Founded in fiction : the uses of fiction in the early United States / Thomas Koenigs.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Koenigs, Thomas, 1985- author.

Series:

Princeton scholarship online.

Princeton scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American fiction--18th century--History and criticism.

American fiction.

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

Literature and society--United States--History--18th century.

Literature and society.

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

Politics and literature.

Social problems in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (336 pages)

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2021]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

What is the use of fiction? This question preoccupied writers in the early United States, where many cultural authorities insisted that fiction-reading would mislead readers about reality. 'Founded in Fiction' argues that this suspicion made early American writers especially attuned to one of fiction's defining but often overlooked features: its fictionality. Thomas Koenigs shows how these writers explored the unique types of speculative knowledge that fiction could create as they sought to harness different varieties of fiction for a range of social and political projects. Spanning the years 1789-1861, the book challenges the 'rise of novel' narrative that has long dominated the study of American fiction by highlighting how many of the texts that have often been considered the earliest American novels actually defined themselves in contrast to the novel.

Contents:

Frontmatter

contents

Introduction

PART I

chapter 1 The Problem of Fictionality and the Nonfictional Novel

chapter 2 Republican Fictions

chapter 3 Fictionality and Female Conduct

PART II

chapter 4 The Shifting Logics of Historical Fiction

chapter 5 Hoaxing in an Age of Novels

chapter 6 Fictionality and Social Criticism

chapter 7 Fictionality, Slavery, and Intersubjective Knowledge

Coda: Romance and Reality in the 1850s and Beyond

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index

Notes:

Also issued in print: 2021.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on May 6, 2022).

ISBN:

9780691219820

0691219826

OCLC:

1235902974