Wilderness Ethics: Henry David Thoreau’s Romantic Passion

This article highlights the importance of wilderness in the American mind. Although wilderness had long been viewed as an ungodly place, transcendentalist American literature proved the opposite. Thus, this article proposes to discuss the way Henry David Thoreau’s works, particularly Walking (1862), could foster new attitudes towards wilderness. In addition to the analysis of the symbolic and aesthetic dimensions of wilderness in Thoreau’s works, this discussion seeks to measure the ecological dimensions of his works by highlighting his passion for preserving wilderness.