1.
THE ORIGINS OF AMERICAN FICTION
Washington Irving (1783 – 1859)
Washington Irving was an American short-story writer, essayist, biographer, historian, and diplomat of the
early 19th century. He is best known for his short stories "Rip Van Winkle" (1819) and "The Legend of Sleepy
Hollow" (1820), both of which appear in his collection The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. He had
English origins (his parents were born in England) and lived long periods in England. Therefore, his work
often presents so-called Anglo-sentimental settings.
Born and raised in Manhattan, he made his literary debut in 1802 with a series of observational letters to the
New York Morning Chronicle. He led a relatively privileged life as, although he belonged to the New York
merchant class, he moved in diplomatic and political circles (for example, he worked as a staff member of
the American legation in London, 1829-1831). He was nostalgic for an idealised "better" past rooted in
America's origins as a Euro-American nation. He also developed fiction as "legends retold": literary responses
to modernity and political change in the decades between 1812 and 1860, which contributed to the
development of American nationalism.
“Rip van Winkle”
"Rip Van Winkle" is a short story by Washington Irving, first published in 1819. It follows a Dutch-American
villager in colonial America named Rip Van Winkle who meets mysterious Dutchmen, imbibes their liquor
and falls asleep in the Catskill Mountains. He awakes 20 years later to a very changed world, having missed
the American Revolution (When Rip awakes, the colonial America he knew has turned into a new nation)
This story uses fantastical elements and an "old story" literary form to depict social and political dynamics
without the complexity of a realistic depiction of society as it really is. It is a story of captivity and freedom
from a white Euro-American perspective.
2. THE BIRTH OF AMERICAN ROMANTICISM
American Romanticism spans from the early 19th century (around 1820) to the end of the Cicil War and the
rise of the Realism. It was a movement that emerged gradually and evolved in many ways from its
beginnings. It is characterised by its freedom from the authority, forms and conventions typical of
neoclassical literature, and thus replaced the neoclassical emphasis on reason with a proper emphasis on
imagination and emotion, and the neoclassical emphasis on authority with an emphasis on individuality.
[Link] of romance fiction
The philosophical romance: It is a fictional narrative that constructs larger-than-life stories to delve into
their psychological, existential or metaphysical aspects. It describes events and occurrences that defy or
exceed rationality, transcend or surpass reason. These are incredible accounts of unusual natural
phenomena (e.g. Moby-Dick and an extraordinary albino whale that escapes again and again from a
crew of whalers) which are full of symbols to be read and interpreted.
The sensational romance: It is a fictional story that creates a popular legend in order to horrify, thrill and
excite readers. Plot twists are often implausible and exaggerated, deal with supernatural events, and are
constructed to provoke shock, intrigue and excitement. These were cheap novels, dime novels (low-cost
production on a mass scale and cheap publications aimed at a working-class audience). These novels
contributed significantly to the formation and consolidation of a white national identity, telling stories
set both on the nation's frontier and in familiar urban contexts. The main themes are the frontier, urban
drama, class conflict, detective stories, western adventures, and so on.
The Gothic romance / Gothic as a literary mode: It is a type of romance fiction, intersectional to the
above types, which deepens into uncanniness, human nature and its dichotomies. Gothic elements are
found throughout Romanticism, especially in psychological and sensationalist romances. Gothic
narratives often revolve around the duality of human nature, moral ambiguity, passion versus reason,
the sinister and the consequences of the quest for knowledge. The main tropes are: spectral apparitions,
haunted places, moral corruption, vulnerable heroines, doomed love stories, decadent places,
decadence, monstrous transformations, forbidden desires, shocking violence. The early American
Gothics were Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Washington Irving.
The historical romance: It is a type of romance fiction that blends historical events or details and turns
them into myth through fiction. The characters are plausible (seemingly true) to the historical context,
but are gifted with extraordinary qualities and structured as straightforward allegories (e.g., the Indian
nobleman bowing to civilisation). The fundamental theme is the birth and formation of the American
national identity as a people. The natural environment shapes the character of the American people, as
well as defining the concept of territory and nationhood. Wilderness is explored and tamed, and its
strengths become part of the authentic American character. Different types of representation of Native
Americans, united by the notion that their eventual assimilation and domination are inevitable.
- The historical romance: The Last of the Mohicans (1826): The Last of the Mohicans, is the second
and most popular novel of the Leatherstocking Tales by James Fenimore Cooper. From the title of
this novel comes the English phrase the last of the Mohicans, meaning the final remaining person or
thing of a particular group or era, or one of the last persons to remain convinced of a particular
idea. The novel uses archetypes and allegories to depict characters who are often heroes or villains
and describes grandiose adventures of intrepid settlers and noble natives who face nature and try
to build a prosperous community.
