. â€Å"Little events,† when taken cumulatively, have large implications. Cooper observes wild pigeons in early March, for instance, and recalls a previous season when â€Å"they passed over the valley in†¦ large unbroken flocks several miles in extent succeeding each other.† Then she remarks, â€Å"There have not been so many here since that season† (18). The reader might dismiss this observation due to its early position in her book, but as one progresses through the text and continually comes across this motif of longing for previous times when–somehow–nature was more complete, one realizes that Cooper is truly concerned about the changes taking place in her surroundings. Her concern becomes much more overt, but not until much later in the book.25 Cooper’s seemingly minor concern for the losses of groups of  birds or plants culminates in her consideration of the rapid deforestation occurring in the country.26 She returns to the subject many times throughout the course of Rural Hours and, further along in the book, strongly criticizes people for their careless use of timber: One would think that by this time, when the forest has fallen in all the valleys — when the hills are becoming more bare every day–when timber and fuel are rising in prices, and new uses are found for even indifferent woods–some forethought and care in this respect would be natural in people laying claim to common sense. (213-14) Clearly, Cooper is warning her contemporaries by suggesting that they discontinue the destruction of trees for purposes of fueling their homes. The continual destruction of the forests so radically alters the landscape that Cooper cannot conceive of continued deforestation. She not only seeks to educate her audience regarding the benefits of preservation; she also makes the preservation of the American landscape a moral imperative. This moral duty for national preservation becomes linked to Cooper’s feelings regarding the â€Å"red man,† or Native Americans (93). Again, Cooper subtly portrays this sense of the loss of the indigenous peoples early in Rural Hours. When standing beside a clear running spring, she states, â€Å"one seems naturally to remember the red man; recollections of his vanished race linger there in a more definite form than elsewhere† (93). The rolling, clear water somehow evokes the â€Å"vanished† race: â€Å"yesterday they were here, to-day scarce a vestige of their existence can be pointed out among us† (94). However, later in Rural Hours, Cooper more overtly conveys her feelings regarding the colonists’ treatment of the indigenous peoples, which she finds integral to the colonists’ treatment of the landscape. While viewing a forest grove, she laments: â€Å"It needs but a few short minutes to bring one of these trees to the ground† (193). She reminds her readers that entire generations will come and go in the time that it takes for one of these mature trees to reach such magnificent heights: The stout arm so ready to raise the axe to-day, must grow weak with age, it must drop into the grave; its bone and sinew must crumble into dust long before another tree, tall and great as those, shall have grown from the  cone in our hand (193-94). In the same paragraph, Cooper calls for a reinstitution of wilderness, claiming that the wild deer, the wolf and the bear â€Å"must return from beyond the great lakes,† and then, significantly, that â€Å"the bones of the savage men buried under our feet must arise and move again. . . ere trees like those† ever appear again, so large, so wild (194).27 The mistreatment of Native Americans emerges as a large theme in Cooper’s text. She advocates retaining the names they gave to places and portions of the natural world, partly because of the beauty in â€Å"Indian words,† which â€Å"[unite] both sound and meaning† (484). In the creation of a national identity, Cooper intimates, the power of names is very suggestive: names reveal history and meaning, and the Indians words capture both elements. She argues against re-naming places not only due to the beauty of the Native American’s languages, however, but also because she believes that somehow European-Americans owe the indigenous peoples something. The refrain of loss that resonates throughout Cooper’s text reaches its climax in the following passage. I quote at length to impart Cooper’s passion: There are many reasons for preserving every Indian name which can be accurately placed; generally, they are recommended by their beauty; but even when harsh in sound, they still have a claim to be kept up on account of their historical interest, and their connection with the dialects of the different tribes. A name is all we leave them, let us at least preserve that monument to their memory; as we travel through the country, and pass river after river, lake after lake, we may thus learn how many were the tribes who have melted away before us, whose very existence would have been utterly forgotten but for the word which recalls the name they once bore. (485) As these words suggest, Cooper’s concerns in Rural Hours are far-reaching. Cooper finds little distinction between the establishment of a national identity based in the uniqueness of the land, the preservation of the wilderness, and the maintenance of the influence of indigenous cultures.28 The â€Å"natural† history of this place and its people provide its meaning. These enmeshed issues resonate