The Oxford History of the Novel in English: Volume 6: The American Novel 1879-1940
Priscilla Wald and Michael A. Elliott
Abstract
The period 1870–1940 saw the consolidation of the nation following the Civil War and the rise of the United States as a world power. The transformation of the novel during these years accompanied, registered, and in some cases promoted these changes. The era witnessed the emergence of new reading publics, new means of producing and distributing novels, and new forms and genres. The proliferation of anthologies and criticism encouraged contemporary novelists to see themselves as writing within—or against—a national tradition as well as mass culture. Complementing and challenging that sense of t ... More
The period 1870–1940 saw the consolidation of the nation following the Civil War and the rise of the United States as a world power. The transformation of the novel during these years accompanied, registered, and in some cases promoted these changes. The era witnessed the emergence of new reading publics, new means of producing and distributing novels, and new forms and genres. The proliferation of anthologies and criticism encouraged contemporary novelists to see themselves as writing within—or against—a national tradition as well as mass culture. Complementing and challenging that sense of tradition, international aesthetic movements (such as Modernism) and political ones (such as Marxism) encouraged novelists to engage with artistic and political movements beyond the literary, and improved transportation increased the opportunity for contact with formerly remote peoples and cultures. This volume highlights these developments within the context of global networks of influence and covers topics like Reconstruction and the novel, the immigrant bildungsroman, early cinema and the novel, religious narratives, the innovations of Henry James, comics and the novel, and hardboiled detective fiction, among many others.
Keywords:
novel,
Civil War,
anthologies,
Modernism,
Marxism,
early cinema,
religious narratives,
Henry James,
comics,
detective fiction
Bibliographic Information
Print publication date: 2014 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780195385342 |
Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: March 2015 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780195385342.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Priscilla Wald, editor
Duke University
Michael A. Elliott, editor
Emory University
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