[Link] Fenimore Cooper and the literary criticism
James Fenimore Cooper was an American writer of the first half of the 19th century, whose historical
romances depicting colonial and indigenous characters from the 17th to the 19th centuries brought him
fame and fortune. He transformed history into fictionalised legend and his work is a critique of the
extraordinary and melodramatic tones that neglect the depiction of realistic details of everyday life.
Thus, as we can see, literary criticism (often by fellow fiction writers) and editorial work emerged and
developed in this period. Edgar Allan Poe's prolific work as a magazine editor and critic is particularly
relevant to understanding this phenomenon. Thus, at the turn of the century, many authors belonging to the
American Realism movement (such as Mark Twain) wrote literary criticism of romantic works.
Mark Twain, “Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses”: "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" is an 1895
essay by Mark Twain, written as a satire and criticism of the writings of James Fenimore Cooper. The
essay is characteristic of Twain's biting, mocking and highly satirical style of literary criticism, a form he
also used to mock authors such as George Eliot or Jane Austen.
3. AMERICAN (DARK) ROMANTICISM
Dark Romanticism is a literary sub-genre of Romanticism that reflects popular fascination with the irrational,
the demonic and the grotesque, focusing on human fallibility, self-destruction, judgement and punishment,
as well as the psychological effects of guilt and sin. The main characteristic of dark romanticism is to question
man's natural perfection, to believe that man can never be perfect. Thus, people began to take a less
conventional view of religion, to pay more attention to catastrophes and to let the investigation of terrible
realities into their daily lives. Among the darker American authors were Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel
Hawthorne and Herman Melville, who emphasised human fallibility and the propensity for sin and self-
destruction, as well as the difficulties inherent in attempts at social reform.
Nathaniel Hawthorne: Nathaniel Hawthorne was an American novelist and short story writer. His works
often focus on history, morality, and religion, and much of his writing centres on New England, many
works featuring moral metaphors with an anti-Puritan inspiration. His themes often centre on the
inherent evil and sin of humanity, and his works often have moral messages and deep psychological
complexity. In his works, he depicts aspects of existence that we cannot measure empirically and that
often escape rationality: we are not sure whether these figures and events are real, yet they represent
something that exposes human nature. Its main tropes are: dreams, apparitions, obsessions, guilt, sin,
moral and psychological complexity, critique of Puritan moral and social conventions, New England
socio-cultural context.
- The Scarlet Letter: A Romance is a work of historical fiction by Nathaniel Hawthorne, published in
1850. Set in the Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony during the years 1642 to 1649, the novel tells the
story of Hester Prynne, who conceives a daughter with a man to whom she is not married and then
struggles to create a new life of repentance and dignity. Containing a number of religious and
historic allusions, the book explores themes of legalism, sin and guilt. The Scarlet Letter was one of
the first mass-produced books in the United States. It was very popular when it was first published
and is considered a classic work of American literature. The play is set in the historical context of
Puritan communities as a vehicle for interrogating the past, society, human nature and introspective
experiences. The scarlet letter itself (which Hester Prynne is forced to wear to mark her punishment
for being an unwed mother and which appears again and again throughout the novel) is a symbol
for the reader to interpret: it represents social stigma and shame, while Hester claims it as a sign of
identity.
Herman Melville: Herman Melville was an American novelist, short story writer, and poet of the
American Renaissance period. Among his best-known works are Moby-Dick (1851) and Typee (1846).
Although his reputation was not high at the time of his death, the 1919 centennial of his birth was the
starting point of a Melville revival, and Moby-Dick grew to be considered one of the great American
novels. His novels are of travel and adventure: Typee (1845) and Omoo (1847) and he uses historical
incidents as inspiration and pretext for his fiction, creating suspense and speculation about what actually
happens. He is related to Hawthorne, as he reads and comments on Hawthorne's work, who is
stimulating to Melville, who even becomes attached to Hawthorne's writing and personality.
- Moby-Dick; or, The Whale is an 1851 novel by Herman Melville. The book is sailor Ishmael's account
of the maniacal quest of Ahab, captain of the Pequod whaling ship, to exact revenge on Moby Dick,
the giant white sperm whale who crippled him on the ship's previous voyage. In the novel, the sea is
represented as the supreme place where the forces of nature become overwhelming and limits are
crossed and the animal as the manifestation of the power of nature, both destructive and
magnificent, that challenges human notions of value. Moby Dick is densely symbolic and riddled
with allusions, metaphors, and references. Thus, it provides information on whales and cetaceans,
different perspectives on the enterprise (switching between 1st and 3rd person narration). The
main themes are: transitory nature of existence, meaning of life, human search for meaning,
multiplicity of interpretation, meaning derived from experience.
