Dissertation Information for Scott Charles Zeman NAME: - Scott Charles Zeman
DEGREE:
- Ph.D.
DISCIPLINE:
- History
SCHOOL:
- Arizona State University (USA) (1998)
ADVISORS: - Peter Iverson
COMMITTEE MEMBERS: - Robert A. Trennert Jr. - Chris Smith - Bradford Luckingham - Stephen K. Batalden
MPACT Status: Fully Complete
Title: Traveling the Southwest: Creation, imagination, and invention
Abstract: The American Southwest is an idea; a region mapped in the mind. Between the years 1870 to 1940 the Southwest emerged as a complimentary opposite of the industrialized, urban eastern United States. The East boasted itself as progressive, rational, and civilized. The Southwest became viewed as its antithesis: backward, mysterious, wondrous. The region evolved into America's Orient.
Initially seen as a barren region to be traveled through as quickly as possible, the Southwest eventually became a prime American travel destination. This dissertation offers an exploration of this transformation. This study argues that travelers and travel-related discourse played the central role in creating the idea of the Southwest.
To uncover the genesis of the Southwest of the imagination, this dissertation relies heavily on discourse analysis which analyzes the mythic construction of the region within a colonial context. After the United States war with Mexico, the Southwest and its original inhabitants found themselves in colonized region. And it is within this colonial context and power relationship that certain hegemonic ideas about the region could flourish. As a result Americans imagined the area as its quaint and exotic other.
| |
MPACT Scores for Scott Charles Zeman A = 0
C = 0
A+C = 0
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2008-05-05 19:08:19
Advisors and Advisees Graph
generating graph, please reload |