Cambridge History of American Literature, Vol. 3: Prose Writing, 1860-1920 (The Cambridge History of American Literature)

797 Pages·2005·6.1 MB·English

by  Sacvan Bercovitch

THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF
AMERICAN LITERATURE
TheCambridgeHistoryofAmericanLiteratureaddressesthebroadspectrumofnew
andestablisheddirectionsinallbranchesofAmericanwritingandincludesthe
workofscholarsandcriticswhohaveshaped,andwhocontinuetoshape,what
hasbecomeamajorareaofliteraryscholarship.Theauthorsspanthreedecades
ofachievementinAmericanliterarycriticism,therebyspeakingforbothconti-
nuityandchangebetweengenerationsofscholarship.Generouslyproportioned
narratives allow at once for a broader vision and sweep of American literary
history than has been possible previously. And while the voice of traditional
criticism forms a background for these narratives, it joins forces with the
diversityofintereststhatcharacterizecontemporaryliterarystudies.
The History offers wide-ranging, interdisciplinary accounts of American
genres and periods. Generated partly by the recent unearthing of previously
neglectedtexts,theexpansionofmaterialinAmericanliteraturecoincideswith
a dramatic increase in the diversity of approaches to that material. The mul-
tifaceted scholarly and critical enterprise embodied in The Cambridge History
ofAmericanLiteratureaddressesthesemultiplicities–social,cultural,intellec-
tual,andaesthetic–anddemonstratesaricherconceptofauthorityinliterary
studiesthanisfoundinearlieraccounts.
ThisvolumecoversapivotaleraintheformationofAmericanidentity.Four
leading scholars connect the literature with the massive historical changes
thenunderway.RichardH.Brodheaddescribesthefoundationofapermanent
literarycultureinAmerica.NancyBentleylocatestheoriginsofnineteenth-
century Realism in an elite culture’s responses to an emergent mass culture,
embracing high literature as well as a wide spectrum of cultural outsiders:
African Americans, women, and Native Americans. Walter Benn Michaels
emphasizes the critical role that turn-of-the-century fiction played in the re-
evaluation of the individual at the advent of modern bureaucracy. Susan L.
Mizruchianalyzestheeconomicandculturalrepresentationsofanewnational
heterogeneitythathelpedforecastthemulticulturalfutureofmodernAmerica.
Together,thesenarrativesconstitutetherichest,mostdetailedaccounttodate
ofAmericanliteratureandculturebetween1860and1920.

