Dear English 3332 students,
Please read pp. 1-37 in our textbook before posting a comment of at least two well-developed paragraphs on this introductory question:
In what ways did the U. S. Civil War affect trends in American literature in the 1865-1910 period, as discussed on pp. 1-37?
After you post your comment, please reply to at least one of the other students' comments in one well-developed paragraph.
Please post comments and replies during the fifty minutes of our class time (11:00-11:50 a.m.).
Handout for Monday's reading: "A Romance of Real Life" by William Dean Howells: story link
Over the weekend, please read "A Romance of Real Life," and please bring a printed copy of this story and your textbook to class with you on Monday.
Have a great weekend,
Prof. K
Test.
ReplyDeleteArguably the biggest and most evident change in literature trends was the growing presence of many minority groups in both the literary community and the stories written during that time period. Growing opportunities for women and blacks, as well as the circumstances of Native and Asian Americans opened up more people to their respective plights and achievements then or forthcoming, particularly authors who used these issues as subjects in their works. This sense of "realism" continued well into the next century with authors using their novels to bring public awareness to problems in society, among which were the harsh working conditions of factories and continued discrimination and violence towards African-Americans.
ReplyDeleteRealism from the minorities is super important. It is a snapshot of what life was like during the nineteenth century ,and in reading it now it still holds a certain authenticity to american life.
DeleteI agree with your statements on realism and the plights of certain groups being most prevalent in the literature of this time. I also think it is important to note that while before the Civil War there had been various works from these groups, they were in much more abundance in the post-Civil War period. The newfound freedoms of blacks, the influx of Asian and Mexican immigrants, and the diminishing populations of native peoples all set the stage for the new identity of American literature to be swayed by these ethnic groups. On the subject of female writers, I think they had a much greater impact in the later part of the period around the turn of the century. At this point they had gained more ground in challenging their traditional roles and were able to explore more taboo subjects of sexuality. As writers began writing on social issues, as you mentioned, I see a more cynical approach to their surroundings as they tackle darker, even more realistic subjects.
DeleteIt's fascinating to read about how minority groups started slowly gaining their voice in society through literacy and written communication. It certainly has taken a significant amount of time to gain racial equality, and we still struggle with it today. However, I wonder what it would have been like, and where we would be now, had minorities not gained a voice through education and literature. It's truly amazing how important these things are to society and individuals.
DeletePost war same some major changes in American literature. In 1885 realism became extremely popular. Three major realism novels emerged from the literary magazine “Century” including Howells’s “The Rise of Silas Lapham”, James’s “The Bostonians”, and Twain’s “Huckleberry Finn”. Realism was faithful to the everyday life of the nineteenth century. Realism in literature used a more authentic and natural form of speech rather than the common primary narrative. Poetry was greatly impacted after the civil war, and America thought that it was in need of resurgence. Poetry was dived in to two types. One being dialect based, and the other being mainstream conventional. The trend of which realism and the resurgence of poetry is the want to keep the identity of rural America post war. Dialect based poetry and realism wanted to keep the sense of identity that rural America had in an expanding country.
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ReplyDeleteAs the Civil War came to a close and African Americans began integrating into the society of the South, there was still significant division between blacks and whites. Thanks to the Reconstruction, black people had new opportunities for political involvement and education, but their civil freedoms did not
ReplyDeletelast once federal troops withdrew from the South in 1877. Conditions for southern blacks grew progressively worse, as did the tensions between blacks and whites. Overall, the white supremist
attitude nestled itself into white literature. The ͞ plantation tradition͟ of writing followed after the pastoral genre, but depicted plantation life as a sweet, glorious piece of the past; according to The
Concise Heath Anthology of American Literature, ͞" this literature mythologized the South as a noble, well-ordered patriarchal world run by kindly masters and inhabited by contented slaves͟" (22). Some other white authors wrote explicitly hateful literature, but still others exposed the fallacies of racial
superiority and romanticizing the antebellum South.
