Abandoned New England: landscape in the works of Homer, Frost, Hopper, Wyeth, and Bishop

Abstract

Abandoned New England focuses on five modern American visual artists and poets - Winslow Homer, Robert Frost, Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth, and Elizabeth Bishop - who portrayed the stark traditional beauty of the New England landscape. Their paintings and poetry of abandoned terrain ask: what does a represent and what meaning can it have when nature's power appears supplanted by urban or technological forces and when the observing eye is no longer emblematic of an enlightened viewer? Abandoned New England pursues these inquiries by discussing shifting and conflicting cultural attitudes toward the wild, rural, and domestic. Paton argues that although landscape seems to have lost some of its significance in the modern era, longings for its potential value persist. Ultimately, Paton's analysis of the works of these beloved New England artists demonstrates a postmodern yearning to reinvent nature and reimagine Eden.