“Le Spectacle de la Nature, or, Nature Display'd”: The Spectacularization of Nature in Eighteenth-Century France and England (2011)
Hartendorf-Wallach, Bregtje (Author)
New York University
Reiss, Timothy J.
Starr, Gabrielle
Siskind, Mariano
Reiss, Timothy J.
Altshuler, Bruce
Starr, Gabrielle
Siskind, Mariano
Sieburth, Richard
Altshuler, Bruce
Edition Details: Advisor: Sieburth, Richard; Committee Members: Reiss, Timothy J., Altshuler, Bruce, Starr, Gabrielle, Siskind, Mariano.
Physical Details: 278 pp.
Language: English
The dissertation examines and rehabilitates the cultural significance of "the spectacle of nature", which is a ubiquitous term in eighteenth-century French and English natural historical texts, travel literature, descriptive poetry and aesthetic treatises. Popularized by Noël-Antoine Pluche's bestselling and much-translated book entitled Le Spectacle de la Nature (1732-1750), known in England as Spectacle de la Nature or Nature Display'd , the concept embodies an alternative outlook on nature that privileges the external observation of particular natural historical objects by an amateur audience. Distilling nature into a series of highlights, the spectacle of nature entails the prescription and acquisition of specific visual skills that allow for an aesthetic viewing experience of selected natural productions and an acute appreciation of their specific awe-inspiring human utility. As such, the concept of the spectacle of nature constitutes an important antecedent to nascent modern exhibitionary practices of the end of the eighteenth century and announces a specifically modern poetics of display. Four case studies show the significance of the idea of the spectacle of nature in the eighteenth century and the resultant discursive shift in the conceptualization of nature that it denotes. The first chapter explores Pluche's Spectacle de la Nature and its contributions to defining the idea of nature in spectacular terms. The second and third chapters chart the creation of textual and object-based spectacles of nature during and upon the return of Captain James Cook's Endeavour Voyage (1768-1771), with the help of the contemporary, emerging natural historical technology of acclimatization to describe the transformations and cultural processes at work. The fourth chapter investigates the political and social dimensions of the spectacle of nature during the French Revolution in Helen Maria Williams' English translation of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre's Paul and Virginia (1793), while revisiting acclimatization and its failed outcomes. The epilogue on early panoramas of Paris and Louis-Sébastien Mercier's panoramic texts Tableau de Paris (1781-1788) and Le Nouveau Paris (1798) traces the transformations of a natural riverfront space known as La Grenouillère, or the Frog Pond, redefining the spectacle of nature as an artificial urban construct at the turn of the nineteenth century.
...MoreDescription Cited in Dissertation Abstracts International-A 73/03, Sep 2012. Proquest Document ID: 911027244.
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