The sublime and the frontier jointly remade wilderness into its modern form
Evidence
The sources of this rather astonishing transformation were many, but for the purposes of this essay they can be gathered under two broad headings: the sublime and the frontier. Of the two, the sublime is the older and more pervasive cultural construct, being one of the most important expressions of that broad transatlantic movement we today label as romanticism; the frontier is more peculiarly American, though it too had its European antecedents and parallels. — William Cronon, The Trouble with Wilderness; or,…, 12
Categorization
- DEFINE: Names the twin cultural engines (sublime, frontier) that produced modern wilderness — the structural skeleton of the essay the reader needs for unpacking.
- XREF: connects to: Wilderness preservation grew directly out of the vanishing-frontier lament. — William Cronon, The Trouble with Wilderness; or,…, 29; By the late nineteenth century the wilderness sublime had been domesticated into sentimentality — William Cronon, The Trouble with Wilderness; or,…, 22; Wilderness is a cultural construction, not an untouched natural sanctuary — William Cronon, The Trouble with Wilderness; or,…, 5 (+1 more)
Related
- By the late nineteenth century the wilderness sublime had been domesticated into sentimentality (similarity 0.86)
- Before the nineteenth century, wilderness meant wasteland and evoking terror, not beauty (similarity 0.82)
- Wilderness is a cultural construction, not an untouched natural sanctuary (similarity 0.81)
- Wilderness preservation grew directly out of the vanishing-frontier lament. (similarity 0.81)
- The word wilderness once meant desolate wasteland, not sacred refuge (similarity 0.80)
- Wilderness wonder is a cultural state of mind, not a natural fact (similarity 0.80)
- Wilderness appreciation was an elite urban leisure projection, not a rural ideal. (similarity 0.80)
- Wilderness is a state of mind defined by wonder, not a fact of nature (similarity 0.78)