The Birth of American Fiction

AML 2010

Efficient methods of producing printed materials

Rising literacy rates Lower cost of books Increased leisure time, especially for women

of middle class status Growing number of circulating libraries Swift and wide distribution methods

What influenced birth of American Fiction?

Challenge◦ Viewed with suspicion/persistent Puritan attitudes

of colonial America

Fiction

Factual/”real” literature Still searching for an identity – national

literature, esp. fiction Competing with British writers

◦ Absence of international copyright laws/American publishers could obtain copies of British books, print, sell them w/o paying royalties to authors

1830 – Civil War (1861–1865)

Sir Walter Scott – Scottish James Fenimore Cooper – British Charles Dickens – British Charlotte and Emily Bronte - British

Popular Non- American Writers

Dickens

Scott

Bronte sisters

Transcendentalists Nationalistic group of editors and writers in

NYC – “Young America” Movement Democrats

Call for National Literature

Periodicals helped promote new works and establish American writers◦ Knickerbocker was established in NYC in 1833

called for writers to focus on the “natural beauty of our delightful country” instead of the “exhausted fields of Europe.”

Washington IrvingNathaniel Hawthorne

Avenues to Development of National Literature

United States Magazine and Democratic Review◦ Established in 1837 by Hawthorne’s friend, John L.

O’Sullivan◦ Combating conservating British emphasis in

literatureWalt WhitmanNathaniel Hawthorne

◦ Graham’s Lady’s and Gentleman’s Magazine (1841) promoted American writers

◦ New York Ledger (1844) provided weekly entertainment for the family

Harper’s New Monthly Magazine (1850) New York Times (1851) Putnam’s Monthly (1853) Atlantic Monthly (1857) Anglo-African Magazine (1859) was devoted

exclusively to publishing the works of African American writers

Subject of National Literature

•Based on History to make them seem closer to “reality”•Called “tales” or “sketches” - to blur boundaries between fiction and reality•These eventually emerged into short stories about magic, mystery, psychological terror ( popular in Europe)•Domestic fiction • Godey’s Lady’s Book (1830) – a “mirror of

woman’s mind” – included articles on travel, music, fashion, arts, travel, stories by American writers, and even an advice column

• Plot – domestic household peace is threatened, then restored by the actions of Christian characters

•Domestic fiction provided women with solace and companionship, as men began spending long hours away from “domestic sphere”•Women had achieved the same literacy rates as men by midcentury•Women were becoming important consumers and vital producers of reading material

Developing Genres•Temperance fiction – demonstrated the evils of drinking, urban squalor . . .•Sensational fiction – aimed at lower-class audiences•Melodramatic thrillers – Louisa May Alcott•“true crime”

Us v. Them

In 1800, there were 300 magazines and newspapers in U.S.

By 1840, there were app. 1500!

110+ periodicals for women appeared by beginning of Civil War

Periodicals had become an integral part of print culture in America.

1804 - 1864 PLACE OF BIRTH: Salem, Massachusetts BRIEF LIFE STORY: Hawthorne’s father died at sea when Hawthorne was just four

years old. His mother raised him alone in Salem. He went on to attend Bowdoin College, from which he graduated

in 1824. He married Sophia Peabody in 1842, and the two enjoyed a long

loving marriage that produced three children. Hawthorne could not support the family as a writer, so he worked

as a surveyor for the Custom House in Salem from 1846-1849. Hawthorne befriended other now-famous writers throughout his

life, including Longfellow, Thoreau, and Melville. He died in 1864 after spending six of his last years in Europe.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

SETTING: Boston, Massachusetts in the 1640s PROTAGONIST: Hester Prynne ANTAGONIST: Roger Chillingworth; the Puritans NARRATOR: An unnamed former Customs

Surveyor POINT OF VIEW: Third person omniscient Historical and Literary Context WHEN WRITTEN: 1848-1850 WHERE WRITTEN: Salem, Massachusetts WHEN PUBLISHED: 1850 LITERARY PERIOD: Transcendentalism

Nathaniel Hawthorne was a direct descendent of John Hathorne, (1641-1717), a Puritan justice of the peace.

Justice Hathorne is best known for his role as the lead judge in the Salem Witch Trials, in which he sentenced numerous innocent people to death for allegedly practicing witchcraft.

Nathaniel added a “w” to his name to distance himself from his infamous ancestor.

A nameless NARRATOR (who has a similar biography to Hawthorne) describes his job as chief executive officer of a Custom House, the place where taxes were paid on imported goods. The narrator describes his Custom House colleagues as “wearisome old souls” and Salem, the town where it was located, as old and run-down.

Setting the story in Salem, the site of the Salem Witch Trials, begins the novel’s critique of Puritan severity. The narrator’s negative description of his colleagues shows his feelings about conformity.

One rainy day, the NARRATOR discovered a peculiar package in the upstairs storage area of the Custom House. The package contained a piece of fabric with a RED LETTER “A” affixed to it along with several pages explaining the history of the letter. The narrator says this discovery formed the core of the story that he will now tell in The Scarlet Letter.

The Custom House

The NARRATOR mentions that he’s since lost his job at the Custom House. He draws a distinction between his “figurative self,” whom the public would expect to be dismayed by the lost job, and the “real human being” who welcomed the changes in his life that allowed him to become “again a literary man.”

The narrator’s split public and private identity mirrors Hester and Dimmesdale’s experience of the pressure to conform to the public expectations of the community.

The narrator says he now has the time to write The Scarlet Letter, a story he feels obligated to tell the world. He hopes to make his own mark as a writer and be remembered as a “scribbler of bygone days.”

What does it mean to sin? Battle we face between individuality and

conformity, appearances v. reality Unforgiving and narrow-mindededness of

Puritan faith Nature (forgiving and fluid) v. Puritanism

(rigid and unforgiving) Witches were created by repressive

environment established by Puritanism/a way to express natural human feelings

Themes

What are the conflicts in The Scarlet Letter? What types of conflict (physical, moral, intellectual, or emotional) are in this novel?

How does Nathaniel Hawthorne reveal character in The Scarlet Letter?

What are some symbols in The Scarlet Letter? How do they relate to the plot and characters?

Is Hester consistent in her actions? Is she a fully developed character? How? Why?

Why must the story end the way it does?

What is the central/primary purpose of the story? Is the purpose important or meaningful?

How does this novel relate to feminist literature? Is Hester a strong female character?

How essential is the setting to the story? Could the story have taken place anywhere else?

What is the role of women in the text? How are mothers represented? What about single/independent women?