'Everything Was Strange': Regional Nationalisms and Ironic Identities in Early National American Fiction
[Thesis]
[Thesis]
[Thesis]
[Thesis]
Brian Joao Garcia
Mailloux, Steven J.
University of California, Irvine
2015
193
Committee members: Clark, Michael P.; Lazo, Rodrigo; Miles, Jack
Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-321-68787-3
Ph.D.
English - Ph.D.
University of California, Irvine
2015
This dissertation examines the ironic treatment of the idea of the nation in works of US American (henceforth referred to simply as 'American') fiction written and published during the Early National period (approximately 1776-1828). Building from various theories of nationalism, rhetoric, and myth, I argue that authors of this period show an acute awareness of the creative, even mythical, nature of national identity and deliberately seek to invent the nation's constitutive mythos while also laying the foundation for its emergent literary culture. Though this endeavor is taken on by many (perhaps most) American authors of the period, my study focuses specifically on works that do so by simultaneously undermining, satirizing, and/or deconstructing the national-mythological stances of their rivals'-and sometimes even their own-rhetorical and political stances. By focusing on ostensibly non-didactic works, I will show the ways in which an ongoing concern with emergent national identity pervaded and was shaped by popular culture and regional loyalties.
Literature; American literature; Creativity; Fiction; National identity; African studies; Cultural identity; Politics; Rhetoric
Language, literature and linguistics;Social sciences;Early american;Early national;Identity;Irving;Islam;Nationalism