4. THE TRANSITION FROM ROMANTICISM TO REALISM
After the horrors of the Civil War, romantic attitudes ceased to capture the spirit of America. Instead, artists
and writers turned to a new movement known as realism, which reflected a different view of life: insensitive,
honest, and often harsh and even ugly.
RACE AND ROMANTICISM
Authors were self-interested, that is, they sought to maintain good relations and patronage with pro-slavery
(Democratic) figures. Thus, there was resistance to change and there were violent upsurges: slavery was
"wrong" but it was an institution too historically rooted in American society to be altered. Native and African
Americans were fundamentally excluded from racial "tolerance" as well as from the social and political
sphere. There was a great lack of sensitivity to the humanity and subjectivity of slaves (the racial status quo
had to be maintained).
AN “OTHER” ROMANTICISM
Frederick Douglass (1804–1864) Frederick Douglass was an American social reformer, abolitionist, orator
and writer. After escaping from slavery in Maryland, he became a national leader of the abolitionist
movement in Massachusetts and New York, and became famous for his oratory and incisive anti-slavery
writings. Douglass wrote three autobiographies, describing his experiences as a slave, and was also an active
supporter of women's suffrage. Douglass wrote memoirs about slavery and essays related to his activism and
preaching. He also employed the style, tropes, and structures of Romantic writing to convey his abolitionist
message to readers and to insert racial struggles into the national narrative. He had a nuanced view of
abolition and anti-slavery issues, connected to politics and law (rather than limiting his reflections to a
spiritual and moral plane). Finally, he made use of humour and satire and developed the theory of self-
reliance, self-education and American identity.
THE TRANSITION TO REALISM
American realism covers the period from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s. It is a post-Civil War America, so
writers cover themes of politics, religion, social class, childhood, domestic life, and nostalgia. The
descriptions are realistic, close and frank, refreshing and reinforcing the identity and voice of Americans; it is
a description of different social contexts and situations through a new lens (war, slums, poor and
uneducated communities, etc.) and a greater openness to new themes and perspectives. Moreover, humour
is used less subtly than in early Romanticism.
Kate Chopin (1850–1904) Kate Chopin was an American author of short stories and novels based in
Louisiana. She is considered by scholars to be a pioneer of twentieth-century American feminist authors of
Southern or Catholic origin and is one of the most widely read and recognised writers of Louisiana Creole
ancestry. Her major works include two collections of short stories and two novels. The characters in her
stories are often residents of Louisiana, and many are Creole of various ethnic or racial backgrounds. She
grows up during a Southern renaissance shaped and dominated by men versus women writers addressing
gender issues. It is a time when there is an interrogation of crucial issues and concerns of Southern culture
and identity, Louisiana Creole life and heritage. Thus, her main themes are death, exclusion, gender issues,
race/ethnicity and miscegenation, adultery and sexuality. Works: Bayou Folk (1894) and “Desiree's Baby"
(1893) (The play addresses social taboos and racial mores, examining Southern social structures through
extreme and shocking outcomes. Thus, the play is a feminist contribution to Southern Gothic and Southern
realism)
REFLECTION ON A PASSAGE FROM “DESIREE’S BABY"
[p. 2 - 4, “Madame Valmondé bent her portly figure over Désirée and kissed her”--- ““Yes, I want you to
go.””]
"Désirée's Baby" is short story written in 1893 by the American author Kate Chopin and deals primarily with
the theme of miscegenation in Creole Louisiana during the period before the American Civil War. Thus, the
story focuses on the crisis in the marriage between Désirée and Armand when they discover that their son is
of mixed race. However, this short story also touches on other themes such as racism, slavery, Creole culture
and the ambiguity of racial identity.
This passage is really interesting as it stages different kinds of love. Firstly, we have Désirée's unconditional
love for her baby, which is perfectly exemplified by the fact that she is slow to realise that her baby's
features are indicative of a racially mixed heritage. Therefore, when Madame Valmondé exclaims "This is not
the baby!” meaning that she has recognised the baby's black features, Désirée, on the other hand, thinks she
only means that her baby has grown up, and she responds “I knew you would be astonished […] at the way
he has grown. The little cochon de lait! Look at his legs, mamma, and his hands and fingernails”. Secondly,
we have Désirée's dependence and also unconditional love for her husband Armand, for just because he is
happy, she is happy, as exemplified in: "When he smiled, she asked no greater blessing of God". As we can
notice, she is fondly in love with him. However, and finally, Armand's love for Désirée is conditional in the
sense that he is only with Désirée for her beauty and white race, not really for love, for when it becomes
really clear that the baby is a mixture of black and white races, he throws Dérirée out of the house.
In conclusion, we can say that "Désirée's Baby" shows many forms of love and of loving and that love, both
romantic (at the level of the couple) and familial, is a strong and powerful transforming force.
