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University of New Orleans
Echoes of Laocoön's Warning in Letters from an American Farmer
Abstract
dc:description.abstractA dramatic shift in tone in the final letter of J. Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur's Letters from an American Farmer reveals Farmer James' conflicting attitudes about an independent America. When the letters are juxtaposed with a Western myth of origin such as Virgil's Aeneid, it becomes clear that Crèvecoeur is forcing his narrating persona to repeat a pattern of civilization – destruction, renewal – on which all of Western civilization is based. The sudden pessimism that erupts in the penultimate "Distresses of a Frontier Man" is symptomatic of James' anxiety about the American Revolution and the resulting disruption in his bucolic way of life.
Degree
thesis:*- Name thesis:degree_name
- M.A.
- Level thesis:degree_level
- Thesis
- Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
- English
- Year
- 2011
Author and committee
dc:creator, dc:contributor.*- Author dc:creator
-
- Barry, Douglas
- Contributors dc:contributor
-
- Hazlett, John
- Lackey, Kris
- Shenk, Robert
Subjects
dc:subject × 6Identifiers
dc:identifier.*- Repository record dc:identifier
- https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/1293
- OAI identifier oai:identifier
- oai:scholarworks.uno.edu:td-2276