THE CAMBRIDGE
HISTORY OF
AMERICAN LITERATURE
Volume 3
Prose Writing
1860–1920
General Editor
sacvan bercovitch
HarvardUniversity
cambridge university press
Cambridge,NewYork,Melbourne,Madrid,CapeTown,Singapore,Sa˜oPaulo
cambridgeuniversitypress
TheEdinburghBuilding,Cambridgecb22ru,UK
PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyCambridgeUniversityPress,NewYork
www.cambridge.org
Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9780521301077
(cid:1)C CambridgeUniversityPress2005
Thisbookisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception
andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements,
noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithout
thewrittenpermissionofCambridgeUniversityPress.
Firstpublished2005
PrintedintheUnitedKingdomattheUniversityPress,Cambridge
AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
isbn-13 978-0-521-30107-7hardback
isbn-10 0-521-30107-6hardback
CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracyofURLsforexternalor
third-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhisbook,anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuch
websitesis,orwillremain,accurateorappropriate.
contents
Listofillustrations pagevii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
the american literary field, 1860–1890
RichardH.Brodhead,YaleUniversity
1 TheAmericanliteraryfield,1860–1890 11
literary forms and mass culture, 1870–1920
NancyBentley,UniversityofPennsylvania
1 MuseumRealism 65
2 Howells,James,andtherepublicofletters 107
3 WomenandRealistauthorship 137
4 Chesnuttandimperialspectacle 181
5 Wharton,travel,andmodernity 224
6 Adams,James,DuBois,andsocialthought 247
promises of american life, 1880–1920
WalterBennMichaels,UniversityofIllinois,Chicago
1 AnAmericantragedy,orthepromiseofAmericanlife 287
2 Theproductionofvisibility 315
3 Thecontractedheart 348
4 Success 376
becoming multicultural: culture, economy, and
the novel, 1860–1920
SusanL.Mizruchi,BostonUniversity
1 Introduction 413
2 Rememberingcivilwar 421
v
vi contents
3 Socialdeathandthereconstructionofslavery 454
4 Cosmopolitanvariations 492
5 Native-Americansacrificeinanageofprogress 535
6 Marketingculture 568
7 Varietiesofwork 616
8 CorporateAmerica 666
9 Realistutopias 710
Chronology 741
Bibliography 779
Index 785
illustrations
1. “BurialParty,ColdHarbor,Virginia,April15,1865,”
fromPhotographicSketchBookoftheWarbyAlexander
Gardner(1865) page426
2. SaturdayEveningPost,July18,1903backpage,textofTheCall
oftheWildbyJackLondon,surroundedbyadvertisements 570
3. “Racine’sCanoes,”Harper’sWeekly,April18,1908 572
4. “Waterman’sIdealFountainPen,”AtlanticMonthly,June1907 573
5. Sapolio,“MakingtheDirtFly,”Putnam’sMonthly,June1907 576
6. Sapolio,“APieceofGoodFortune,”CenturyMagazine69,
September1905 577
7. Sapolio,“Hasitdawnedonyourhome?”Putnam’sMonthly,May
1907 578
8. Sapolio,“TheTurkishBath,”Putnam’sMonthly,September1907 579
9. Sapolio,“Kosher,”CenturyMagazine,June1904 580
10. Sapolio,“TheHouseofSapolio,”Putnam’sMonthly,July1907 581
11. RegalShoesad,fromWalterDillScott,ThePsychologyof
Advertising(1908) 586
12. “GothamCourt,”JacobRiis,HowTheOtherHalfLives(1890),
courtesyoftheMuseumoftheCityofNewYork 645
13. “RearTenement,RooseveltStreet,”JacobRiis,HowTheOther
HalfLives(1890),courtesyoftheMuseumoftheCityofNew
York 646
14. “StreetArabsinSleepingQuarters,”JacobRiis,HowTheOther
HalfLives(1890),courtesyoftheMuseumoftheCityofNew
York 647
15. “Mullin’sAlley,”JacobRiis,HowTheOtherHalfLives(1890),
courtesyoftheMuseumoftheCityofNewYork 648
16. “InaSweatshop,”JacobRiis,HowTheOtherHalfLives(1890),
courtesyoftheMuseumoftheCityofNewYork 649
17. “TheTrenchinthePotter’sField,”JacobRiis,HowTheOtherHalf
Lives(1890),courtesyoftheMuseumoftheCityofNewYork 650
vii
viii list of illustrations
18. “InTheHomeofanItalianRag-Picker,JerseyStreet,”Jacob
Riis,HowTheOtherHalfLives(1890),courtesyofthe
MuseumoftheCityofNewYork 651
19,20. IllustrationsbyJayHambidgeforAbrahamCahan’sThe
AutobiographyofaJew:TheRiseofDavidLevinsky,McClure’s
Magazine,July1913 674,675
21. PhotographofMarkTwainandHenryRodgerssailing
togetherinBermuda(1907),courtesyoftheMarkTwain
Project,TheBancroftLibrary 682
acknowledgments
from the general editor
MythankstoAudreyCotterellofCambridgeUniversityPressforherextraor-
dinarycopy-editingskills,toSeanMcCreery,mysuperbresearchassistant,and
toHarvardUniversity,whichprovidedthefundsoverthepasttwentyyearsfor
thisproject.Thisvolumeisthelastinaseriesofeightvolumes,publishedout
ofsequence,thatbeganpublicationin1986.Someofthecontributorsfinished
their sections much earlier than others, and had to wait longer than normal
patiencewouldallowuntiltheirparticularvolumewasreadyforpublication.
Iamgratefulfortheirgenerosity,forbearance,andunderstanding,toRichard
H.Brodhead,thenatYaleUniversity,nowPresidentofDukeUniversity,and
toWalterBennMichaels,thenatJohnsHopkinsUniversity,nowattheUni-
versity of Illinois, Chicago Circle, both of whom completed their work by
1992 (though of course both have reviewed and revised their typescripts for
thispublication).
I want to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to a great
Americanist of an earlier generation, Daniel Aaron, with whom I first dis-
cussedthisproject,andwhosewisdom,insight,andencouragementhavebeen
amainstayforme,personallyandprofessionally,overthepasttwodecades.
Finally, my thanks to John Tessitore, representative of the best of the new
generation of Americanists, who wrote most of the second part of the Intro-
duction, summarizing the connections between the different sections of this
volume.
SacvanBercovitch
the american literary field, 1860–1890
Because the Select Bibliography to these volumes excludes single-author
works,IwanttoacknowledgeherethreebooksthatIfoundparticularlyhelpful:
Hamlin Garland, A Son of the Middle Border (New York: Macmillan, 1917),
MarthaSaxton,LouisaMay:AModernBiographyofLouisaMayAlcott(Boston:
ix