Routes into American realism
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Graham Thompson
Abstract
Realism is usually associated with American literature written after the Civil War. This essay argues that realism was also a significant force during the late-eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. The argument proceeds in three parts. First, the close entanglement of British and American literary culture meant that many of the forces driving the emergence of realism in Britain were imported to the United States. This is evident in the popularity of British sentimental, gothic, and historical novelists and in the appetite for Charles Dickens and William M. Thackeray. The culture of reprinting, which dominated American publishing before 1850, ensured that Americans were more likely to read British rather than American writing. Second, realism established a foothold in American culture in non-novelistic forms, particularly the sketch and short story, which found outlets in a vibrant periodical culture. Third, the essay shows that even writers who self-consciously wrote romances rather than novels – Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville – relied on realist poetic techniques that critics have often underplayed in an effort to emphasize their romanticism. Realism in the United States had a long and diverse history and emerged prior to the major social and cultural changes that marked the period after the 1850s.
Abstract
Realism is usually associated with American literature written after the Civil War. This essay argues that realism was also a significant force during the late-eighteenth and the nineteenth centuries. The argument proceeds in three parts. First, the close entanglement of British and American literary culture meant that many of the forces driving the emergence of realism in Britain were imported to the United States. This is evident in the popularity of British sentimental, gothic, and historical novelists and in the appetite for Charles Dickens and William M. Thackeray. The culture of reprinting, which dominated American publishing before 1850, ensured that Americans were more likely to read British rather than American writing. Second, realism established a foothold in American culture in non-novelistic forms, particularly the sketch and short story, which found outlets in a vibrant periodical culture. Third, the essay shows that even writers who self-consciously wrote romances rather than novels – Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville – relied on realist poetic techniques that critics have often underplayed in an effort to emphasize their romanticism. Realism in the United States had a long and diverse history and emerged prior to the major social and cultural changes that marked the period after the 1850s.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- List of illustrations xiii
- Editors’ preface and acknowledgments xv
- Note on translations, cross-references and documentation xvii
- Introduction 1
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Chapter 1. What is realism?
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Core essay
- What is realism? 31
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Case studies
- The contest of realism 65
- How real is realism? 81
- The emergence of the novel in India and competing modes of realism 89
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Chapter 2. Routes into realism
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Core essay
- Routes into realism 103
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Case studies
- Routes into realism 191
- Routes into American realism 213
- Realism and translation 231
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Chapter 3. Time and space
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Core essay
- Fleeting moments and unstable spaces 247
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Case studies
- Cartographic realism in nineteenth-century literature 321
- Mobile spaces 337
- Reclaiming space, mastering time in African postcolonial fiction 357
- Utopian island realism in J. M. Synge’s travel narrative of The Aran Islands and Tomás O’Crohan’s autobiography The Islander 373
- In-between spaces in Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore 387
- Haptic realism 403
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Chapter 4. Rereading nineteenth-century realism
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Core essay
- Literary playing fields in motion 417
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Case studies
- The French debate about Gustave Courbet’s pictorial realism and the dialogue between literature and art in the mid-nineteenth century 489
- Russian families, accidental and other 503
- The benefit of reading marginal forms 515
- Madame Bovary in Italy 531
- Eça and Machado 551
- Zola, realism and naturalism in late nineteenth-century Greece 565
- The polyphony of late nineteenth-century Baltic realism 577
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Chapter 5. Post-1900 transformations of realism
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Core essay
- Straw man or profligate son? 599
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Case studies
- Realism across borders 697
- Realism in play 715
- Realism and postcolonial subjectivity in the Black British Bildungsroman 735
- The rise and fall of socialist realism 751
- Realism in Anglo-American crime fiction 761
- Biographical fiction’s challenge to realism 775
- Notes on contributors 793
- Index 801
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- List of illustrations xiii
- Editors’ preface and acknowledgments xv
- Note on translations, cross-references and documentation xvii
- Introduction 1
-
Chapter 1. What is realism?
-
Core essay
- What is realism? 31
-
Case studies
- The contest of realism 65
- How real is realism? 81
- The emergence of the novel in India and competing modes of realism 89
-
Chapter 2. Routes into realism
-
Core essay
- Routes into realism 103
-
Case studies
- Routes into realism 191
- Routes into American realism 213
- Realism and translation 231
-
Chapter 3. Time and space
-
Core essay
- Fleeting moments and unstable spaces 247
-
Case studies
- Cartographic realism in nineteenth-century literature 321
- Mobile spaces 337
- Reclaiming space, mastering time in African postcolonial fiction 357
- Utopian island realism in J. M. Synge’s travel narrative of The Aran Islands and Tomás O’Crohan’s autobiography The Islander 373
- In-between spaces in Haruki Murakami’s Kafka on the Shore 387
- Haptic realism 403
-
Chapter 4. Rereading nineteenth-century realism
-
Core essay
- Literary playing fields in motion 417
-
Case studies
- The French debate about Gustave Courbet’s pictorial realism and the dialogue between literature and art in the mid-nineteenth century 489
- Russian families, accidental and other 503
- The benefit of reading marginal forms 515
- Madame Bovary in Italy 531
- Eça and Machado 551
- Zola, realism and naturalism in late nineteenth-century Greece 565
- The polyphony of late nineteenth-century Baltic realism 577
-
Chapter 5. Post-1900 transformations of realism
-
Core essay
- Straw man or profligate son? 599
-
Case studies
- Realism across borders 697
- Realism in play 715
- Realism and postcolonial subjectivity in the Black British Bildungsroman 735
- The rise and fall of socialist realism 751
- Realism in Anglo-American crime fiction 761
- Biographical fiction’s challenge to realism 775
- Notes on contributors 793
- Index 801