Thanks to progress in education for African Americans, whites were no longer the only ones with a voice. Increasing literacy among blacks enabled African American writers to step out, and caused the press to publish more literature geared toward African Americans and the cause of racial equality. Many of these writers sought to uplift both the ͞"public image͟" and the ͞ "self-image͟" of black men and women (23). Some authors, such as Harper and Hopkins, created heroes and heroines who, though in many respects physically resembled whites, were actually black. Thus, these authors challenged the prevailing stereotypes of blacks and whites. All around, many ideas and opinions were given the opportunity to be heard in the Post-Civil War era, thus shaping perceptions and culture for years to come.
I definitely agree with your comments of how the Civil war affected literature for African Americans, but I feel like African Americans didn't receive more notoriety until the 1930s, with authors like Langston Hughes. It was a great stepping stones, but there wasn't a direct affect until a few decades later with periods like the Harlem Renaissance
DeleteBranching off of your first paragraph, white males had certainly used the excuse of the protective, paternal leader role to exploit blacks since the early days of slavery. Even following emancipation, whites used this psychological tool to "keep the natural order of things" for decades following Reconstruction. This was prominent in all things southern at the time, including in literature. Writers like Thomas Nelson Page used the "plantation tradition" of writing in which they "mythologized the South as a noble, well-ordered patriarchal world run by kindly masters and inhabited by contented slaves." It all boiled down to keeping the minority at a lower status, and literature was a tool that could be used by both sides.
DeleteThe U.S. Civil War was incredibly impactful on the trends of all American writers for the remainder of the 19th century and into the 20th century. Following the war, America underwent rapid changes through industrialization with the development of a vast railroad system and new technologies capable of increasing manufacturing exponentially. Americans saw their nation’s economy grow into a world leader, enabling the U.S. to grow into a world power following the Spanish-American War. However, a large percentage of the nation’s wealth belonged to a small percentage of the population; those who had monopolized their industries held all the power. As prosperous as the nation was in appearance, many Americans did not share the grandeur of the few. The desire to become wealthy became a principle shared by many Americans, and it is reflected (along side the actuality that most Americans were not wealthy) in the literature of realism that was popular at the time.
ReplyDeleteIn the late 19th century, the frontier was declared closed, and the days of exploration, adventure, and war in America’s West were fading. Yet, Americans found a way to continue the experiences of the free and wild spirit through cheap western dime novels. Other Americans wrote about their experiences as minorities, from women writing about the domestic experience to Latin Americans writing in their native Spanish, condemning the white encroachment of the Southwest, to Southern European immigrants that wrote in the own languages to preserve traditional stories in their new land. Despite the rapid growth the nation had seen industrially and economically, these individuals had seen little to no improvement of their lives in America, and it was deeply reflected in their writings. It would not be until well into the 20th century that these minorities would finally see the change they so desperately wanted.
The Civil War in the United States spurred an extreme change in American life and literature because of the new workings of society and the long-term effects of Reconstruction. Blacks were now free to pursue the American Dream of self-reliance, an influx of immigrants was flooding the United States in search of greater opportunity, and wars were being waged against the natives who inhabited the West. Men and women were embracing the art of literature to describe their personal struggles in a country that was seeking its own national identity. These authors, made up of mostly progressive and socialist-leaning individuals, sought to assimilate the ideals and peoples that were being left behind in a fast-growing industrial giant. Colonialism replaced the isolationism of pre-Civil War and the image of the self-sufficient farmer was replaced by large-scale agriculture that fed big business. While the identity of the American people underwent a makeover, writers noted these transitions in their environment. Books and articles were printed on a larger scale because of the nature of the capitalist system, allowing the public access to a greater selection of novels and magazines. This increase in the power to publish and print opened the door for many disadvantaged groups of the time and allowed them to establish an identity and a connection to people ignorant of their plight.
