Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur as Early American Natural History Writer

克瑞弗克爾：一位早期的美國自然史作家

10.6184/TKR.200710_37(4).0004

Lu-Li Ru

克瑞弗克爾 ； 自然史書寫 ； 生態思維 ； 環境關懷 ； 美國早期自然史作家 ； Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur ； natural history writing ； ecological thinking ； environmental concern ； early American natural history writer

Tamkang Review

37卷4期（2007 / 10 / 01）

129 - 147

英文

在美國十八世紀末與十九世紀初這個世紀交替的時空下，克瑞弗克爾廣被認為是最負盛名的作家之一，他的代表作《來自一位美國農夫的書信》在十九世紀末問世後深受歡迎。在二十世紀以降的美國文學選集中，大多數的批評家選擇收錄《來自一位美國農夫的書信》裡的第三封信─〈何謂美國人〉，藉由此信將克瑞弗克爾定位為一個歌頌美國繁榮前景、探討美國性、以及定義美國民族性格的愛國作家。<BR>本文完全不同上述解讀。此文試圖指出，克瑞弗克爾不只是一位定義美國人這個「新人類」的愛國作家，他其實更是一位自然史作家，而他的作品乃是典型的自然史文本。透過其自然史書寫，克瑞弗克爾不但為美國的大地風貌及物種做了詳實的觀察與紀錄，同時亦呈現了他對自然萬物的肯定與關切態度，進而為美國引進一套早期的生態思維與環境關懷意識。

Hector St. John de Crèvecoeur (1735–1813) is an eighteenth-century American writer who is famous for his Letters from an American Farmer and Sketches of Eighteenth-Century America: More Letters from an American Farmer . In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, most critics regard Crèvecoeur as a patriotic and national writer because his writings frequently celebrate American freedom and prosperity and vehemently portray America as the true Paradise and the American as a veritable Adam. Completely different from the readings of most critics, this essay will focus its emphasis on Crèvecoeur's effectiveness as a natural history writer. The aim of this paper is to establish Crèvecoeur as a natural history writer and to point out that through his natural historical discourse, Crèvecoeur celebrates his kinship with nonhuman nature and advocates environmental concern, thereby introducing a pattern of ecological thinking and proto-ecological sensibility in American culture. In this way, this essay hopes to refer the readers interested in an alternative view to the writings of Crèvecoeur.

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