Browsing by Subject "national identity"
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Item Imagining TR: Commemorations and Representations of Theodore Roosevelt in Twentieth-Century America(2014-11-03) Heth, Jennifer DawnBy examining monuments and memorials dedicated to Theodore Roosevelt in the twentieth century, this dissertation exposes the commemorators? conscious and unconscious perceptions of masculinity and American identity visible in commemorative statuary. The monuments? patrons and artists adapted the nation?s collective memory of Roosevelt to suit spatial and temporal variables, including their proposed messages, the monuments? geographic and situational locations, along with their intended audiences. This dissertation illustrates how commemorators employed specific incarnations of Roosevelt?s multifaceted personality, from Rough Rider to hunter-explorer to statesman, to produce permanent, prominent, and didactic symbols through which to broadcast their values and ideals to both their contemporaries and future generations of Americans. These monuments are not mere reflections of the eras that produced them, however; they serve as portals into contemporary Americans? sense of self and their understanding of national themes and politics. These visual elements produce evidence not found in textual representations. Over five chapters, this dissertation explores examples of commemorators? efforts to select a representation of Roosevelt and reveals their use of his image as an example of rugged, vigorous masculinity as well as the embodiment of Americanism. The monuments in this dissertation represent a broad geographical area, from Portland, Oregon, on the west coast to Washington, D.C., and New York City on the east coast, with Minot, North Dakota, and Keystone, South Dakota, centrally located in between. The time frame stretches from immediately following Roosevelt?s death in January 1919 through the dedication of the national memorial on Theodore Roosevelt Island in 1967, with most of the commemorative efforts originating in the mid-1920s. Despite the changing historical contexts of the monuments? dedications, these structures illustrate Roosevelt?s continued relevance and the transposibility of his image across decades and geographic spaces. Finally, although the intended audiences may have been local, regional, or national, these monuments all express issues of national significance. Sources examined include newspaper commentary of proposed and constructed monuments; artists? and architects? personal papers, correspondence, and drawings, along with photographs of design models; as well as the materials of the monuments? patrons, particularly personal and government reports, correspondence, and public statements.Item National and Racial Identity and the Desire for Expansion: A Study of American Travel Narratives, 1790-1850(2011-08-08) Jeong, Jin ManThis dissertation aims to investigate the shaping of a national literature within travel narratives written by William Bartram, Washington Irving, George Catlin, Thomas L. McKenney, Thomas Jefferson Farnham, and Francis Parkman. I focus attention on two issues: (1) National and racial identity, and (2) Territorial, cultural, and capitalist expansionism. National and racial identity construction is examined by clarifying how the narratives? underlying voices?the National Symbolic and the Racial Symbolic?encourage the reading public to embrace the values vital in forging American collective identity. Identity invention is also seen in romantic representations of the American landscape and Native Americans. Between 1790 and 1850, the widespread trope of the Noble Savage and ?distantiation? working in the Burkean aesthetics of the sublime were used as ideological frames for viewing ?Others,? crucial in defining the American ?self? by making the white Americans? shift of association/dissociation with their primitivized Others possible. In order to analyze the narratives? representation of expansionism as a national desire, this study investigates how romantic rhetoric and the appeal to morality (or the Law) were employed as decisive ideological foundations for rationalizing expansionism. Chapter I establishes the legitimacy of evaluating travel narratives as a significant part of America?s national literature. Chapter II reveals that democracy, masculine robustness, and the myth that Americans are a chosen people of progress are featured aspects in the portrayals of American pathfinders. Chapter III shows that the racial identity of ?civilized whites? is forged in accordance with a miscegenation taboo informing negative portrayals of half-breeds and racial boundary crossing. Chapter IV illustrates that American freedom, simplicity, wholesome civilization, and youthfulness are presented as national characteristics through adapting the romantic tropes of the Noble Savage and the aesthetics of the sublime. Chapter V investigates the perverse mode of desiring in the iterative triangular relationship between romanticism, morality, and expansionism?the nation?s civilizing project par excellence. Chapter VI appraises the travel narratives? roles in defining American selfhood and reflecting (and promoting) an imperialistic desire for expansion.