ReplyDeleteThe largest changes that these authors witnessed and had significant parts in were writings in dialect, new roles of women, and the acceptance of socialism. Dialect writing by blacks and natives in their respective styles became a popular form of poetry following the Civil War and into the twentieth century. This writing was encouraged by publishers and helped to assimilate and relate issues experienced by these groups to the mainstream audience. Another form of dialect writing in Mark Twain’s novels explored the United States identity and the prejudices in the setting of the Mississippi River. As dialect writing bridged gaps of struggles of prejudice, novels in the vein of romance challenged women’s traditional roles and pushed their independence to the forefront, while few others went even further and entered the taboo realm of sexuality. Women had always been the reformers of the U.S. and continued to be through this period with these novels of self-exploration. Lastly, the authors who embraced the new theories of Karl Marx and his view of socialism. As the capitalist machine moved steadily forward, these writers meant to expose corrupt dealings and exploitation of the working class. Many of these novels attacked big business and caused social upheaval in demands for legislation. The American Civil War caused an extreme change in the makeup of the population and caused tradition to be questioned and cultures to be mixed.
It is interesting that you discuss the new inclusion of dialects because it is imperative to this change. As you mention, "dialect writing bridged gaps of struggles of prejudice" therefore bringing society one step closer to accepting the various cultures they had ignored before. This acceptance and new understanding, though slow in development in some areas, led to a better sense of community and support that strengthened the Civil Rights movement a century later. In addition, dialect writing brings variety to the reading material at the time, and challenges people to step out of their boundaries and experience new cultures and new ways of thinking.
DeleteI agree that the “increase in power to publish and print” enabled the voices of the minorities to be heard where they would have previously been ignored. The availability of magazines and novels due to the completion of the railway and improvements in the printing press allowed immigrants, along with previously disenfranchised groups such as women, African Americans, and Latino/as, to share their stories. Prior to the war, while members of these groups may have been writing, they certainly did not have the ability to have their works published and distributed with the ease that they did following the end of the Civil War. The works of of all of these people helped to shape he future of the American literary tradition, with some writers spreading the popularity of dialect writing and women in particular working to break away from the typical stereotypes forced on women of the time in their writing.
DeleteThe U.S. Civil War had a strong and widespread impact on the social, political, and economic structure of America which, in turn, affected the literature of the time. Following the war, a larger variety of people were writing and in newer genres of writing with a large pool of subjects to pull from.
ReplyDeleteWriters began moving away from tales of larger-than-life heroes and extraordinary tales of heroics. Realism, a style of writing that focuses on realistic and everyday events, characters, and speech patterns, became prevalent in postwar America and was championed by William Dean Howells. “Realism was the response of writers to … the recognized need to capture, report, and interpret the world of the developing cities and declining rural regions” (11). The world was changing quickly and authors like Howells urged others to document the change in the American way of life in writing. Realism was evident in widely-circulated works and serializations such as Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as well as pieces that would be characterized as regional because of the small scope of the settings and local dialect used therein. The works by non-white American citizens often, most likely unintentionally, were of the school of realism. Authors wrote of the struggles that they as immigrants, members of an absorbed culture (such as Mexicans and Native Americans), or members of one of the many groups of people marginalized and dismissed by American society faced in their daily lives.
The vast diversity in the types of people writing is another byproduct of postwar America. Following the Civil War, America received an influx of immigrants from a wide variety of countries, each with their own literary traditions. People from China, Czechoslovakia, Poland and a myriad of other countries found themselves writing, sometimes in their own language, at other times in English, and diffusing their own styles of writing and stories into the large pool of “American writing”. In addition to the writing of immigrants, there were also women, Native Americans, and African Americans writing in greater numbers, with large audiences able to read their works due to the availability of magazines and novels. Following the Civil War, reading and writing became pastimes that were for more than just the scholar, and were used to enact social change as well as entertain.
That is certainly true regarding the transition to more realistic stories and characters, one that seems to carry on even today. When you look back on literary history, all the stories we know about "larger-than-life heroes" seem ancient. Heroes still exist in literature today, but these modern ones are normally characterized as flawed or conflicted individuals that are easier for readers to relate to, keeping with the realism that emerged during this postwar period.
DeleteIt's interesting to wonder what the US might have been like had there never been any presence of these immigrants. Their voice truly impacted American Literature. It is unfortunate that their work, such as introducing different dialects, types of literature (poetry, oral, etc) and realism, was and has been suppressed. Minorities, as you said, used writing in order to "enact social change." Literature today, and probably history, would be much different without the voices and contributions of immigrants and minorities.
