美國立國初期有著嚴重身分認同焦慮。獨立戰爭爆發非因殖民地人民意欲推翻英國統治，建立自己國家，而是殖民社會內在衝突的偶發結果。此革命運動中曖昧的政治意圖與殖民地特有的社會型態使得國家想像難以建立。尤為艱辛的是擺脫英國文化主體性一事，多數殖民地人民乃英國後裔，同文同種之特質，加之新世界貧瘠文化，強烈挫傷美國人之自我定義。若無卓越國家論述來定義自我，此民主共和國未來將岌岌可危。美國國家主義者於十九世紀初發起文學國家主義運動，冀盼能藉本土文學的出現，解決此一「後殖民」困境。但呈現在地身分的同時，他們卻又面對如何與印地安人的野蠻落後有所區分的問題。在雙重他者之間發展出己有之特質便成為美國後革命時代最迫切之工作。此外，眾多社會議題，例如黑奴制度、生態破壞、階級不公等，均強烈困擾美國人之良知與自我觀感。本論文即以社會歷史角度出發，探討庫柏的早期皮襪系列故事所反映之後殖民身分認同危機。第一章解析《拓荒者》中庫柏如何召喚革命元老高唱之共和意識型態以強化其同胞之國家想像。第二章闡釋《最後的墨希根人》對美國政權公平正義性之辯護。第三章討論《大草原》一書所顯示西部拓展對美國人自我觀感的影響。本研究之目的乃希望對庫柏在美國文學之地位有更清楚之呈現，雖然該作者此時之文學技巧未臻熟練，他卻賦予美國性格鮮明特質，並為日後作家開啟了重要主題。

Early national America was full of identity anxiety. The political ambivalence in the Revolutionary cause made it difficult for Americans to attain a proper national imagination. Especially austere was the disavowal of the British subjectivity. The new nation shared language, race and cultural heritage with the former dominator. This baffled her nationals’ sense of self. Without a national narrative to tell them what an American was, America would founder soon. In the early nineteenth century Americans launched a movement of literary nationalism in the hope of developing a native character for their new nation. But in their quest for cultural subjectivity they were in turn confronted with the disavowal of native savagism. How to define the nation against her double Other became the new republic’s ordeal. Besides this, black slavery, environmental destruction, ethnic frictions and class inequality were all social actualities that bothered Americans’conscience when they set out to search the national soul. Responding to his people’s call for a national literature, Cooper could not but face these challenges. Using the early Leatherstocking tales as my texts, this dissertation will discuss Cooper’s ways of tackling these diffiulties. Chapter one is the explication of Cooper’s conjuration of the republican ideology in The Pioneers to consolidate the national imagination in the mind of his people. Chapter two is the investigation of Cooper’s justification of the American domination of the land in The Last of the Mohicans. Chapter three discusses the impact of the western advancement on American self-perception as is revealed in The Prairie. The goal of this study is to give the reader a clearer view of Cooper’s role in American literature. Though Cooper’s literary skills were not mature, he has given the American character a distinct quality and initiated important motifs for later writers.

Bibliography
Adams, Charles Hansford. The Guardian of the Law: Authority and Identity in James Fenimore Cooper. University Park: Penn State UP, 1990.
Adams, John. “Inaugural Address.” Philadelphia. 4 March. 1797. 5 Sep. 2002. <http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/ja2/speeches/inaug1.htm>.
Althusser, Louis. Lenin and Philosophy and Other Essays. Trans. Ben Brewster. New York: NLB, 1971.
Anderson, Benedict. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. Revised Edition. London: Verson, 1995.
Bardaglio, Peter W. “‘Shameful Matches’: The Regulation of Interracial Sex and Marriage in the South before 1900.” Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries in North American History. Ed. Martha Hodes. New York: New York UP, 1999. 112-138.
Barker, Martin, Roger Sabin. The Lasting of the Mohicans: History of an American Myth. Jackson: Mississippi UP, 1995.
Baym, Nina, et al.. Eds. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1986.
---. “How Men and Women Wrote Indian Stories.” New Essays on The Last of the Mohicans. Ed. Daniel Peck H. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992. 67-86.
Bercovitch, Sacvan. Foreword. Puritans, Indians, and Manifest Destiny. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1977.
Bewley, Marius. The Eccentric Design: Form in the Classic American Novel. New York: Columbia UP, 1970.
