Start Date
15-11-2024 3:15 PM
End Date
15-11-2024 3:25 PM
Description
In his essay and presentation, Wright State English major Evan Harder critically examines modern conceptions of wilderness and challenges the Romantic ideal that moral purity and personal virtue are inherently tied to time spent in nature. Drawing on writers such as Wordsworth, Emerson, and Thoreau, Harder interrogates the cultural myth of wilderness as a pristine, untouched realm separate from civilization. He argues that our understanding of nature is a constructed concept—born from the development of cities and agriculture—and often overlooks the long histories of human habitation in places now designated as “natural” or “wild.” Through examples like Cuyahoga Valley National Park and discussions of masculine-coded narratives in early 20th-century environmental writing, Harder critiques the tendency to center human self-actualization in our interactions with the natural world. Ultimately, he raises a thoughtful, unresolved question: how might we engage with nature without placing ourselves at the center of it—and can we redefine wilderness to include the spaces we inhabit every day?
Repository Citation
Hardern, Evan, "Wilderness Myth and Reality: Human Views and Uses of Nature" (2024). Runkle Woods Symposia. 14.
https://corescholar.libraries.wright.edu/woods_symposium/2024/novermber16/14
Included in
Biology Commons, English Language and Literature Commons, Forest Biology Commons, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons
Wilderness Myth and Reality: Human Views and Uses of Nature
In his essay and presentation, Wright State English major Evan Harder critically examines modern conceptions of wilderness and challenges the Romantic ideal that moral purity and personal virtue are inherently tied to time spent in nature. Drawing on writers such as Wordsworth, Emerson, and Thoreau, Harder interrogates the cultural myth of wilderness as a pristine, untouched realm separate from civilization. He argues that our understanding of nature is a constructed concept—born from the development of cities and agriculture—and often overlooks the long histories of human habitation in places now designated as “natural” or “wild.” Through examples like Cuyahoga Valley National Park and discussions of masculine-coded narratives in early 20th-century environmental writing, Harder critiques the tendency to center human self-actualization in our interactions with the natural world. Ultimately, he raises a thoughtful, unresolved question: how might we engage with nature without placing ourselves at the center of it—and can we redefine wilderness to include the spaces we inhabit every day?