DeleteAfter the American Civil war, a different period and style of writing emerged: Realism. The war drastically changed how people wrote and people experienced life in the United States. More people who wrote Post-Civil war used their works to discuss everyday life from a new angle.
ReplyDeletePost Civil war literature also affected African Americans, Women, Asian Americans, and Native Americans. Post war,
African Americans, Native Americans, and Women had more opportunities to share their works and be taken seriously, not just as writers , but has people as well.
This is definitely true. After the U.S. Civil War African-Americans, immigrants, minorities and women were now having the freedom to voice their opinions openly. People from all walks of life were now having the opportunity to read their literature and reflect upon themselves the hardships of these people.
DeleteNot only Realism emerged, but also Naturalism which I believe had almost as much an impact as Realism did. Naturalistic writers had a darker aspect to their writing because they focused on the nature aspect of life and how people survive by their own will which offered diversity and a new perspective among literature.
DeleteAlso with Naturalism, many minorities responded to the new social complexities with individualism: arguing for the power of human agency to effect constructive change. This would then reinforce the widespread tendency of individual and moral development. These new powerful developments would give many minorities the opportunity to impact the publishing world while freely voicing their opinions.
DeleteThe Civil War brought along new trends in American Literature. Prior to the Civil War, American Literature was predominantly comprised of white authors. As the presence of minorities was increasing: as was there voice. The Civil War introduced blacks, women, and other minorities such as Latinos and Native Americans, to growing opportunities in education and literature.
ReplyDeleteThese new opportunities gave the minorities a chance to act as a voice and speak on behalf of their respective cultures; however, it was challenging for them to do so. For example, white authors were attempting to mask the unfair conditions in the south. They wrote in ways to make the south seem like a "noble, well-ordered patriarchal world run by kindly masters and inhabited by contented slaves" (22). This period also introduced the "sinophobia," which is a term to describe the discrimination against the Chinese as their presence was also growing. The minorities wrote with a mood realism and were faithful to exposing the world as it was, rather than masking it. While it was a challenge to speak on their culture's behalf in an honest way, these writer's wrote so that their literature addressed social problems.
The conclusion of the Civil War resulted in vast changes in American economics and politics. In addition, the new influx in industrialization led to an increase in "developing cities and the declining rural regions" (11). The change of pace for Americans called for another style of writing. Realism was "a matter of faithfulness to the surfaces of American life" (11). It contrasted with the prewar romantics in that it was able to capture the new changes in the dynamics of American life. Therefore, the Civil War created a society in need of a straightforward way to write the multitude of experiences and observations of the postwar society.
ReplyDeleteIn addition, authors utilized realism to portray the social changes occurring such as the "intensification of white supremacy" (12). The war, caused by tensions between the North and the South, continued to cause rifts between those who believed all humans were created equal and those who valued the white population as superior to all other races, even after the North concluded the war. Mark Twain's "deals with issues crucial in the post war period" such as this division between the races that would persist decades after African Americans earned their freedom and rights. Authors, inspired by the struggles of postwar life, wrote to bring awareness to these social issues, hoping for a change.
The Civil War in the United States set off a time of turmultous changes to our nation which reflected onto the literature being produced at that time. African-Americans, immigrants and women were now having an opportunity to voice their struggles and hardships through writing. More people from all backgrounds were now given the chance to understand the mistreatment of immigrants, blacks and women from their own personal accounts. The public was now becoming more aware of the problems in society. African- Americans were now experiencing slight advancements in the education of their community which led to more literature being available on issues that concerned them such as discrimination and racial equality.
ReplyDeleteTheir were many changes to the American landscape following the U.S Civil War. Progress was witnessed through the industrialization of the nation while other aspects appeared to be left behind to show very minimal improvement. Such as in the lives of African-Americans and immigrants. Writers were now putting their frustrations to this lack of movement into their literature.
