BRITISH INFLUENCE ON THE BIRTH OF AMERICAN LITERATURE

Transcription

1 BRITISH INFLUENCE ON THE BIRTH OF AMERICAN LITERATURE

2 BRITISH INFLUENCE ON THE BRITH OF AMERICAN LITERATURE Linden Peach M MACMILLAN PRESS LONOON

3 ~ Linden Peach 1982 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means without permission First edition 1982 Reprinted 1983 ISBN Published by THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD London and Basingstoke Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN (ebook) DOI / Typeset by Computacomp (UK) Ltd, Fort William, Scotland

4 To my wife, Pamela

5 Contents Preface Acknowledgements I British Authors at an American Birth I 2 Man, Nature and Wordsworth: American Versions 29 3 Emerson, Imagination and a New American Poetry 58 4 Imaginative Sympathy: Hawthorne's British Soul-mate 91 5 Man-out-of-clothes: Melville's Debt to Carlyle The True Face of Democracy? Carlyle's Challenge to Whitman's Idealism 162 Conclusion 194 Notes 201 Selected Bibliography 208 Index 213 lx Xll

6 This whole business of influence is mysterious. Sometimes it's just a few words that open up a whole prospect. Ted Hughes

7 Preface The first half of the nineteenth century was a unique period in American literary history- indeed, in any country's literary history. It is difficult to fmd another period when the regeneration of literature in one country was inspired not only by that country's developing sense of nationhood, but, paradoxically, by the revival of literature in a country from which it had a generation earlier broken away. There are few comparable periods when so many of a country's major authors were so significantly indebted to their contemporaries in another country. The major authors who constituted this American literary renaissance were among the first to recognise that America was a movement outside Europe and the Old World, to embrace the mythical and spiritual significances of their country. This involved not only the formation of a new consciousness, but, as D. H. Lawrence has pointed out, 'a disintegrating and sloughing of the old consciousness'. Consequently, this book has a special slant. It is concerned not only to show that British influence was an important factor in the rebirth of American literature, but also tries to solve the paradox of that situation: why authors working at a distinctive non-british literature should turn to British contemporaries for inspiration and submit to influences from a literature from which their own was intended to be a radical departure. The reader must not be put off by the book's concern with influence. It is not interested in tracing influences as an

8 x British Influence on the Birth of American Literature academic exercise. It is an attempt to show how an understanding of each American author's debt to a British writer contributes much to our appreciation of that American writer's work, his major preoccupations as a writer, and what he was trying to achieve in his work. It also gives his originality perspective while helping us to define more clearly the distinctive nature of American, as opposed to British, writing. A fundamental weakness in many of the attempts at a definition of American literature is that they have not involved a comparative approach. Thus, while Leslie Fiedler finds that American writing is characterised by homosexuality and Charles Fiedelson has argued that the distinguishing characteristic of American literature is its symbolism, neither has explored homosexuality or symbolism in British literature. A study of the use which American writers made of British literature is an especially useful comparative approach in this respect for it draws attention to some specific areas of agreement and disagreement between the two literatures. With the notable exception of Harold Bloom, most scholars who have chosen not to ignore interrelationships within literature have tended to simplify the subject of influence. This book has sought to counter such simplification. An understanding of how many major American authors of the nineteenth century used the work of their British contemporaries without compromising their own originality, of how many of them were actually helped towards their own creativity through this indebtedness, involves a fuller appreciation of the creative and assimilative processes underlying the whole subject of influence than scholarship has to date achieved. Although American writers of the period were influenced by earlier authors from Britain, this book concentrates on contemporary British influences. Apart from the fact that

9 Preface Xl most of these other influences are well-documented, only a few proved crucial shaping forces on the American writer concerned. More important, the collective influence of Romantic and Victorian authors on the American writers of the period is an unrivalled phenomenon in its own right which has never been fully appreciated. August 1980 L.P.

10 Acknowledgements This book is based upon an original study for which the degree of Ph.D. was awarded by the University of Wales. I am indebted to Dr Laurel Brake for her help and advice on the original thesis and to Dr Arthur Johnston, formerly Rendel Professor of English at the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, for his encouragement. I am indebted to the staff of the British Library, London; the National Library of Wales; and of the University Libraries of Aberystwyth and University College, London, for their kind assistance. Special thanks must go to my wife, Pamela, for her encouragement, assistance and, above all, patience, and to Alice Edwards for her speed and efficiency in typing the manuscript for publication. L.P.