American literary nationalism

The Portico magazine, an early tool of literary nationalist critics

American literary nationalism was a literary movement in the United States in the early-to mid 19th century, which consisted of American authors working towards the development of a distinct American literature. Literary figures such as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, William Cullen Bryant and William Ellery Channing advocated the creation of a definitively American form of literature with emphasis "on spiritual values and social usefulness." Longfellow wrote that "when we say that the literature of a country is national, we mean that it bears upon it the stamp of national character." Many authors of the time also advocated tying the literature to religion.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] These demands were also couched in a perceived contrast between the English author as a "well-off amateur writer ... who writes in his spare time for personal amusement" and the American as a "professional author, writing out of economic necessity".[10]

Aftermath of the War of 1812

The predominant rhetoric of early post-War of 1812 literary nationalists advocated more expansive treatment of American characters, settings, and events, but expressed with a morality and style that matched British conventions. Critic and author John Neal was unique in this early period for demanding and experimenting with natural diction and "ungenteel and sometimes bluntly profane"[11] American colloquialism.[12] The predominant early rhetoric is exemplified by James Fenimore Cooper, who in 1828 claimed that "the literature of England and that of America must be fashioned after the same models."[13] A forerunner of later American voices, Neal expressed the same year in the "Unpublished Preface" to Rachel Dyer that "to succeed...[the American writer] must resemble nobody...[he] must be unlike all that have gone before [him]" and issue "another Declaration of Independence, in the great Republic of Letters."[14]

Literary nationalist criticism

The Portico magazine under Stephen Simpson and Tobias Watkins played an important early role in promoting literary nationalist criticism by Neal and others during its two-year run 1816–1818.[15] In January 1820, English critic Sydney Smith quipped in the Edinburgh Review "In the four-quarters of the globe, who reads an American book?". James Kirke Paulding issued a scathing reply later that year in the Salmagundi, calling for the US to develop its own rival literature that abandons "servile imitation" of British precedent.[16] Smith's quip also inspired Neal to pursue a career in British literary journals.[17] From London, he wrote the American Writers series (1824–25) for Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, in which he declared the US had not yet developed its own literary voice, but could with the right encouragement.[18] Such advocacy in newspapers and magazines became more fashionable after 1830.[19]

Literary magazines and impact of the movement

The United States Magazine and Democratic Review under John L. O'Sullivan was a highly successful journal in the 1830s that published many American authors. O'Sullivan wrote in the magazine's first issue that "we have no national literature ... the vital principal of an American national literature must be democracy." He continued to say that "the voice of America might be made to produce a powerful and beneficial effect on the development of truth." In 1847, The Literary World was founded. Devoted to reviewing American works, it soon became one of America's most influential literary magazines. By 1850, the movement had generally succeeded. The authors involved in developing an American literature would continue to shape it for "the next 100 years".[1][9]

See also

• American Indian literary nationalism
• American literary regionalism
• American literature
• American Renaissance (literature)

References

1. Frederick, John T. (1959). "American Literary Nationalism: The Process of Definition, 1825-1850". The Review of Politics. 21 (1): 224–238. doi:10.1017/S0034670500022038. ISSN 0034-6705. JSTOR 1405346. S2CID 144408994.
2. Clark, Harry Hayden (1933). "Nationalism in American Literature". University of Toronto Quarterly. 2 (4): 492–519. doi:10.3138/utq.2.4.492. ISSN 1712-5278. S2CID 161208635.
3. Reynes-Delobel, Anne (2018-06-21). "J. Gerald Kennedy, Strange Nation: Literary Nationalism and Cultural Conflict in the Age of Poe. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016, 472 pages". IdeAs. Idées d'Amériques (11). doi:10.4000/ideas.2935. ISSN 1950-5701.
4. Free, William J. (1968). The Columbian Magazine and American Literary Nationalism. Mouton. ISBN 978-3-11-101365-7.
5. Martin, Dennis Michael (1973). Modern American Literary Nationalism.
6. "American literature: a vanishing subject?". American Academy of Arts & Sciences. May 2006. Retrieved 2020-11-28.
7. Campbell, Charles Alexander (1951). "The Great American Novel": A Study in Literary Nationalism, 1870-1900. University of Minnesota.
8. McGill, Meredith L. (2007-04-30). American Literature and the Culture of Reprinting, 1834-1853. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-1995-1.
9. The United States Magazine and Democratic Review. Langtree and O'Sullivan. 1838. p. 14.
10. Merlob, Maya (2012). "Chapter 5: Celebrated Rubbish: John Neal and the Commercialization of Early American Romanticism". In Watts, Edward; Carlson, David J. (eds.). John Neal and Nineteenth Century American Literature and Culture. Lewisburg, Pennsylvania: Bucknell University Press. p. 114. ISBN 9781611484205.
11. Merlob, Maya (2012). "Chapter 5: Celebrated Rubbish: John Neal and the Commercialization of Early American Romanticism". In Watts, Edward; Carlson, David J. (eds.). John Neal and Nineteenth Century American Literature and Culture. Lewisburg, Pennsylvania: Bucknell University Press. p. 109. ISBN 9781611484205.
12. Lease, Benjamin (1972). That Wild Fellow John Neal and the American Literary Revolution. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. pp. 69–70. ISBN 9780226469690.
13. Cooper, James Fenimore (1828). Notions of the Americans: Picked up by a Traveling Bachelor. Vol. 2. London, England: Henry Coburn, New Burlington Street. pp. 131–132.
14. Neal, John (1828). Rachel Dyer: A North American Story. Portland, Maine: Shirley and Hyde. pp. xii, xviii. OCLC 1167705583.
15. Fishwick, Marshall W. (1951). "The Portico and Literary Nationalism after the War of 1812". William and Mary Quarterly. 8 (2). Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture: 238–245. doi:10.2307/1916907. JSTOR 1916907.
16. Letter, Joseph J. (2010). "Past Presentisms: Suffering Soldiers, Benjaminian Ruins, and the Discursive Foundations of Early U.S. Historical Novels". American Literature. 82 (1): 29. doi:10.1215/00029831-2009-068.
17. Sears, Donald A. (1978). John Neal. Boston, Massachusetts: Twayne Publishers. p. 70. ISBN 978-0-8057-7230-2.
18. Gilmore, Paul (September 2012). "John Neal, American Romance, and International Romanticism". American Literature. 84 (3): 482–484.
19. Pollard, John A. (1943). "John Neal, Doctor of American Literature". Bulletin of Friends Historical Association. 32 (1): 5–6. doi:10.1353/qkh.1943.a395387. JSTOR 41944216.

Further reading

• Levine, Robert S. (2008). Dislocating race & nation : episodes in nineteenth-century American literary nationalism. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 978-0-8078-8788-2. OCLC 405080003.