Female Metaphor in US History & Literature

The purpose of this paper is to discuss what Annette Kolodny calls the nature-as-woman metaphor (technically a simile) in American history and literature. It will consider the more specific components that go to make up the metaphor, explore how it links together gender relationships and ecological relationships, and discuss how it tended to affect western expansion.

As soon as the American colonies were founded, a tradition of hucksterism in populating them was also founded. Extravagant advertising of the virtues of the new "virgin" lands was everywhere, to lure the young, adventurous, and/or unwary into emigrating to and populating these new enterprises. This tradition continued on into the nineteenth century, luring Europeans over to settle the American frontier, and even into the twentieth century; at least, one can understand the leaflets (made famous by John Steinbeck in The Grapes of Wrath) that lured the "Okies" out to California during the Depression as being a continuation of this tradition.

Annette Kolodny argues that one of the most compelling elements in the imagery of a Paradise almost free for the taking was the "blatantly psychosexual promise" of a "Paradise with all her Virgin Beauties." In her ground-breaking monograph, The Lay of the Land, Kolodny had argued that the use of a female metaphor or personification for the land helped create certain attitudes toward the land, toward nature, and toward women. It was, she said, a verbal accommodation that p

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human interference. It would be exaggerating to say that "Mother Nature" is anything like a goddess or saint or heroine, but clearly the concept is of a natural power (perhaps something like Pele, the goddess/personification of the volcano in Hawaii) with whom or with which humans may interfere only at their own risk. It would seem logical that the recent concept of the planet Earth itself as being an entity/goddess called, following Greek tradition, "Gaea" is another aspect of this metaphor. The concept seems known, sometimes even believed in, by people who are concerned with ecology, preservation of the wilderness, animal rights, and so on. (One may presume that James Lovelock, the geologist who devised the concept some 30 or more years ago, would not be inclined to carry his concept to this extreme.) Finally, to consider the most obvious recent manifestation of the metaphor, one need only ask what symbol (aside from the flag) most obviously represents America to people around the world. The answer is, of course, "Lady Liberty," as she came to be called during the bicentennial celebration in New York City. Where did Bartholdi get the concept of representing America, or at least America's most cherished value, as a woman? T

Category: Literature - F