even more strongly when Cooper places them in accordance with her religious ideals. Although her Christianity by no means permeates the text, its presence offers a cohesion between her many areas of interest. Cooper envisions each and every aspect of the natural world as belonging to part of God’s plan for Americans. For example, while admiring a particularly beautiful sky, Cooper says, At hours like these, the immeasurable goodness, the infinite wisdom of our Heavenly Father, are displayed in so great a degree of condescending tenderness to unworthy, sinful man, as must appear quite incomprehensible- entirely incredible to reason alone–were it not for the recollection of the mercies of past years, the positive proofs of experience†¦.What have the best of us done to merit one such day in a lifetime of follies and failings and sins? (73-74) I do want to stress that these moments are rare in Cooper’s text, that her homilies are short and few, but that they clearly convey her sense of wonder about the natural world.29 She finds value in each aspect of the natural world, and seeks to preserve the world as a testament of her faith in God. While maintaining the Puritan notion that the â€Å"new world† was intended for the colonists to cultivate, and that their duties included imparting Christianity to the Native Americans,30 Cooper also stresses the need to balance the human presence on, and cultivation of, the land with careful preservation of it. She envisions a society that works with the land, not against it, and that creates a national identity based on its intimate knowledge of, and respect for, the natural world. She suggests this balance between humans and nature lightheartedly, saying â€Å"Many birds like a village life; they seem to think man is a very good-natured animal, building chimneys and roofs, planting groves, and digging gardens for their especial benefit† (63). But she also asserts the seriousness of her belief in admiring her village, â€Å"rural and unambitious,† and â€Å"quite in proportion with surrounding objects† (114). Cooper further explains her belief in a â€Å"rural ideal,†31 a sustainable balance between civilization and nature, in an essay collected in The Home  Book of the Picturesque, which was published in 1851: The hand of man generally improves a landscape. The earth has been given to him, and his presence in Eden is natural; he gives life and spirit to the garden. It is only when he endeavors to rise above his true part of laborer and husbandman, when he assumes the character of creator, and piles you up hills, pumps you a river, scatters stones, or sprinkles cascades, that he is apt to fail. Generally the grassy meadow in the valley, the winding road climbing the hill-side, the cheerful village on the bank of the stream, give a higher additional interest to the view; or where there is something amiss in the scene, it is when there is some evident want of judgement, or good sense, or perhaps some proof of selfish avarice, or wastefulness, as when a country is stripped of its wood to fill the pockets or feed the fires of one generation. (82) This interest in creating a national identity based upon a balance of civilization, nature, and the preservation of religious ideologies forms the basic underlying motif in Cooper’s text. While her words often convey seemingly simple observations about her surroundings, Cooper’s linking of the natural world and the human treatment of it with the necessity of establishing a national conception of the proper human relationship to nature forms a complex, intricate portrayal of the myriad concerns of nineteenth-century life. Rural Hours also reveals how issues surrounding the formation of national concepts of environmental treatment were intertwined with the establishment of pride in a new country. Additional readings of Rural Hours will undoubtedly uncover themes and tropes unexplored in the present essay. In order for this to occur, however, we must continually ask ourselves how our preconceptions may prohibit finding value in texts that do not meet established, too often unchallenged, criteria for judgements. One can approach Rural Hours, finally, as a natural history engaged in creating the story of a region and as an attempt to appreciate nature on its own terms: not as a commodity for human use, but as beautiful, powerful, and suggestive of God’s greatness. In writing a balance between humans and nature, Cooper sets an agenda not only for her region, but for the country as a whole. Her text is filled with natural history, but it also expounds upon the concerns of an age in America’s  history. As such, it greatly contributes to our understandings of the human presence on the land. Sample Research Paper for an English Course| [1]. Cunningham offers an overview of critical reactions to Rural Hours (339-40) as do Jones (xvii-xxv) and Norwood (27). BACK [2]. The reading of Cooper’s text that follows, as well as my consideration of issues of literary historiography and canon construction owes much to Jane Tompkins’s work, as suggested by my epigraph, but also to Cathy N. Davidson’s study, Revolution and the Word. There Davidson states, â€Å"The issue here is not that literature provides an inaccurate reflection of history but that no documents can simply be ‘read’ as if they were objective, scientific data produced or preserved as some pure product of a people and the abiding record of their time. The record always suppresses more than it tells. Why, we must ask, are certain records kept in the first place? Why are they saved? The whole process of historiography, the archive itself, must be subjected to rigorous analysis. Who is keeping the records and for what purpose? Who is writing, to whom, and why?