Contesting the past, reconstructing the nation : American literature and culture in the Gilded Age, 1876-1893 / Ben Railton.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Railton, Ben, 1977-

Series:

Studies in American literary realism and naturalism.

Studies in American literary realism and naturalism

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American literature--19th century--History and criticism.

American literature.

National characteristics, American, in literature.

Literature and society--United States--History--19th century.

Literature and society.

Sex role in literature.

Race in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (327 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, 2007.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Fables of American history embodied in Gilded Age literature In this study of Gilded Age literature and culture, Benjamin Railton proposes that in the years after Reconstruction, America's identity was often contested through distinct and competing conceptions of the nation's history. He argues that the United States moved toward unifying and univocal historical narratives in the years between the Centennial and Columbian Expositions, that ongoing social conflict provided sites for complications of those narratives, and that works of historical literature offer some

Contents:

"He wouldn't ever dared to talk such talk in his life before" : dialect slavery, and the race question

"If we had known how to write, we would have put all these things down and they would not have been forgotten" : silenced voices, forgotten, histories, and the Indian question

"That's the worst of being a woman. What you go through can't be told" : Private histories, public voices, and the woman question

"Quite the southern version" : the lure of alternative voices and histories of the southern question

"The way they talked in New Orleans in those days" : voice and history in and on the grandissimes.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [265]-304) and index.

ISBN:

0-8173-8020-5

OCLC:

183297118