Literature and Consumption in Nineteenth-Century America

Edited by Nicole Maruo-Schröder and Christoph Ribbat.

Eight essays dismiss a neat cultural-historical distinction between Progressive Era classics and antebellum literature to arrive at a fuller picture of the relationship between commerce, mass consumption and literary representation in the 19th century. - Instead of treating antebellum America and the century's turn as two discrete periods, the editors of this volume aim for a more flexible framework. They propose reading Progressive Era classics side by side with literary and popular texts exploring - and feeding - the flow of commodities long before Theodore Dreiser portrayed department stores. Discussing the intricate relationships of mass consumption and literary representation, European and North American contributors focus on Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Dean Howells, Henry James, Mark Twain, Paul Laurence Dunbar, and Edith Wharton. They also turn to less securely canonized fields: New England 'factory girl' literature, multimedia abolitionist spectacle, and the formative years of literary tourism. - Contents: Katja Kanzler: Discourses of Production and Consumption in New England 'Factory Girl' Literature. - Nicole Maruo-Schröder: A »Dish Offered to the Public«. The Business of Gender and Class in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The House of the Seven Gables". - Christoph Ribbat: »Where Do You Get Your Daguerreotypes?« Image, Text, Race, and a Nineteenth-Century Businessman. - Klara Stephanie Szlezák: Sages and Souvenirs. The Origins of American Literary Tourism in Concord, Massachusetts. - Arthur F. Redding: American Tourism and the Emergence of Mass Culture. Mark Twain's "The Innocents Abroad". - William M. Decker: Consuming Europe. "Daisy Miller" and the Package Tour. - Simone Knewitz: »Try My Tivoli«. Conspicuous Consumption in William Dean Howell's "A Modern Instance". - Eva Boesenberg: Sex and the City. Gender and Consumption in Late Nineteenth-Century Fiction. - 171 Seiten mit 5 Abb., broschiert (Anglistik und Englischunterricht; Vol. 82/Universitätsverlag Winter 2014)