Article ID: CBB000641812

“The Ruin of a Bygone Geological Empire”: Clarence King and the Place of the Primitive in the Evolution of American Identity (2004)

unapi

Lundberg, Ann E. (Author)


ATQ
Volume: 18
Pages: 179--203


Publication Date: 2004
Edition Details: Part of a special issue on “Exploration and Adventure in the 19th-Century American West”
Language: English

This article examines scientist Clarence King's exploration of primitivism as the locus of connection between matter and imagination, between geological environment and the modern self in his two texts "Systematic Geology" and "Mountaineering in the Sierra Nevada." It is suggested in this article that King's conflicted selfhood emerges from inconsistencies within the broader cultural narratives he employees in his attempt to construct a coherent identity for both self and nation. King came into his own both as a writer and as one of the nation's pre-eminent geologists in an America changed not only by the violence of the Civil War, but also by an ever-increasing influx of immigrants to an increasingly urban and industrialized America. It was in 1873, when King's geological theories converge his self-expression on the summit of Mount Whitney, the last Sierran peak he would ever climb that King turns to consider a possible model for mountain literature: John Ruskin, who alone re-echoes the dim past in ever-recurring myth-making. King has maintained a remarkable dynamic tension as he carefully balances his scientific and mythic perspectives and in so doing comes face to face with the difficulty that one cannot represent nature in language without self-made myths. King's self-construction partakes of the same processes which was outlined in "Manliness and Civilization". Geologic history, according to King, consists of periods of relative calm, in which the regular processes of dissemination and weathering occur.

...More
Included in

Article Bayers, Peter (2004) Exploration and Adventure in the 19th Century American West: Introduction. ATQ (p. 125). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000641812/

Similar Citations

Book Herron, John P.; (2010)
Science and the Social Good: Nature, Culture, and Community, 1865--1965 (/isis/citation/CBB001251422/)

Thesis Shane Patrick Avery; (2019)
Popular Geography Writing in America, 1783–1888 (/isis/citation/CBB130772253/)

Article Aalto, K. R.; (2004)
Clarence King's Geology (/isis/citation/CBB000502281/)

Book Moore, James G.; (2006)
King of the 40th Parallel: Discovery in the American West (/isis/citation/CBB000641589/)

Thesis Meredith Farmer; (2016)
Melville's Ontology (/isis/citation/CBB071009731/)

Article Apap, Christopher; (2010)
The Genius of Latitude: Daniel Webster and the Geographical Imagination in Early America (/isis/citation/CBB001030743/)

Book Joanna Cohen; (2017)
Luxurious Citizens: The Politics of Consumption in Nineteenth-Century America (/isis/citation/CBB622182800/)

Book Wallach, Jennifer Jensen; (2013)
How America Eats: A Social History of U.S. Food and Culture (/isis/citation/CBB001202133/)

Chapter Daum, Andreas; (2009)
Nation, Naturforschung und Monument: Humboldt-Denkmäler in Deutschland und den USA (/isis/citation/CBB001020665/)

Book Gilkeson, John S.; (2010)
Anthropologists and the Rediscovery of America, 1886--1965 (/isis/citation/CBB001212460/)

Authors & Contributors
Farmer, Meredith
Mary Elizabeth Boone
Cohen, Joanna
Avery, Shane Patrick
Lasch-Quinn, Elisabeth D.
Marr, Timothy
Concepts
National identity
Geology
Science and literature
Identity
Nationalism
Geological surveys
Time Periods
19th century
20th century
18th century
20th century, early
20th century, late
Places
United States
Spain
Great Britain
Western states (U.S.)
Pacific Ocean
Germany
Institutions
Geological Survey (U.S.)
Geological Society of London
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment