The Metaphorical Drift of Classical Wilderness
Abstract
How do the meanings of words shape actions towards and reactions to others? Such a question is crucial to philosophers and geographers interested in terms which describe space and place. This paper investigates the hermeneutic transformations of 'wilderness', a word which is of particular interest to both environmental philosophers and social geographers, with attention to the social and political connotations it continues to have. Specifically, the metaphorical connotations of the term are tackled through an argument that the identifiable qualities of classical wilderness have gradually been passed from descriptions of nature to descriptions of cities. Just as the political dimensions of classical wilderness served as the basis for a demonization of inhabitants of natural wilderness--aboriginal peoples in North America-so too are inner city residents feared and discriminated against through a racist patische that includes the idea that they are savages in an urban wilderness. What is to be done about this semantic drift of wilderness? This discussion ends with an attempt to sketch out one basis for a political response to this transformation using Gramsci's notion of hegemony.References
Anderson, K., Blackburn, T. (1993) Managing the Domestic Environment. In Blackburn, T. and Anderson, K. (eds.) Before the Wilderness: Environmental Management by Native Californians. Melno Park, Ca.: BaHena Press, pp. 15-25.
Cooper, D. (1986) Metaphor. London: Blackwell.
Davis, M. (1992) City of Quartz. New York: Vintage Books.
Davis, M. (1993a) Who Killed LA? A Political Autopsy. New Left Review, 197: 3-28.
Davis, M. (1993b) Who Killed Los Angeles? Part Two: The Verdict is Given. New Left Review, 199: 29-54.
Davis, M. (1994) Behind the Orange Curtain: Legal Lynching in San Clemente. In The Nation, October, 1994.
Davis, M. (1995) Los Angeles after the Storm: The Dialectic of Ordinary Disasters. Antipode, 27: 221-241.
Diddion, J. (1992) Sentimental Journeys. In S. Sontag and Atwan, R. (eds.) The Best American Essays. New York: Tickner and Fields.
Gooding-Williams, R. (1993) Look, A Negro! In Gooding-Williams, R.(ed.) Reading Rodney King/Reading Urban Uprising. New York: Routledge Press, pp.157-177.
Graham, J. (1990) "Yours for the Revolution:" The Appeal to Reason 1895-1922. Lincoln, NB: University of Nebraska Press.
Nash, R. (1982) Wilderness and the American Mind. New Haven: Yale University Press.
National Committee on the Causes and Prevention of Violence (1969) To Establish Justice, To Ensure Domestic Tranquillity. Washington, DC.
Oelschlaeger, M. (1991) The Idea of Wilderness: From Prehistory to the Age of Ecology. New Haven: Yale University Press.
Sax, J (1980) Mountains Without Handrails: Reflections on the National Parks. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Short, J. R. (1991) Imagined Country: Environment, Culture and Society. New York: Routledge Press.
Sinclair, L. (1981) The Jungle. Toronto: Bantam Books.
Takaki, R. (1988) Iron Cages. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wood, R. (1898) The City Wilderness. Boston.
Young, I. (1990) Justice and the Politics of Difference. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
- The contributor(s) (authors) warrant that the entire work is original and unpublished; it is submitted only to this Journal and all text, data, figures/tables or other illustrations included in this work are completely original and unpublished, and these have not been previously published or submitted elsewhere in any form or media whatsoever.
- The contributor(s) warrant that the work contains no unlawful or libelous statements and opinions and liable materials of any kind whatsoever, does not infringe on any copyrights, intellectual property rights, personal rights or rights of any kind of others, nor contains any plagiarized, fraudulent, improperly attributed materials, instructions, procedures, information or ideas that might cause any harm, damage, injury, losses or costs of any kind to person or property.
- The contributor(s) retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- The contributor(s) are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- The contributor(s) are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
- Geography Research Forum may disseminate the content of the publications and publications’ Meta data in text, image, or other print and electronic formats to providers of research databases (e.g. EBSCO, GeoBase, JSTOR) to facilitate publications' exposure.
