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The drama of the American short story, 1800-1865 / Michael J. Collins.
Author
Collins, Michael J. (Michael James), 1984-
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Format
Book
Language
English
Published/Created
Ann Arbor : University of Michigan Press, [2016]
Description
vi, 270 pages ; 24 cm
Availability
Available Online
JSTOR DDA
University of Michigan Press Ebook Collection
Copies in the Library
Location
Call Number
Status
Location Service
Notes
Firestone Library - Stacks
PS374.S5 C55 2016
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Details
Subject(s)
Short stories, American
—
History and criticism
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American fiction
—
19th century
—
History and criticism
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Performance in literature
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Performing arts in literature
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Theater in literature
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Ritual in literature
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National characteristics, American, in literature
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America
—
In literature
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Summary note
This book argues that to truly understand the short story form, one must look at how it was shaped by the lively, chaotic, and deeply politicized world of 19th-century transatlantic theater and performance culture. By resurrecting long-neglected theatrical influences on representative works of short fiction, Michael J. Collins demonstrates that it was the unruly culture of the stage that first energized this most significant of American art forms. Whether it was Washington Irving's first job as theater critic, Melville's politically controversial love of British drama, Alcott's thwarted dreams of stage stardom, Poe and Lippard's dramatizations of peculiarly bloodthirsty fraternity hazings, or Hawthorne's fascination with automata, theater was a key imaginative site for the major pioneers of the American short story. The book shows how perspectives from theater studies, anthropology,and performance studies can enrich readings of the short story form. Moving beyond arbitrary distinctions between performance and text, it suggests that this literature had a social life and was engaged with questions of circumatlantic and transnational culture. It suggests that the short story itself was never conceived as a nationalist literary form,but worked by mobilizing cosmopolitan connections and meanings. In so doing, the book resurrects a neglected history of American Federalism and its connections to British literary forms.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references (pages 245-263) and index.
Contents
Introduction: The Irving brothers at the Park Theatre, 1802
"No garden of thought, nor elysium of fancy": Washington Irving's The sketch-book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent.
The rites of pure brotherhood: fraternalism and performance in Poe and Lippard
"The rule of men entirely great": Richelieu, ritual, and republicanism in Melville's diptychs
The "child of nature," or the "wonder of the age": Melville's child prodigies
"Contending for an empire": performing sincerity in Hawthorne's New England
Epilogue: Louisa May Alcott's theatrical realism.
Show 4 more Contents items
ISBN
9780472130030 ((hardcover ; : alk. paper))
047213003X ((hardcover ; : alk. paper))
LCCN
2016007481
OCLC
946987469
Statement on language in description
Princeton University Library aims to describe library materials in a manner that is respectful to the individuals and communities who create, use, and are represented in the collections we manage.
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The drama of the American short story, 1800-1865 / Michael J. Collins.
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The drama of the American short story, 1800-1865 / Michael J. Collins.
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