The Civil War affected literature during that time period in many ways. Before the Civil War, big changes came to the south in terms of industrialization and advanced technology. New, innovated technology always influences literature no matter what time period, but this was extremely modern and this was reflected within modern literature. Later, publishing companies began producing city wide instead of just in small villages. The book states, "large publishing houses located in the cities could reach national markets by way of the railroads" (8). Literature was more widely available and produced in mass quantities.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the content of literature, it was also becoming more modern. Women were making their marks as well-known writers. African Americans also began to write well-known works. Not only was literature expanding in terms of authors, but also as well as subject matter. Racism, women's rights, and other activist movements took major hold of audience across the world through newspapers, books, magazines, etc. "The 1800s were the height of realism" (12), however, Naturalism soon took over in the 1890s which the book states, "darkened its hues" (13). Many authors began writing stories with darker tones and made people think within themselves about serious topics. Authors included were Crane, London, etc. Literature had become a very well known thing in the Civil War and many people of different origins embraced literature and it brought people together through their enjoyment of reading.
The large publishing houses played a major role in the development of American Literature. Literature was made widely available because of the technological advancements happening post civil war. I love that you mentioned the role women played during this time period. It was very interesting to read about the uprising of American women's rights and movements that took place.
DeleteLiterature became the way women spoke up about life. The coming of authors writing stories over topics that made people think of themselves was during the Romanticism period. Prior to this, life was about submission to the church and if God created you to be a blacksmith then that what you were, your father was, and his father was. There was no individual, rather society was what mattered. It was enlightening to read about so much that the Civil War changed!
DeletePerhaps the biggest trends in American Literature throughout the U.S. Civil War were the advanced and fast paced changes happening with technology throughout the newly urbanized neighborhoods. Before the U.S. Civil War, everyday people were thriving and living their lives in Chicago’s “White City” (1). The Fair was built to celebrate Christopher Columbus’ discovery of what would soon be the United States of America. The White City was transformed into a huge display of bright lights, buildings, and was home to people with bright and shiny personalities. However, after the Civil War, everything was dark, urbanized, people had pessimistic attitudes, and chaos started to erupt. All of the technological changes that took place before the war were now backfiring. The stock market took a huge plunge that started the beginning of a depression. The trend of technology moving so rapidly made it very hard for people to adapt. Some of the American people did not adapt and fell into poverty. The poverty these people experienced included, “places of slums and overcrowding, of dirt and noise, lack of sanitation and disease, poverty, child labor, prostitution, violence, and crime” (3). This led to another trend that was developed after the U.S. Civil War and that was Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” (8). Technology advanced and “the new trend toward farming as a large-scale, mechanized operation meant that agriculture, too, had entered the modern age” (6).
ReplyDeleteThe modern age, or life after the Civil War consisted of companies that were cut-throat and out for money. It seemed that the trend for the modern age and life after the civil war was focused on profit and profit only. The companies did not care how many small businesses they ruined. Greed was a common trait most big businessmen possessed and was beginning to look like the American way of life. It was to the point where Turner announced, “there was no more open land, and the frontier no longer existed” (6). The technological advancements made/seen in literature after the civil war were very promising. Before the civil war, there was a “limited range of distribution” (8). This meant that with the development of rotary presses, multiple presses, and binding machines, large publishing companies were able to reach a larger audience and distribute books, magazines, and newspapers much faster. Technological advancements affected literature because more authors were able to be discovered. Now that more authors were being discovered and reaching more people, the discovery of diversity in American Literature was found. People from all walks of life were able to voice their opinion and reach thousands of Americans.
I think technology played a major role only in that of being able to allow more workers to find jobs and for people to be able to move around more freely. In my opinion, I believe the transformation of literature during this time came from the people. When you read the works set during this time you really feel the overwhelming despair from the characters that have to live those lives. I personally love The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. In that story he talks of women labors that get raped and have to have “back alley abortions”. When you read these dark post war books they really open your eyes to a time when the world was so unsanitary and just being alive was a gift and a punishment.
DeleteThe United States Civil War affected the nation in several ways, which in turn changed how authors wrote about the world at that time. By the 1890’s America had become a roaring industrialist nation. The northern population was overflowing and was a cultural melting pot. This diversity is evident in many books at that time one prime example is Upton Sinclair’s The jungle. Sinclair shows the horrors of those immigrants working in the meat packing industry, the terrifying reality of work in such a crowed city, and the hardships placed on poor women. Between the expanse of travel and the accessibility of knowledge; literature was becoming more readily available. Publishing and distribution was a growing industry, which allowed access of books and magazines to more readers.
ReplyDeleteLiterature post-Civil War became darker and edgier. Authors like Sinclair and Mark twain did not hold back there options and the truths that they had witnessed. Women also were playing more of a pivotal role in writing. Women where finally being taken seriously as authors, they were writing about real issues of working in hard labor and the hardship of the gap between classes. Immigration was bringing new literature to The United States from all over the globe. People were able to read about the traditions and hardships of different cultures. America changed so much during these times and literature is best place to see the changes of this nations people.
Literature of the period did become darker, and yet the popularity of novels that were written about Utopian societies, grew. Dime novels were very popular among society, as well. They reverted to the classic hero, in ways, yet expressed a nostalgic element, in that they reinforced the birth of America's culture.
DeleteVarious opportunities for the writing industry arose after the Civil War. Books and magazines were being published on the same scale, if not greater, as telephones in the 1890s. "At the same time, however, the publishing industry reflected the growing diversity of the American population. The cultures of many peoples who comprised the nation found outlets in the approximately twelve hundred foreign language periodicals that were in existence by 1896, serving immigrant groups from the Germans and Scandinavians to the Czechs and Poles, Spanish and Italians (pg 9)."
ReplyDeleteAfter seeing the many diversities among literature, Native Americans, Latinos, African Americans, and even women began to publish the cultural differences and how they viewed it. In 1874, the Woman's Christian Temperance Union became the largest women's organization in the world. Many cultures faced poverty against the Caucasians as they raced to for survival. These basic book and magazine developments published by countless individuals altered the cultural landscape as the twentieth century began to take way and would change the views on many societies spread across America.
Not only did books and magazines become popular, but also newspapers. The amount, circulation, and influence of newspapers and magazines grew in this period. Many of the famous authors we read about of this era started as newspaper journalists and/or published in magazines.
DeleteWith the advances in printing and publishing we also see a people beginning to criticize the evils attendant on the rise of big business. Thus we get the "muckrakers," people like Upton Sinclair, who write to show just how bad conditons in factories were and thus appeal for reform.
DeleteNot only did the Civil War affect the emotions of the United States, but also the political, social, economic and of course, literary. There are beliefs that the Civil War as the pivotal event in American history is the border between the past and the modern. The interpretations of the Civil War served as different viewpoints for the authors of the post 1865 period to serve as realism in their fictions. Realism in fiction was an important outgrowth to the development of nonfiction, which described and critiqued the social, economic, and political institutions that emerged at the end of the Civil War. The issues of race and the hardships of the African American people in the Civil War era find representation in the work of most authors including Francis Ellen Watkins Harper, but other texts of that time focus on the evolution of the women’s movement. The literary achievements of African Americans themselves were one of the most prominent literary developments of the post-Civil War era. Because of the black people that flooded to join the Civil War to regain their “liberty”, they inspired people like Booker T. Washington, W.E.B DuBois, and James Weldon Johnson. The black roots of their writings brought to light how the inevitable issue of segregation would lead to inferiority (DuBois.)
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ReplyDeleteThe Civil War forced people to deal with challenge to social constructs which had previously been considered untouchable or sacrosanct. Two of the foremost issues were race and gender roles. Slavery had been abolished, but the ideas that women in general and people of color of both sexes were in some way inferior to white men and therefore ought to be subordinate to the same lingered in the of wake of the war. The war threatened these ideas.
First, women had to fend for themselves while their men were off at war, and many were widowed or orphaned. If women could manage themselves not only domestically but also engage in business and other traditionally male roles when the men were off at war, why, during peacetime, did they need men to do those things for them? This finds its way into the literature of the period in that now women could be portrayed as professionals, as sexually active persons, as having their artistic talents stamped out by the harsh demands of domestic life. That most of the female heroines, particularly in books written by men, end up frustrated or locked into a traditional domestic role, illustrates the struggle the emancipated women faced and often succumbed to even in the aftermath of the war. Women had conflicts between their new sense of freedom and their attachment to the home and family. It is perhaps these conflicts that best describe the works by women at this time, such as Elizabeth Stuart Phelps’s The Story of Avis, which examine the struggle for freedom in the domestic context instead of culminating their stories with a wedding. Men, on the other hand, seem to have been more interested in analyzing and speculating about the implications of the new freedoms women were claiming for themselves in the public sphere, as seen in Henry James’s The Bostonians.