Bell, Michael Davitt. The Development of American Romance: The Sacrifice of Relation. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1980.
Bhabha, Homi. The Location of Culture. London: Routledge, 1994.
Bolwell, Robert W. “Concerning the Study of Nationalism in American Literature.” American Literature 10. 4 (Jan. 1939). 405-16.
Bradford, William. Of Plymouth Plantation. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter. Eds. Nina Baym et al. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1986. 25-36.
Brown, Gillian. “Fables and the Forming of America.” Modern Fiction Studies 43.1 (Spring 1997): 115-143.
Bush, George W. “Address to the Nation.” 11 Sep. 2001. 24 June 2002. <www.washingtonpost.com>
---. “Prayer Service Addressed.” 14 Sep. 2001. 24 June 2002. <www.washingtonpost.com>
---. “Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the Nation.” 20 Sep. 2001. 24 June 2002. <www.washingtonpost.com>
---. “Remarks on Iraq.” 29 May 2003. 12 Sep. 2002. <www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/09/20020912-1.html>
---. “Remarks on Iraq.” 29 May 2003. 10 Feb. 2003. <www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/02/iraq/20030210.html>
---. “Remarks on Iraq.” 29 May 2003. 1 Mar. 2003. <www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/iraq/20030301.html>
---. “Remarks on Iraq.” 29 May 2003. 16 Mar. 2003. <www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/iraq/20030316.html>
---. “Remarks on Iraq.” 29 May 2003. 03 May 2003. <www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/iraq/20030503.html>
Channing, Walter. “Essay on American Language and Literature” and “Reflections on the Literary Delinquency of America.” The Quest for Nationality: An American Literature Campaign. Ed. Robert E Spiller. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 1957. 112-131.
Charvat, William. The Origins of American Critical Thought 1810-1835. New York: Perpetua, 1961.
Clark, Harry Hayden. “Nationalism in American Literature.” University of Toronto Quarterly 2. 4 (Winter 1933). 492-519.
Cooper, James Fenimore. “Foreword.” The Spy. (1820). New York: Penguin, 1997. 3-7.
---. The Pioneers. (1823) New York: Penguin, 1988.
---. The Last of the Mohicans. (1826) New York: Signet, 1980.
---. The Prairie. (1827). New York: Penguin, 1987.
---. Notions of Americans. (1829) Vol. II. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1963.
De Crevecoeur, Hector St. John. Letters from an American Farmer. London: Dent & Sons, 1962.
Davis, David Brion. The Problem of Slavery in the Age of Revolution 1770-1823. New York: Oxford UP, 1999.
De Alva, J. Jorge Klor. “The Postcolonization of the (Latin) American Experience: A Reconsideration of Colonialism, Postcolonialism, and Mestizaje.” After Colonialism: Imperial Histories and Postcolonial Displacements. Ed. Gyan Prakash. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1995. 241-275.
Dekker, George. James Fenimore Cooper: The American Scott. New York: Barnes and Noble, 1967.
---. James Fenimore Cooper: The Critical Review. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1973.
Emerson, Ralph Waldo. “The American Scholars.” Ralph Waldo Emerson: Essays and Lectures. New York: The Library of America. 53-71.
Frances, John W. Ed. Memorial of James Fenimore Cooper. New York: George P. Putnam, 1852.
Franklin, Wayne. The New World of James Fenimore Cooper. Chicago: Chicago UP, 1982.
---. “The Wilderness of Words in The Last of the Mohicans.” New Essays on The Last of the Mohicans. Ed. Daniel Peck H. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992. 25-43.
Freeman, Joanne B. Affairs of Honor: National Politics of the New Republic. New Haven: Yale Nota Bene Book, 2001.
Godbeer, Richard. “Eroticizing the Middle Ground: Anglo-Indian Sexual Relations.” Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries in North American History. Ed. Martha Hodes. New York: New York UP, 1999. 91-111.
Green, Martin. “Cooper, Nationalism, and Imperialism.” Journal of American Studies 12 (1978): 161-168.
Greene, Jack P. “Introduction.” Great Britain and the American Colonies, 1603-1763. Columbia: U. of South Carolina P., 1971. Xi-xlvii.
Hodges, Graham Russell. “The Pastor and the Prostitute: Sexual Power among African Americans and Germans in Colonial New York.” Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries in North American History. Ed. Martha Hodes. New York: New York UP, 1999. 60-71.
Hofstadter, Richard. America at 1750. New York: Vintage Book, 1973.
