A Sensory Tour of Cape Cod: Thoreau's Transcendental Journey to Spiritual Renewal

Predominantly darker than his other works, Cape Cod depicts Henry David Thoreau's interpretation of life as a struggle for survival and a search for salvation in a stark New England setting. Representing Thoreau's greatest test of the goodness of God and nature, the book illustrates the centrality of the subject of death to Thoreau's philosophy of life. Contending that Thoreau's journey to the Cape originated from an intensely personal transcendental impulse connected with his brother's death, this study provides the first in-depth examination of Thoreau's use of the five senses in Cape Cod to reveal both the eccentricities inherent in his relationship with nature and his method of resolving his fears of mortality. Some of the sense impressions in Cape Cod--particularly those that center around human death and those that involve tactile sensations--suggest that Thoreau sometimes tried to master his fears by subconsciously altering painful historical facts or by avoiding the type of sensual contact that aggravated the repressed guilt he suffered from his brother's death. Despite his personal idiosyncrasies, however, Thoreau persisted in his search for truth, and the written record of his journey in Cape Cod documents how his dedication to the transcendental process enabled him to surmount his inner turmoil and reconfirm his intuitive faith. In following this process to spiritual renewal, Thoreau begins with subjective impressions of nature and advances to knowledge of objective realities before ultimately reaching symbolic and universal truth. By analyzing nature's lessons as they evolve from Thoreau's use of his senses, this dissertation shows that Cape Cod, rather than invalidating Thoreau's faith, actually expands his transcendental perspective and so rightfully stands beside Walden as one of the fundamental cornerstones of his canon. In addition, the study proffers new support for previous psychoanalytical interpretations of Thoreau and his writings, reveals heretofore unrecognized historical inaccuracies in his account of the shipwreck that frames the book's opening, and provides the first detailed consideration of the linguistic implications of Cape Cod.

Grantor dc:publisher

University of North Texas

Year dc:date

1999

Author dc:creator

• Talley, Sharon

Contributors dc:contributor

• Tanner, James T. F.
• Ross, John Robert, 1938-
• Blaine, Diana Y.

• Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862. Cape Cod.
• Transcendentalism (New England)
• psychoanalytic criticism
• Thoreau
• transcendentalism

Statement dc:rights

• Use restricted to UNT Community
• Copyright
• Talley, Sharon
• Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

oclc: 47109463
untcat: b2298960
https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc2264/
ark: ark:/67531/metadc2264

OAI identifier oai:identifier

info:ark/67531/metadc2264