Research Catalog

Title

Conscience and purpose : fiction and social consciousness in Howells, Jewett, Chesnutt, and Cather / Paul R. Petrie.

Author

Petrie, Paul R., 1964-

Publication

Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, [2005], ©2005.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xvii, 234 pages; 24 cm.

Summary

"In a series of influential essays that appeared in Harper's, W. D. Howells argued for literature as a vehicle for social change. Literature could and should, Howells suggested, mediate across divisions of class and region, fostering cross-cultural sympathies that would lead to comprehensive social and ethical reform." "Paul R. Petrie explores the legacy of Howells's beliefs as they manifest themselves in his fiction and in the works of three major American writers - Charles W. Chesnutt, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Willa Cather. Each author struggled to adapt Howells's social-ethical agenda for literature to his or her own aesthetic goals and to alternative conceptions of literary purpose. Jewett not only embraced Howell's sense of social mission but also extended it by documenting commonplace cultural realities in a language and vision that was spiritual and transcendent. Chesnutt sought to improve relations between Anglo readers and African Americans, but his work, such as The Conjure Woman, also questions literature's ability to repair those divides." "Finally, Petrie shows how Cather, as she shifted from journalism to fiction writing, freed herself from Howells's influence. Alexander's Bridge (1912) and O Pioneers! (1913) both make reference to social and material realities but only as groundwork for character portrayals that are mythic and heroic. The result of Petrie's exploration is a refreshing reassessment of Howell's legacy and its impact on American literature and social history at the turn of the century."--BOOK JACKET.

Series Statement

Studies in American literary realism and naturalism

Uniform Title

Studies in American literary realism and naturalism.

Subjects

• Social ethics in literature
• Chesnutt, Charles W (Charles Waddell), 1858-1932 > Ethics
• Literature and society > United States
• Howells, William Dean, 1837-1920 > Ethics
• Ethics in literature
• American fiction > History and criticism
• Jewett, Sarah Orne, 1849-1909 > Ethics
• Conscience in literature
• Cather, Willa, 1873-1947 > Ethics

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [223]-231] and index.

Contents

1. W. D. Howell's literary antitheory : toward a social-ethical aesthetic in the Editor's study -- 2. What is to be done? : Howells's social-ethical fiction -- 3. "Unwritable things" : Sarah Orne Jewett's dual aesthetic in Deephaven and The country of the pointed firs -- 4. Charles W. Chesnutt and the limits of literary mediation -- 5. Willa Cather and the anti-realist uses of social reference -- 6. Implications.

ISBN

0817314849

LCCN

• 2005008009
• 9780817314842

OCLC

• ocm58788870
• SCSB-5214562

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries