Paul Formisano
Dr. Romano
English 540
30 March 2009
Project Proposal
General Research Question
I am interested in considering how 18th century rhetorical instruction influenced the development of the American West in the 19th century. While these two ideas may initially seem to have little common ground, Campbell’s philosophy on exciting the imagination can explain much of the rhetoric treating westward expansion. Making connections between the Scots’ writings and rhetoric about the American West would demonstrate the pervasiveness of their ideas within the United States and shed light on possible origins of current representations of the region. I’m particularly interested in how environmental imaginations of the West are constructed, promoted, and internalized by various groups and the implications of those imaginations on current environmental rhetoric about the region.
Semester Project
The American West has long captured the attention of the nation and the world as a place of adventure, hope, and beauty. It has also become the staging ground for some of the most divisive political battles regarding land use over the last two centuries. I am especially interested in examining the origins of some of these conflicts particularly as they play out within the region that today’s marks the territory of the state of Utah. The state’s rich diversity in natural and cultural landscapes has made the region particularly susceptible to debates regarding the use of its resources. Therefore, the purpose of the proposed study is to examine three different articulations of Utah and how this place has been imagined. In particular, I will examine three key texts that have provided historically crucial in opening up Utah’s lands to the outside world. Some key questions to answer include:
· How do these rhetors and their texts excite the imagination ala Campbell to describe the place in order to promote it to others?
· Do we find significant differences in the rhetorical moves these texts demonstrate that speak to the particular cultural identities and expectations of their respective groups?
· Is there a particular religious environmental imagination at play?
· Can we draw any definitive conclusions about the Mormon environmental imagination during the 19th century?
Primary Texts
Campbell, George. The Philosophy of Rhetoric. 1776. Ed. Lloyd F. Bitzer. Carbondale: Southern
Illinois P, 1963.
Powell, John Wesley. The Exploration of the Colorado River and Its Canyons. 1895. New York:
Dover, 1961.
Vélez de Escalante, Silvestre. The Dominguez-Escalante Journal: Their Expedition Through
Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico in 1776. 1776. Ed. Ted J. Warner. Trans. Fray
Angelico Chavez. Salt Lake City: U of Utah P, 1995.
Woodruff, Wilford. Wilford Woodruff’s Journal 1833-1898. Ed. Scott G. Kenney. Midvale, UT:
Signature, 1983-84.
Secondary Texts
Alexander, Thomas G. “Stewardship and Enterprise: The LDS Church and the Wasatch Oasis
Environment, 1847-1930.” Western Historical Quarterly 25.3 (1994): 341-64.
Christian, Lewis Clark. A study of the Mormon Westward Migration Between February 1846 and
July 1847: with emphasis on and evaluation of the factors that led to the Mormons'
choice of Salt Lake Valley as the site of their initial colony. Thesis. Brigham Young University, 1976.
Flores, Dan L. “Agriculture, Mountain Ecology, and the Land Ethic: Phases of the
Environmental History of Utah.” Working on the Range: Essays on the History of Western Land Management and the Environment. Ed. John R. Wunder. Westport, CT: Greenwood P, 1985.
---.Zion in Eden: Phases of the Environmental History of Utah. Norman: U of Oklahoma P,
2001.
Jackson, Richard H. “Righteousness and Environmental Change: The Mormons and the
Environment.” Essays on the American West, 1973-1974. Ed. Thomas G. Alexander. Provo, UT: Brigham Young UP, 1975.
---.“The Mormon Experience: The Plain as Sinai, the Great Salt Lake as the Dead Sea, and the
Great Basin as the Desert-cum-Promised Land.” Journal of Historical Quarterly 18.1 (1992): 41-58.
Kay, Jeanne and Craig J. Brown. “ Mormon Belies about Land and Natural Resources, 1847-
1877. Journal of Historical Geography 11 (1985): 253-67.
Nibley, Hugh W. “Brigham Young on the Environment.” To the Glory of God: Mormon Essays
on Great Issues—Environment, Commitment, Love, Peace, Youth, Man. Ed. Truman G. Madsen and Charles D. Tate, Jr. Salt Lake City: Deseret, 1972. 3-29.
Stewardship and the Creation. George B. Handley, Terry B. Ball, Stephen L. Peck eds. Provo,
UT: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young U, 2006.
As my real focus is on the Mormon imagination, I have included an initial list of texts that best reflect this area of study.
Task Assignments
The most significant task is to comb through Woodruff’s journal’s regarding the migration west and arrival to Utah. Since his journals comprise nine volumes, volume 3 will be of most use as that includes discussions of early Mormon settlement and perspectives on the land voiced by him and other prominent church leaders like Brigham Young. I will need to portion off pieces that serve best, either choosing descriptions of about Utah after arrival to the Great Salt Lake Valley in 1847 or reports along the trail. Other work will necessitate consulting Campbell’s Philosophy on Rhetoric for those points on the imagination that are of most use. Consideration of ‘vivacity’ will also be useful.
Timeline
As a project examining three different texts is too large for the rest of the semester, I want to focus on the Mormon component as I’m interested in forming a theory about this group’s environmental ethos from settlement to today. As I envision a possible dissertation topic on Mormon environmental rhetoric, I need to do a lot of preliminary research to see what has already been said on this topic and come to some conclusion as to its relevance today. My preliminary inklings are that treating the typical Mormon leaders i.e. Brigham Young is rehashing much of what has already been said. Perhaps shifting my attention to a LDS female rhetor would prove more fruitful. With six weeks left in the semester, there really isn’t too much time to do an exhaustive study, especially since this project requires out-of-state archival research. At this point, I foresee this project as an initial foray into this topic and an opportunity to find which texts, along with Woodruff’s, may fit into this larger project. An annotated bibliography seems feasible at this point. My first task this week is to see what I can get through interlibrary loan and to begin consulting the sources listed above. The following weeks will entail compiling this information into a bibliography/literature review and delineating parameters for future analysis. Perhaps another way to envision this is as a rough go at a dissertation prospectus.