Writing Reconstruction: Race, Gender, and Citizenship in the Postwar South (Gender and American Culture)

"After the Civil War, the South was divided into five military districts occupied by Union forces. Out of these regions, a remarkable group of writers emerged. Experiencing the long-lasting ramifications of Reconstruction firsthand, many of these writers sought to translate the era's promise into practice. In fiction, newspaper journalism, and other forms of literature, authors including George Washington Cable, Albion Tourgée, Constance Fenimore Woolson, and Octave Thanet imagined a new South in which freedpeople could prosper as citizens with agency. Radically re-envisioning the role of women in the home, workforce, and marketplace, these writers also made gender a vital concern of their work. Still, working from the South, the authors were often subject to the whims of a northern literary market. Their visions of citizenship depended on their readership's deference to conventional claims of duty, labor, reputation, and property ownership. The circumstances surrounding the production and circulation of their writing blunted the full impact of the period's literary imagination and fostered a drift into the stereotypical depictions and other strictures that marked the rise of Jim Crow. Sharon D. Kennedy-Nolle blends literary history with archival research to assess the significance of Reconstruction literature as a genre. Founded on witness and dream, the pathbreaking work of its writers made an enduring, if at times contradictory, contribution to American literature and history."--Page 4 de la couverture "After the Civil War, the South was divided into five military districts occupied by Union forces. Out of these regions, a remarkable group of writers emerged. Experiencing the long-lasting ramifications of Reconstruction firsthand, many of these writers sought to translate the era's promise into practice. In fiction, newspaper journalism, and other forms of literature, authors including George Washington Cable, Albion Tourgée, Constance Fenimore Woolson, and Octave Thanet imagined a new South in which freedpeople could prosper as citizens with agency. Radically re-envisioning the role of women in the home, workforce, and marketplace, these writers also made gender a vital concern of their work. Still, working from the South, the authors were often subject to the whims of a northern literary market. Their visions of citizenship depended on their readership's deference to conventional claims of duty, labor, reputation, and property ownership. The circumstances surrounding the production and circulation of their writing blunted the full impact of the period's literary imagination and fostered a drift into the stereotypical depictions and other strictures that marked the rise of Jim Crow. Sharon D. Kennedy-Nolle blends literary history with archival research to assess the significance of Reconstruction literature as a genre. Founded on witness and dream, the pathbreaking work of its writers made an enduring, if at times contradictory, contribution to American literature and history."--Page 4 de la couverture MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict MuPDF error: syntax error: invalid key in dict Cover 1 Contents 8 Acknowledgments 12 INTRODUCTION. Owning Up to Citizenship 18 CHAPTER 1. Constance Fenimore Woolson and the Tourist Outback of Florida 42 CHAPTER 2. Sewing on the Badges of Servitude: Albion Tourgée v. North Carolina 93 CHAPTER 3. African American Literary Activism in a Divided District: Storer College and the Pioneer Press of West Virginia 140 CHAPTER 4. George Washington Cable and the Wages of Ventriloquized Performance in New Orleans, Louisiana 195 CHAPTER 5. Iowa’s American Gothic in Arkansas: The Plantation Fiction of Octave Thanet 247 CONCLUSION. The Strange Career of Reconstruction Writing 298 Notes 320 Bibliography 360 Index 394 A 394 B 396 C 396 D 400 E 401 F 402 G 405 H 406 I 407 J 408 K 408 L 409 M 411 N 412 O 414 P 414 Q 417 R 417 S 420 T 424 U 426 V 426 W 427 Y 429 Z 429 "After the Civil War, the South was divided into five military districts occupied by Union forces. Out of these regions, a remarkable group of writers emerged. Experiencing the long-lasting ramifications of Reconstruction firsthand, many of these writers sought to translate the era's promise into practice. In fiction, newspaper journalism, and other forms of literature, authors including George Washington Cable, Albion Tourgée, Constance Fenimore Woolson, and Octave Thanet imagined a new South in which freedpeople could prosper as citizens with agency. Radically re-envisioning the role of women in the home, workforce, and marketplace, these writers also made gender a vital concern of their work. Still, working from the South, the authors were often subject to the whims of a northern literary market. Their visions of citizenship depended on their readership's deference to conventional claims of duty, labor, reputation, and property ownership. The circumstances surrounding the production and circulation of their writing blunted the full impact of the period's literary imagination and fostered a drift into the stereotypical depictions and other strictures that marked the rise of Jim Crow."--Publisher's Web site Cover......Page 1 Contents......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 12 INTRODUCTION. Owning Up to Citizenship......Page 18 CHAPTER 1. Constance Fenimore Woolson and the Tourist Outback of Florida......Page 42 CHAPTER 2. Sewing on the Badges of Servitude: Albion Tourgée v. North Carolina......Page 93 CHAPTER 3. African American Literary Activism in a Divided District: Storer College and the Pioneer Press of West Virginia......Page 140 CHAPTER 4. George Washington Cable and the Wages of Ventriloquized Performance in New Orleans, Louisiana......Page 195 CHAPTER 5. Iowa’s American Gothic in Arkansas: The Plantation Fiction of Octave Thanet......Page 247 CONCLUSION. The Strange Career of Reconstruction Writing......Page 298 Notes......Page 320 Bibliography......Page 360 A......Page 394 C......Page 396 D......Page 400 E......Page 401 F......Page 402 G......Page 405 H......Page 406 I......Page 407 K......Page 408 L......Page 409 M......Page 411 N......Page 412 P......Page 414 R......Page 417 S......Page 420 T......Page 424 V......Page 426 W......Page 427 Z......Page 429 Introduction: Owning up to citizenship Constance Fenimore Woolson and the tourist outback of Florida Sewing on the badges of servitude: Albion Tourgee v. North Carolina African American literary activism in a divided district: Storer College and the pioneer press of West Virginia George washington Cable and the wages of ventriloquized peformance in New Orleans, Louisiana Iowa's American gothic in Arkansas: the plantation fiction of Octave Thanet Conclusion: The strange career of reconstruction writing.