Plaisantes perspectives

Invention du paysage et abolition du paysan

Bibliographic Data

ID2690693
AuthorsRaymond Williams (corresponding author)
Year1977
Volume17
Issue1
Pages29-36
Publication date1977-01-01
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueActes de la recherche en sciences sociales (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0335-5322 • E-ISSN: 1955-2564
PublisherPERSEE Program (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3406/arss.1977.2574
OpenAlexW1975494372
LanguageEN
Citations received11

This article analyzes the "invention" of the natural park in 18th-century England as a stage in the development of the social image of the countryside. Raymond Williams argues that this aesthetic invention cannot be understood solely within the history of art but must be seen in connection with the views of the enlightened landed gentry who carried out capitalist land reform and rationalized agricultural production. This type of landscaping, which ostensibly contradicts productive activity (cult of the "natural," search for rounded lines), belongs deeply to the same philosophy (mastery of nature, rationality). However, it expresses these values in the creation of a universe lacking any connection or reference to productive work and producers. The "natural" landscape is a specific way of concealing the social relations between a landed gentry and the different strata of the peasantry, marked by the transformations (particularly the "enclosures") brought about by the enlightened agriculture of this bourgeoisie

Art · Humanities · French Urban and Social Studies

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