House, Kay Seymour. Cooper’s Americans. Ohio: Ohio State UP, 1965.
Ignatiev, Noel. “What Is the Role of Western Expansion in American Culture.” 5 Aug. 2002. <www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4i3098.html>
Issac, Rhys. The Transformation of Virginia 1740-1790. Chapel Hill: U. of North Carolina P, 1999.
Johnston, Paul K. “A Puritan in the Wilderness: Natty Bumppo’s Language & America’s Nature Today.” Papers from the 1997 Cooper Seminar: James Fenimore Cooper: His Country and His Art (No. 11). Ed. Hugh C. MacDougall. Oneonta: State U. of New York College, 1997. 60-63.
Kelly, William P. Plotting American Past: Fenimore Cooper and the Leatherstocking Tales. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1983.
Lawrence, D. H. Studies in Classical American Literature. New York: Viking Press, 1964.
Lewis, R. W. B. The American Adam: Innocence, Tragedy, and Tradition in the Nineteenth Century. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1955.
Lincoln, Abraham. “The Gettysburg Address.” 5 Sep. 2002. Gettysburg. <http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/al16/speeches/gettys.htm>.
Long, Robert Emmet. James Fenimore Cooper. New York: Continuum, 1990.
Loshe, Lillie Deming. The Early American Novel. New York: Columbia UP, 1907.
Mandell, Daniel R. “The Saga of Sarah Muckamugg: Indian and African American Intermarriage in Colonial New England.” Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries in North American History. Ed. Martha Hodes. New York: New York UP, 1999. 72-90.
Martin, Terence. “From Atrocity to Requiem: History in The Last of the Mohicans.” New Essays on The Last of Mohicans. Ed. H. Daniel Peck. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992. 47-65.
Matthiessen, F. O. American Renaissance. London: Oxford UP, 1966.
McMillen, Neil R and Charles C. Bolton. A Synopsis of American History. Chicago: Evan R. Dee, 1997.
Merrell, James H. “Declaration of Independence: Indian-White Relations in the New Nation.” The American Revolution: Its Character and Limits. Ed. Jack P. Greene. New York: New York UP, 1987. 197-223.
Miller, Perry. Errand into the Wilderness. New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1964.
Morgan, Edmund S. Benjamin Franklin. New Haven: Yale UP, 2002.
Muszunska-Wallace, E. Soteris. “The Sources of The Prairie.” American Literature 21. 2 (May 1949): 191-200.
Nash, Gary B. The Urban Crucible: The Northern Seaports and the Origins of the American Revolution. (Abridged Edition) Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1998.
---. “The Hidden History of Mestizo America.” Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries in North American History. Ed. Martha Hodes. New York: New York UP, 1999. 10-32.
Nash, Roderick. Wilderness and the American Mind. New Haven: Yale UP, 1982.
Nevius, Blake. Introduction. The Prairie. (1827). New York: Penguin, 1987. vii-xxiv.
Overland, Orm. The Making and Meaning of an American Classic: James Fenimore Cooper’s The Prairie. New York: 1973.
Pearce, Roy Harvey. “The Significance of the Captivity Narrative.” American Literature. 19.1 (Mar. 1947): 1-20.
---. Savagism and Civilization: A Study of the Indian and the American Mind. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins, 1953.
Peck, Daniel. “Introduction.” New Essays on The Last of the Mohicans. New York: Cambridge UP, 1992. 1-23.
Philbrick, Thomas. “The Last of the Mohicans and the Sounds of Discord.” American Literature. 43.1 (March 1971): 25-41.
Reagon, Ronald. “Speech to the House of Commons.” 8 June 1982. 5 Sep. 2002. Gettysburg. <http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/rr40/speeches/empire.htm>.
Ringe, Donald A. “Man and Nature in Cooper’s The Prairie.” Nineteenth-Century Fiction 15.4 (March 1961), 313-323.
---. James Fenimore Cooper. Updated Edition. Twayne’s United States Authors Series. Boston: Twayne, 1988.
---. “Introduction.” The Pioneers. James Fenimore Cooper. (1823) New York: Penguin, 1988. vii-xxii.
Robinson, David M. “Community and Utopia in Crevecoeur’s Sketches.” American Literature. 62. 1 (Mar., 1990): 17-31.
Robinson, G. Forrest. “Uncertain Borders: Race, Sex, and Civilization in The Last of the Mohicans.” Arizona Quarterly. 71.1 (Spring 1991): 1-28.
