威爾遜是一位書寫博物誌的早期美國詩人。他的博物誌著作《美國鳥類學》為他贏得「美國鳥類學之父」的美譽。在其作品當中，威爾遜呈現個人的親身觀察經驗，並詳細再現了早期美國鳥類的自然史。本論文旨在探討《美國鳥類學》中威爾遜對鳥類及自然間之融洽關係的描述。藉由觀察鳥類的生活，威爾遜亦發現人類和鳥類的共通處。在其博物誌作品中，威爾遜除了針對美國早期的鳥類提供科學訊息和知識之外，還大力提倡保護大自然、鳥類、和它們的自然棲息地的觀念，並建議人類與自然生態圈建立和平、和諧的關係。威爾遜透過自然史書寫傳達了他對自然萬物(特別是鳥類)的肯定與欣賞，進而為早期的美國社會引進一套新興的初期生態與環境保護倫理。

This thesis focuses on Alexander Wilson (1766-1813, commonly known as the “father of American ornithology”), exploring the proto-ecological sensibility in his American Ornithology or, The Natural History of the Birds of the United States. From the Age of Exploration and Discovery to Early National Period, America possessed vast landscapes and abundant natural resources that attracted countless explorers, pioneers, and settlers who exploited these natural resources in a wasteful way because they believed that these resources were inexhaustible. Different from these exploitative and dominant attitudes toward nature, Wilson, an eighteenth-century poet and naturalist, began to voice great concern for nature and its nonhuman inhabitants in American Ornithology, Wilson’s representative work of natural history. Focusing on American Ornithology, my thesis explores the representations of nature and the birds in Wilson’s work. In his works of natural history, Wilson offered both scientific information and knowledge and literary narratives about the birds in early America. To express his responses to the dominantly expansionary ethos of his age, Wilson advocated the idea of protecting nature and suggested a more harmonious relationship between birds and mankind. Moreover, Wilson prophetically recognized the intrinsic value of each species of nature and implemented the idea of ecological egalitarianism and biodiversity.

Chapter One: Prologue+1
Chapter Two: Alexander Wilson, Natural History Writings, and the Representations of Nature in Early America+20
Chapter Three: The Pro-ecological Sensitivity in Alexander Wilson’s American Ornithology+55
Chapter Four: Epilogue+80
Works Cited+83

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