The “Literary Delinquency” Debate in Nineteenth-Century America

k 2021

The “Literary Delinquency” Debate in Nineteenth-Century America

SMITH, Jeffrey Alan

Basic information

Original name

The “Literary Delinquency” Debate in Nineteenth-Century America

Authors

SMITH, Jeffrey Alan

Edition

6th International Conference of English and American Studies, Silesian Studies in English – SILSE 2021, 9-10t September 2021, Institute of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Philosophy and Science, Silesian University in Opava, 2021

Other information

Language

English

Type of outcome

Prezentace na konferencích

Field of Study

60206 Specific literatures

Country of publisher

Czech Republic

Confidentiality degree

není předmětem státního či obchodního tajemství

References:

URL

Organization unit

Faculty of Arts

Keywords in English

American literature; nineteenth century; literary nationalism; Transcendentalism; Bible; parascripture; early journalism

Abstract

V originále

From the 1770s to the 1870s, American men and women of letters spent literally a century struggling with a question most famously (and tauntingly) put by a British critic in 1819: "In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book? or goes to an American play?" Numerous Americans themselves conceded America's "literary delinquency," agreed that "literature has no career in America" and that the US was a place "Where Fancy sickens, and where Genius dies." The very first meeting of the discussion group that became the Transcendentalist movement was devoted to the seeming failures of "American Genius," and for decades the issue preoccupied writers and critics both obscure and famous -- including William Ellery Channing, James Fenimore Cooper, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Herman Melville and Walt Whitman -- as well as prominent foreign observers like Alexis de Tocqueville and Harriet Martineau. This presentation takes a close look at this long debate to identify its different phases, arguments and counter-arguments, noting various theories of the ambitious young nation's supposed cultural backwardness and of how, or whether, it would finally be overcome.

Links

MUNI/A/1446/2020, interní kód MU

Name: Paradigms, strategies and developments - Anglophone literary and cultural studies

Investor: Masaryk University

Citovat

SMITH, Jeffrey Alan. The “Literary Delinquency” Debate in Nineteenth-Century America. In 6th International Conference of English and American Studies, Silesian Studies in English – SILSE 2021, 9-10t September 2021, Institute of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Philosophy and Science, Silesian University in Opava. 2021.

@proceedings{1821883,
   author = {Smith, Jeffrey Alan},
   booktitle = {6th International Conference of English and American Studies, Silesian Studies in English – SILSE 2021, 9-10t September 2021, Institute of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Philosophy and Science, Silesian University in Opava},
   keywords = {American literature; nineteenth century; literary nationalism; Transcendentalism; Bible; parascripture; early journalism},
   language = {eng},
   title = {The “Literary Delinquency” Debate in Nineteenth-Century America},
   url = {https://www.slu.cz/file/cul/831785ee-3bb4-44b9-996e-677e5ec0e3d8},
   year = {2021}
}

TY  - CONF
ID  - 1821883
AU  - Smith, Jeffrey Alan
PY  - 2021
TI  - The “Literary Delinquency” Debate in Nineteenth-Century America
KW  - American literature
KW  - nineteenth century
KW  - literary nationalism
KW  - Transcendentalism
KW  - Bible
KW  - parascripture
KW  - early journalism
UR  - https://www.slu.cz/file/cul/831785ee-3bb4-44b9-996e-677e5ec0e3d8
N2  - From the 1770s to the 1870s, American men and women of letters spent literally a century struggling with a question most famously (and tauntingly) put by a British critic in 1819: "In the four quarters of the globe, who reads an American book? or goes to an American play?" Numerous Americans themselves conceded America's "literary delinquency," agreed that "literature has no career in America" and that the US was a place "Where Fancy sickens, and where Genius dies." The very first meeting of the discussion group that became the Transcendentalist movement was devoted to the seeming failures of "American Genius," and for decades the issue preoccupied writers and critics both obscure and famous -- including William Ellery Channing, James Fenimore Cooper, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Margaret Fuller, Herman Melville and Walt Whitman -- as well as prominent foreign observers like Alexis de Tocqueville and Harriet Martineau. This presentation takes a close look at this long debate to identify its different phases, arguments and counter-arguments, noting various theories of the ambitious young nation's supposed cultural backwardness and of how, or whether, it would finally be overcome.
ER  -

SMITH, Jeffrey Alan. The “Literary Delinquency” Debate in Nineteenth-Century America. In \textit{6th International Conference of English and American Studies, Silesian Studies in English – SILSE 2021, 9-10t September 2021, Institute of Foreign Languages, Faculty of Philosophy and Science, Silesian University in Opava}. 2021.

Detailed Information on Publication Record