Romero, Lora. “Vanishing Americans: Gender, Empire, and New Historicism.” American Literature 63. 3 (Sep. 1991): 385-404.
Roosevelt, Franklin Delano. “Fourth Inaugural Address.” 20 Jan. 1945. 5 Sep. 2002. <http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/fr32/speeches/fdr4.htm>.
Rothschild, Emma. Economic Sentiments: Adam Smith, Condorcet, and the Enlightenment. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 2001.
Royster, Charles. A Revolutionary People at War: The Continental Army and American Character, 1775-1783. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1979.
Samuel, Shirley. “Generation through Violence: Cooper and the Making of Americans.” New Essays on The Last of Mohicans. Ed. H. Daniel Peck. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1992. 87-114.
Saunt, Claudio. A New Order of Things: Property, Power, and the Transformation of the Creek Indians, 1733-1816. New York: Cambridge UP, 1999.
Scheckel, Susan. The Insistence of the Indian: Race and Nationalism in Nineteenth-Century American Culture. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1998.
Segal, Charles M. and David C. Stineback. Puritans, Indians, and Manifest Destiny. Foreword by Sacvan Bercovitch. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1977.
Shy, John. A People Numerous and Armed: Reflections on the Military Struggle for American Independence. New York: Oxford UP, 1976.
Simonson, Harold P. Introduction. The Significance of the Frontier in American History (1963). By Frederick Jackson Turner. New York: Continuum, 1991. 1-22.
Smith, Henry Nash. Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol and Myth. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1950.
Sollers, Werner. Neither Black nor White Yet Both: Thematic Explorations of Interracial Literature. New York: Oxford UP, 1997.
Spear, Jennifer M. “‘They Need Wives:’ Metissage and the Regulation of Sexuality in French Louisiana, 1699-1730. Sex, Love, Race: Crossing Boundaries in North American History. Ed. Martha Hodes. New York: New York UP, 1999. 35-59.
Spencer, Benjamin T, Ed. & Explanatory Notes. The Quest for Nationality: An American Literature Campaign. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 1957.
Spiller, Robert E. The American Literary Revolution. Garden City, N. Y.: Doubleday, 1967.
Stephanson, Anders. Manifest Destiny: American Expansion and the Empire of Right. New York: Hill and Wang, 1995.
Taylor, Alan. Liberty Men and Great Proprietors: The Revolutionary Settlement on the Maine Frontier, 1760-1820. Chapel Hill: U. of North Carolina, 1990.
---. William Cooper’s Town. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.
Tudor, William. “Phi Beta Kappa Address on the Materials of American Poetry.” The Quest for Nationality: An American Literature Campaign. Ed. Robert E Spiller. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 1957. 132-153.
Turner, Frederick Jackson. The Significance of the Frontier in American History (1963). New York: Continuum, 1991.
Tyler, Royall. “Advertisement” and “Prologue” to The Contrast. The Quest for Nationality: An American Literature Campaign. Ed. Robert E Spiller. Syracuse: Syracuse UP, 1957. 26-28.
Ulrich, Laurel Thatcher. The Age of Homespun: Objects and Stories in the Creation of an American Myth. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.
Waldstreicher, David. In the Midst of Perpetual Fetes: The Making of American Nationalism, 1776-1820. Chapel Hill: North Carolina, 1997.
Walker, Warren S. James Fenimore Cooper: Introduction and Interpretation. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1962.
Wallace, James D. Early Cooper and His Audience. New York: Columbia UP, 1986.
Washington, George. “Farewell Speech.” Philadelphia, PA. 17 Sep. 1796. 5 Sep. 2002. <http://odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/P/gw1/speeches/gwfar.htm>.
Williams, Raymond. The Country and the City. New York: Oxford UP, 1973.
Winthrop, John. A Model of Christian Charity. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Shorter. Eds. Nina Baym et al. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1986. 11-15.
Wood, Gordon S.. The Creation of the American Republic, 1776-1787. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina P, 1998.
Zoellner, Robert H. “Conceptual Ambivalence in Cooper’s Leatherstocking.” American Literature: 31.4 (Jan., 1960), 397-420.
Zwicker, Barrie. “What Really Happened on Sep. 11th.” 11 Feb. 2002. 5 Sep. 2002. <http://propangandamatrix.com/what_really_happened_part_4.html>