Wilderness

The notion of Nature has been changing during the last two centuries: if initially it was an antagonist to be conquered, subsequently it became the environment the man is part of. Perhaps is this second meaning subjective too? Thoreau considered Nature a resource that can decrease but never grow. Consequently, could recreating a wild environment be an artifice? This essay deals with these topics, through an historical analysis of the culture and philosophy of wilderness: from the art of Cole and of the Brandywine School, to Jack London’s ‘call of the wild’ (and Theodore Roosevelt’s ‘strenuous life’ idea); from the nietzschean myth of primeval cruelty as a way to recover original innocence, to the tragic disappointments of today’s improvised ‘wild men’ (Darwin said that nature is not merciful); from Cronon’s criticism to wilderness as a supposed cultural invention, to the difficult compromise between protection of local heritage and social development of the Third World.