† (Revolution 2). These are some of the issues and concerns I will address with regard to Susan Fenimore Cooper and Nature Writing. BACK [3]. In her study, Writing Nature: Henry Thoreau’s Journal, Sharon Cameron considers Thoreau’s attempts at representing nature in his journals, and also contrasts this to Walden. BACK [4]. Obviously, I do not think that Cooper’s and Thoreau’s text engage nature similarly. While both writers reflect upon their surroundings and offer descriptions of elements of the natural world, each writer raises his/her own personal areas for concern. Chapters such as Thoreau’s â€Å"Where I Lived†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and â€Å"Economy† are totally absent from Cooper’s record of days. Sections concerned with environmental peril, such as Cooper’s reflections on the hazards of deforestation, which I will discuss later in this paper, are unparalleled in Thoreau’s text. While certainly some similar criteria exist for comparison, Thoreau’s Walden is finally a philosophical investigation of individual man’s â€Å"economy† and â€Å"wakefulness,† in Thoreau’s sense of those words, and Rural Hours does not concern the individual so much as the nation, or the community. Together, these texts offer interesting insights into different conceptions of the natural world in relation of humankind in mid-nineteenth century  America. BACK [5]. Jane Tompkins writes, â€Å"The text that becomes exceptional in the sense of reaching an exceptionally large audience does so not because of its departure from the ordinary and conventional, but through its embrace of what is most widely shared† (xvi). Like Tompkins, I assume that when many readers buy and read a book, they find value in that book, and that when a book’s success is marked by many reprintings and re-issuings, this reflects a cultural interest in the subject matter and in the implicit concerns of the book. BACK [6]. In both conceptions of nature, there is a religious ideology informing notions of meaning and direction. As Tichi so aptly explores in her New World, New Earth, the colonists conceived of the land as God’s gift to them, and their taming of the wilderness as therefore ordained by God. BACK [7]. Rosenthal states, â€Å"In America, the abstractions called nature came to be defined as the civilization that emerged from the wilderness; for the Romantics, who found their vocabulary in the country they inhabited, nature came to be equated with the civilization of the self, the world of inner vision† (71). He divides European and American Romantic writers in this way, but then admits the difficulty of such a radical division, especially when considering Thoreau’s Walden. Ultimately, Rosenthal suggests, American writers conceived of nature in both ways, as their texts reveal. BACK [8]. It interests me that the books of Cooper’s contemporary writers whom we do read in literature classes — Emerson, Thoreau, and, in a particularly daring syllabus, Margaret Fuller — were not nearly as successful during their lifetimes as Cooper’s. Furthermore, as many recent critics of nature writing note, the writings of these three authors more often concerned the human world than the natural world. What does it mean that readers in the nineteenth century were more interested in Cooper’s more focused portrayal of the natural world than in Thoreau’s symbolic and metaphorical vision of nature? BACK [9]. I do not mean to criticize Rosenthal for instituting these methods of reading texts that portray nature. Most readings of the canonical texts that engage nature maintain his model of two alternative ways of seeing the importance of nature, and I appreciate his clear delineation of these versions. BACK [10]. Another important context in which to examine such a text is in its relation to the literary heritage from which it originates. This seems especially crucial when considering a  text such as Cooper’s, because she was so clearly influenced by the place of literature in American society. Her father concerned himself with establishing a literary history in the country; Susan Cooper was extremely well-read (as her text evidences: see pgs. 220, 226-7, and her numerous references to writers), and the theme of the construction of a written history of America surfaces in Rural Hours. An analysis of Cooper’s thoughts regarding literature and the contribution her text will make to an emerging literary tradition in her country would certainly prove valuable in understanding the cultural interest in creating an American literary heritage. BACK [11]. Jane Tompkins raises very similar questions in her 1985 study, Sensational Designs. Tompkins asserts that contemporary critics often read our modern-day concerns into older texts — â€Å"questions about the self, the body, the possibilities of knowledge, the limits of language† — instead of heeding the text’s own concerns, such as the â€Å"religious beliefs, social practices, and economic and po litical circumstances† that may have influenced the author and her contemporaries. BACK [12]. Harris delineates the critical implications for such an approach; although, again, her focus is nineteenth-century women’s sentimental novels: â€Å"Structure and language, then, are the dual focuses of process analysis. Each demands three levels of study: the first, contextual, places the text within its own time; the second, rhetorical, examines narrator/narratee contracts and the ways in which the text may play with cultural significances; the third, retrospective, searches for traces of changing consciousness, building blocks for an ideologically self-conscious literary history. Together, they offer a paradigm that produces evaluative as well as investigate questions† (59). BACK [13]. Such studies, in addition to Harris’s, include Cathy N. Davidson’s Introduction to her edition of Susanna Rowson’s Charlotte Temple, and Jane Tompkins’s study of Uncle Tom’s Cabin in her book, Sensational Designs. Much contemporary feminist criticism similarly engages issues of cultural definitions and determinations of gender roles. BACK [14]. Critics inevitably mention Thoreau in their analyses of Rural Hours, but they mention his text as a benchmark, as a starting-off point (see Cunningham 341, Jones xxxvii, Norwood 26, and Patterson 2). It is very interesting that Thoreau’s text is used to describe Cooper’s when Cooper’s text preceded his, and her text sold well, whereas his did not. BACK   [15]. For such examinations, see Cunningham and Maddox. Cunningham’s essay is the older of these two (published in 1944), and celebrates Cooper’s prominence in Cooperstown while expressing frustration with Cooper’s â€Å"failure to face the obligations of her talent† (348). Cunningham speculates on reasons why Cooper’s Rural Hours was not followed up with more book-length writings, and suggests that â€Å"neither her immediate family circle nor the century into which she was born gave a woman freedom to develop creative talents† (349-50). Cooper’s family kept a very strict hold on both her personal and business affairs, and family duties perhaps curtailed her writing. Maddox’s study, which appeared in 1988, states that the strongest theme in Cooper’s writing is the American woman’s duty as inheritor and guardian of a legacy left by pioneering males. Woman is keeper of nature, maintainer of harmony and balance between nature and culture, and it is woman’s responsibility to ensure the harmony between the domestic and external realms. BACK [16]. Norwood bases her reading largely on Lucy B. Maddox’s study and focuses on similar motifs in her reading of Cooper’s text. BACK [17]. Norwood credits Mary Kelley with this phrase (Norwood 27). BACK [18]. Norwood’s tone and overall reading of Cooper’s text perplex me, as will become clear in this paper. On this particular point, for instance, Norwood explains Cooper’s conjoining of home and nature in a disparaging comment: â€Å"So, parasol in hand, Susan Cooper sallied forth from her domestic hearth to the gardens and woods of her home to speak to all Americans about their native land, in a voice blending lessons from the woman’s sphere with knowledge garnered from the scientist-naturalists whose company she kept and books she read† (30, emphasis added). Norwood writes to praise Cooper’s text, but moments like this one seem to belittle Cooper’s position and purpose. Furthermore, Cooper did not merely parrot the books she read and the naturalists with whom she spent time; in fact, many of Cooper’s references to other naturalists serve to correct their mistakes and to challenge their previous findings. Finally, Norwood overlooks many of the complexities in Cooper’s text, and perhaps too willingly accepts Lucy B. Maddox’s views o f Cooper’s text. BACK [19]. This remarkably â€Å"generous† quality of the natural world is, I will argue, a recurring theme in Rural Hours. BACK [20]. I will return to this theme in Cooper’s text later in this paper. BACK [21]. The publishing business at this time emphasized  Cooper’s status as a â€Å"lady† in their first editions of the book: Cooper was not named as author, but rather Rural Hours was â€Å"By a Lady.† Norwood considers the implications of the author’s anonymity (Norwood 27). BACK [22]. Hans Huth offers an insightful reading of the role of national identity in writings of this period. BACK [23]. Pamela Regis asserts a tradition of works and writers that comprise this â€Å"literature of place† genre. See her Describing Early America: Bartram, Jefferson, Crevecoeur, and the Rhetoric of Natural History (xii). BACK [24]. William Cronon’s study of the ecology of colonial New England confirms many of Cooper’s observations regarding plant life and also supports and provides reasons for some of her concerns regarding deforestation practices in nineteenth-century A merica. Cronon’s text is an interesting compliment to Cooper’s first-hand depiction of the imperiled landscape. BACK [25]. I cannot help but believe that Cooper intentionally placed this overt cultural criticism late in the book. Readers became engaged with her text, enticed by her â€Å"lady-like† view of Otsego Lake and its community, drawn in by her â€Å"trifling† observations and records of â€Å"little events,† and then Cooper subtly weaves in her threads of cultural criticism, hidden, as it were, between the plants, birds, and trees. Her society could easily overlook any questionable criticisms Cooper made because they were so buried in Cooper’s text. BACK [26]. Cronon also investigates the rapid deforestation occurring at this time in his Changes in the Land (pp. 108-126). BACK [27]. Cooper experiences a similar desire for a return to an earlier, wilder state of the land in her essay, â€Å"A Dissolving View.