2026-09-19T20:59:13Zhttps://wakespace.lib.wfu.edu/server/oai/request

oai:null:10339/334842026-09-02T09:50:14Zcom_10339_14934col_10339_38132

Willis, Anna Elizabeth 2011-07-14T20:36:12Z 2013-07-14T08:30:11Z 2011 https://wakespace.lib.wfu.edu/handle/10339/33484 This project investigates Mark Twain's use of wilderness and natural space in his texts of travel, including the <italic>Diaries of Adam and Eve</italic>, <italic>Roughing It</italic>, <italic>Adventures of Huckleberry Finn</italic>, and <italic>Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer Among the Indians</italic>, through the general lens of spatial theory. Its primary focus is the way in which Twain challenges and employs layers of extant spatial meaning upon American soil, and suggests that his attention to natural space in these texts indicates a sense of America's potential for social change and progress. Tracing his appropriation and manipulation of mythical Edenic and wilderness spaces, it finds that, rather than attempting to extirpate American geographical imaginaries, Twain sought the promise of progress within them. Even as his texts challenge and unsettle spatial meanings for wilderness and the Western frontier, they demonstrate how those layers of meaning can be altered to promote America's ideals in the midst of its reality. en Wake Forest University Adam and Eve Cultural Geography Huckleberry Finn Mark Twain Spatial theory The West The Promise of Space in Mark Twain's Traveling Narratives Thesis Bowie, Rian E Maine, Barry Wilson, Eric English 2013-07-14 restricted