American Facts and American Fiction

(pp. 935-943)

The rapid growth of reading in the United States was fueled by:

1. More efficient methods for producing printed materials.

2. Rising literacy rates.

3. The lower cost of books.

4. Increased leisure time -- especially for middle-class women.

5. The growing number of circulating libraries.

Continued criticism of fiction:

• "With its emphasis on the imaginary [Romanticism?] as opposed to the real [Realism?], fiction was viewed with suspicion by many Americans, especially those imbued with the persistent Puritan attitudes of colonial America" (936).

• "Lingering concerns about the value of imaginative literature" (937).

The biggest obstacles to the development of a national literature, especially fiction:

• "The serious competition of celebrated British writers."

• "The absence of an international copyright law."

Popular British writers:

• Sir Walter Scott

• Charles Dickens

• Charles Reade

• Charlotte Bronte

• Emily Bronte

• Wilkie Collins

• William Makepeace Thackeray

The establishment of a powerful tradition of American fiction depended on:

• A nationalistic group of editors and writers in New York City -- "Young America"

• Periodicals

Regionalism:

• Henry William Herbert (a.k.a. Frank Forester)

• Charles Dudley Warner -- California

• John Pendleton Kennedy -- the South

• Nathaniel Hawthorne and Harriet Beecher Stowe -- New England

• Rebecca Harding Davis -- West Virginia

African American writers:

• Martin Delaney

• Frances E. W. Harper

Women writers:

• Harriet Beecher Stowe

• Louisa May Alcott

• Fanny Fern

• Grace Greenwood

• E.D.E.N. Southworth

• Elizabeth Barstow Stoddard

• Rebecca Harding Davis

• Susan Warner

• Maria Susanna Cummins

Types of American Fiction:

1.) "Much of the fiction published . . . tended to be based on history, which underscored the nationalistic dimension of such works even as it made them seem closer to reality" (937).

2.) "Tales" and "sketches" -- "blurring the line between fiction and reality" (937).

3.) The development of the short story.

4.) "The popularity of European writers who wrote novels and stories about magic, mystery, and psychological terror prompted many American writers to adopt what was described as "gothic" elements in their work" (937) -- both Hawthorne and Poe (sensational plots and horrific details) = Verisimilitude.

5.) Domestic fiction -- and the "standard plot line: A peaceful domestic household is threatened by an errant husband, relative, or child -- rarely a wife -- and eventually order is restored by the actions of Christian characters. Although such stories were deeply rooted in the day-to-day realities of domestic life, for women readers they were anything but dull. On the contrary, domestic fiction provided many middle-class women with solace and companionship during long hours spent within the confines of 'woman's sphere,' especially as men began to spend a growing number of hours away from the home" (938).

6.) Sensational accounts of life and crime in large cities -- "Forerunners of the 'true crime' genre so popular today, stories about urban depravity became a staple in some periodicals" (939).

7.) Temperance fiction -- "designed to demonstrate the evils of drink, was equally vivid in its representation of urban squalor" (939).

8.) Melodramatic thrillers

9.) "For young, unknown writers, publishing in magazines and newspapers offered a way to achieve a literary reputation. In fact, of all the writers represented in this section, only Melville started off by writing a series of novels. . . . Uncle Tom's Cabin radically altered the literary landscape, establishing the novel as the most popular of all kinds of writing in the United States" (941-942).

The beginning of one debate about literature?

Low) "Sensational fiction was aimed mainly at lower-class audiences. It was cheap, it sold well . . . " (939).  Does this link to our contemporary novel genres of romance, horror, mystery, adventure, thrillers, espionage, legal, and western? Should it be called "popular lit" or "trash" or "blue-collar lit" or . . . ?

High) "It was consequently regarded with deep suspicion by editors and writers who wanted something more substantial for American literature" (939). Does "more substantial" mean more "literary"? More "intellectual"? More "up-scale"?

One other debate?

The popularity of women novelists "led a rather bitter Hawthorne to complain to his editor about the success of such 'scribbling women'" (943).

Jane Tompkins' Sensational Designs

Questions?