† In a fantasy, her view of a rolling, but populated, landscape dissolves into wilderness replete with forests. Finally, though, the â€Å"dissolving view† of her title is implicitly, of course, the dissolving wilderness. In a particularly direct passage, Cooper asserts â€Å"Indeed it would seem as if man had no sooner mastered the art of architecture, than he aimed at rivalling the dignity and durability of the works of nature which served as his models† (84). BACK [28]. Cooper clearly supports the indigenous cultures; however, she also reinforces the white man’s â€Å"duty† in â€Å"educating† and â€Å"civilizing† them. â€Å"This general fertility, this blending of the fields of man and his tillage with the woods, the great husbandry of Providence, gives a fine character to the country, which it could not claim when the lonely savage roamed through  wooded valleys. . .† (224). Later, she states, â€Å"The time seems to have come at last when their own eyes are opening to the real good of civilization, the advantages of knowledge, the blessings of Christianity† (181-82). BACK [29]. This devotion to God and his creation also, I believe, helps explain Cooper’s distance from the natural world. She admires the creation, but has no need to participate in the creation of the world. She seeks only to preserve the work of God, to thank him for his giving to her â€Å"despite our. . .unworthiness† (72). BACK [30]. See Tichi for an exploration of many documents from early America, including sermons and letters, that share this view of the continent. BACK [31]. This is Patterson’s phrase for Cooper’s conception of a relationship between human culture and the natural world. BACK Works Cited| Baym, Nina. Woman’s Fiction: A Guide to Novels by and about Women in America, 1820-1870. 2nd. ed. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1993. Cameron, Sharon. Writing Nature: Henry Thoreau’s Journal. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1985. Cooper, Susan Fenimore. â€Å"A Dissolving View.† in The Home Book of the Picturesque: Or American Scenery, Art, and Literature. Introduction by Motley F. Deakin. Gainesville: Scholars’ Facsimiles & Reprints, 1967. (Facsimile Reproduction) pp. 79- 94. – -. Rural Hours. New York: Putnam, 1850. Cronon, William. Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. New York: Hill and Wang, 1983. Cunningham, Anna K. â€Å"Susan Fenimore Cooper – Child of Genius.† New York History 25 (July 1944): 339-350. Davidson, Cathy N., ed. Introduction to Susanna Rowson’s Charlotte Temple. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. – -. Revolution and the Word: The Rise of the Novel in America. New York: Oxford U.P., 1986. Emerson, Ralph Waldo. â€Å"Nature.† in Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Essays and Lectures, ed. Joel Porte. New York: Library of America, 1983. Fuller, Margaret. Woman in the Nineteenth Century. With an Introduction by Bernard Rosenthal. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1971. Harris, Susan K. â€Å"‘But is it any good?’: Evaluating Nineteenth-Century American Women’s Fiction† American Literature 63:1 (March 1991): 43-61. Huth, Hans. Nature and the American Mind: Three Centuries of Changing Attitudes. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1957. Jones, David. â€Å"Introduction† to Rural Hours by Susan Fenimore Cooper. Syracuse: Syracuse U.P., 1968. xi-xxxviii. Kolodny, Annette. The Land Before Her: Fantasy and Experience of the American Frontier, 1630-1860. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984. – -. The Lay of the Land: Metaphor as Experience and History in American Life and Letters. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1975. Maddox, Lucy B. â€Å"Susan Fenimore Cooper and the Plain Daughters of America.† American Quarterly 40:2 (1988): 131-146. Norwood, Vera. Made From this Earth: American Women and Nature. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993. Patterson, Daniel. â€Å"Susan Fenimore Cooper’s Rural Hours and American Nature Writing.† Delivered at the American Literature Association’s Symposium on American Women Writers, San Antonio, Texas, October 1, 1993. Northern Illinois Press, 1992. Regis, Pamela. Describing Early America: Bartram, Jefferson, Crevecoeur, and the Rhetoric of Natural History.Dekalb: Northern Illinois Press, 1992. Rosenthal, Bernard. City of Nature: Journeys to Nature in the Age of American Romanticism. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1980. Slovic, Scott. Seeking Awareness in American N ature Writing: Henry David Thoreau, Annie Dillard, Edward Addey, Wendell Berry, Barry Lopez. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1992. Thoreau, Henry David. Walden in The Portable Thoreau, ed. Carl Bode. New York: Penguin Books, 1982. Tichi, Cecelia. New World, New Earth: Environmental Reform in American Literature from the Puritans through Whitman. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979. Tompkins, Jane. Sensational Designs: The Cultural Work of American Fiction, 1790-1860. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985.