African-Americans faced a different if similar battle. Still considered inferior human beings by many even in the North, they now faced the bitterness of the whites who responded to the North’s “Rape of the South” by intensifying ideas of white supremacy and by fighting aggressively for traditional, conservative values. This is seen in the literature of whites and blacks from this period.
White authors varied from examining racism as a concept, as Mark Twain did in Huckleberry Finn, to supporting the activities of the Klu Klux Klan, as Thomas Dixon did in The Clansmen. Whites such as Dixon were primarily concerned with preserving and restoring the old order. On the other hand, George Washington Cable and Kate Chopin wrote exposing the myth of the South. Whites were divided by the race issue and this was reflected in their literature.
Blacks were also divided in their literature to some degree. They were united in their use of literature for “racial uplift,” by which they hoped to improve what the book notes as “the public image but also the self-image of blacks, especially of black women,” who were portrayed as sexually promiscuous by white men who wished to justify continued sexual exploitation. The divide was over whether to be seek to adapt and submit to the existing order to avoid further conflict, as argued by Booker T. Washington, or to take a more aggressive stance towards gaining equal rights, as espoused by W.E.B. Du Bois.
Thus black literature also consider the race question and also was not entirely united in its perspectives.
After the Civil War, American literature saw many changes. Books and magazines were no longer limited to regional viewers, but were available on the national markets due to advanced methods of printing and distribution. This expanded the audience and provided a larger variety of reading material. Schools took advantage of the variety of printed educational texts made available to them through this advanced distribution. Dime novels became very popular and promoted a unified sense of nationalism, by introducing the readers to tales of adventure and heroic characters taking place on the open range, yet because the "frontier no longer existed" (6), these novels, along with nationalism, helped to create nostalgia and solidify the new culture. Literary magazines provided the writers of the period means to get their work published. Writers from diverse cultural backgrounds were given the opportunity to take part in the literary world, and address the realities of their oppression.
ReplyDeleteAmerican literature shifted from Romanticism to Realism. The written work of the time expressed the realities of social, economic, and political life. Through means such as newspapers, magazines, and books, "The 1800's were the height of realism" (12). Women writers of the period used Naturalism, mirroring more traditional styles, yet embracing the advancements of feminine liberation. Dialect poetry was used to represent diversity of regions and cultures, though it was problematic in ways that it perpetuated stereotypes. Novels containing Utopian societies became popular. These novels addressed the great disparity of wealth within the nation, and encouraged hope that it could be reversed.
From Allison Agbasoga:
ReplyDeleteThe Civil War brought tremendous change into Literature. Many of those who served that were not white man were able to create change to literature as we now see it today. With there being such a drive in minorities to learn how to proficiently read and write, the beauty of literature was then manifested. As the years began to progress, minorities began to evolve themselves within the literary atmosphere, most of the time in secret.
Women and African American's were able to fully express their experiences on sexism, racism, and general feelings. During this time period, immigrants prospered and were able to voice their opinions in relation to the mental and physical turmoil of the nineteenth century. As the gender and race roles began to blend, literature blossomed into something the United States had not seen before. Experiences of these immigrants opened a field of beauty and sorrow to what we see literature as today.
The Civil War brought many new growing opportunities, especially for young women. “They increasingly moved beyond domestic disclosure to lay claim to the public world” (Lauter, 15) Independence rather than submission was brought forth. Some of the most significant changes for women were “increased education and employment opportunities.” (Lauter, 16)
ReplyDeleteBefore one assumes that women were of an equal stature, I must instate that women were offered more in the way of employment but were paid half as much of men. It was not a raise in power of society but rather a way to get the work done at a cheaper expense for business owners. Women only thought they were given more power. “Their success nevertheless importantly demonstrated that women could be the intellectual equals of men, thus countering the still prevented belief in women’s intellectual inferiority.” (Lauter, 16) This helped pave the way towards women’s rights and later on, power.