Tuesday, 7 September: Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans, through chapter twenty-four (through p. 254 in Penguin Classics edition.)

Reader: Joseph Leber

Objective 2: To study the contemporaneous movement of “Romanticism,” the narrative genre of “romance,” and the related styles of the “gothic” and “the sublime.” The focus will be on the genre of romance.

Objective 2:

The latter part of this book is steeped heavily in the genre of romance.  This begins as soon as we delve into this portion of the book, as the main group of characters is separated from their home.  This group of characters is forced on an adventure in the wilderness as they were on “a long and weary path.” (135) 

Question: Does wilderness play any other role in the story besides one of hardship and struggle? 

Later, the romance narrative is used again, as Cora and Alice are separated from the core group of characters.  The group then sets off to find the sisters, and encounter danger.  They are later discovered canoeing to the Huron camp, and “several savages were seen rushing into the canoes, which were soon dancing over the water, in pursuit.” (205)  This epitomizes the techniques of a romance, as these characters are constantly behind threatened with capture.  Are there any other times when this form of action is used?

A technique used by Cooper was the episodic mixing of comedy into his romance. The genre of comedy focuses mainly on the use of disguises to further the plot of the story.  This is shown at the end of Chapter 21, where Hawk-eye spots an “imp [that is not] a Huron…nor of any of the Canada tribes!” (220) It is in fact David Gamut, who has disguised himself as an Indian to find out Alice and Cora’s location.  This is hilarious to Hawk-eye, and through constant “fit(s) of merriment” (220) asks the “savage” if he has “a mind to teach the beavers to sing?”  Another example of the use of disguises came when Heyward was made to look like a French clown, and successfully tricked the Huron camp into believing he was a doctor.  These two incidents mix the comedy genre in the romance behind played out. 

Question: Is their any other mixing of genres played out in the story?

Summary:

The book mainly focused on the gothic aspect during the first part of the book, but really branched out to the style of romance, and even comedy, in the middle third of the book.