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The Resource The fabrication of American literature : fraudulence and antebellum print culture, Lara Langer Cohen

The fabrication of American literature : fraudulence and antebellum print culture, Lara Langer Cohen

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Summary
"Literary histories typically celebrate the antebellum period as marking the triumphant emergence of American literature. But the period's readers and writers tell a different story: they derided literature as a fraud, an imposture, and a humbug, and they likened it to inflated currency, land bubbles, and quack medicine. Excavating a rich archive of magazine fiction, verse satires, comic almanacs, false slave narratives, minstrel song sheets, and early literary criticism, and revisiting such familiar figures as Edgar Allan Poe, Davy Crockett, Fanny Fern, and Herman Melville, Lara Langer Cohen uncovers the controversies over literary fraudulence that plagued these years and uses them to offer an ambitious rethinking of the antebellum print explosion. She traces the checkered fortunes of American literature from the rise of literary nationalism, which was beset by accusations of puffery, to the conversion of fraudulence from a national dilemma into a sorting mechanism that produced new racial, regional, and gender identities. Yet she also shows that even as fraudulence became a sign of marginality, some authors managed to turn their dubious reputations to account, making a virtue of their counterfeit status. This forgotten history, Cohen argues, presents a dramatically altered picture of American literature's role in antebellum culture, one in which its authority is far from assured, and its failures matter as much as its achievements."--Project Muse
Language
eng
Work
Publication
Edition
1st ed.
Extent
1 online resource (256 pages)
Isbn
9780812205190
Link
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/j.ctt3fj50r
Instance
Label
The fabrication of American literature : fraudulence and antebellum print culture
Title
The fabrication of American literature
Title remainder
fraudulence and antebellum print culture
Statement of responsibility
Lara Langer Cohen
Creator
Author
Subject
Language
eng
Summary
"Literary histories typically celebrate the antebellum period as marking the triumphant emergence of American literature. But the period's readers and writers tell a different story: they derided literature as a fraud, an imposture, and a humbug, and they likened it to inflated currency, land bubbles, and quack medicine. Excavating a rich archive of magazine fiction, verse satires, comic almanacs, false slave narratives, minstrel song sheets, and early literary criticism, and revisiting such familiar figures as Edgar Allan Poe, Davy Crockett, Fanny Fern, and Herman Melville, Lara Langer Cohen uncovers the controversies over literary fraudulence that plagued these years and uses them to offer an ambitious rethinking of the antebellum print explosion. She traces the checkered fortunes of American literature from the rise of literary nationalism, which was beset by accusations of puffery, to the conversion of fraudulence from a national dilemma into a sorting mechanism that produced new racial, regional, and gender identities. Yet she also shows that even as fraudulence became a sign of marginality, some authors managed to turn their dubious reputations to account, making a virtue of their counterfeit status. This forgotten history, Cohen argues, presents a dramatically altered picture of American literature's role in antebellum culture, one in which its authority is far from assured, and its failures matter as much as its achievements."--Project Muse
Member of
Cataloging source
SFB
Index
index present
Literary form
non fiction
Nature of contents
  • dictionaries
  • bibliography
The fabrication of American literature : fraudulence and antebellum print culture, Lara Langer Cohen
Label
The fabrication of American literature : fraudulence and antebellum print culture, Lara Langer Cohen
Link
http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/j.ctt3fj50r
Publication
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Antecedent source
not applicable
Bibliography note
Includes bibliographical references and index
Carrier category
online resource
Carrier category code
cr
Carrier MARC source
rdacarrier
Content category
text
Content type code
txt
Content type MARC source
rdacontent
http://library.link/vocab/cover_art
https://contentcafe2.btol.com/ContentCafe/Jacket.aspx?Return=1&Type=S&Value=9780812205190&userID=ebsco-test&password=ebsco-test
http://library.link/vocab/discovery_link
{'f': 'http://opac.lib.rpi.edu/record=b4328168'}
Edition
1st ed.
Extent
1 online resource (256 pages)
Form of item
online
Isbn
9780812205190
Media category
computer
Media MARC source
rdamedia
Media type code
c
Quality assurance targets
not applicable
Reformatting quality
not applicable
Specific material designation
remote

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