As a result, the series’ unconventional take on American mythology and its iconoclastic political agenda are thoroughly deconstructed and examined. Weston’s analysis of the gothic space, the essay goes through the “mindscape” projected by Manifest Destiny’s geography and addresses its symbolic and allegorical meaning. Through the use of some classical outlooks on the American frontier like Frederick Jackson Turner and Richard Slotkin’s theses, together with some more general contributions on the cultural and narrative meaning of space like Edward Soja’s Thirdspace, Yi-Fu Tuan’s human geography and Ruth D. Manifest Destiny: A Study of Nationalist Expansionism in American History. It was all about white people taking everyone else's stuff and not being held accountable for it. Manifest Destiny is not an exception – its spatial dimension conjugates history and mythology, while also showing the strong influence of popular culture and pulp culture’s horror and weird literature, mainly via its most famous author: H. Manifest destiny was basically a doctrine of white supremacy Herbert/Getty Images Wrap it up in religion all you want, say you're saving the souls of the natives, there's still no denying what the fundamental roots of manifest destiny actually were. Since the definition of this space was always dependent upon ideological stances, its depiction has always oscillated between the poles of Utopia and Dystopia, blending realism, imagination and ideology. The frontier space is not of course limited to its geographical dimension – at least from 1893 onwards, when the “closure” of the frontier and the publication of the Turner Thesis made it a polysemic “place” in which psychological, political and social elements met and conflicted with one another. The American frontier epic still stand as one of the vastest and most important mythological sources of the US. Manifest Destiny: The 19th-century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable. Smithsonian Studies in American Art 4.3/4 (1990): 3–21.The aim of this essay is to analyze the role of space and the different layers of significance associated to it in the Image Comics series Manifest Destiny. “Territory, Race, Religion: Images of Manifest Destiny”. Although the frontier life was fraught with perils, the unsinkable spirit and optimism of the American people ensured the existence of the coast to coast nation that we know today.īaigell, Matthew. The art of manifest destiny serves as a reminder of the the spirit and attitude of the frontier folk in the early 1800’s. Twisted, dark wilderness only broken by the brave settlers who fight back the disorder with the favor of God and hard work. This painting is an example of the goal of manifest destiny, to carve out a moral kingdom from the endless, uncivilized reaches of North America.Īgain and again the same themes appear in the American art of the early 19th century. The light focuses on the farmers crop as though God himself is blessing its harvest. The First Harvest in the Wilderness, by Asher Brown Durand, shows a small frontier farm in the midst of a wild forest and jagged rocks. The First Harvest in the Wilderness, Asher Brown Durand, 1855
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