Sims 1

Karen  Sims                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        (word  count:  4136)    Dr.  Annie  Merrill  ENG  280  15  Dec  2014  

 The Creation Myth of American Literature

 

(As Told by Publishers)

 Is  anything  more  characteristic  of  American  Literature  than  to  ask  what  exactly  is  

American  Literature?  Its  origins  are  debatable  (as  with  all  categories  of  literature),  but  the  birth  of  American  “Literature”  is  often  attributed  to  the  first  published  text  regarding  the  discovery  of  the  “New  World”  by  the  European  explorer  Christopher  Columbus.  However,  before  Columbus,  a  thriving  culture  of  storytelling  was  already  deeply  immersed  in  the  diverse  Native  American  civilizations  of  the  Americas.  Where  is  the  line  drawn  between  stories  and  Literature?  Often  with  the  printed  word.  A  bedtime  story  told  by  your  mother  is  unlikely  to  win  a  Nobel  Prize  unless  she  writes  it  downs  and  makes  it  accessible  to  others.  In  other  words,  unless  she  publishes.  However,  what  happens  if  your  mother  doesn’t  write?  What  happens  if  publishers  refuse  to  print  the  story  of  Penny  the  Purple  Hippopotamus  because  it’s  not  likely  to  sell?  Just  think,  of  all  the  narratives  in  the  world,  only  a  few  are  collected  in  text  form.  Then  of  these,  only  a  few  are  published,  and  even  fewer  are  widely  disseminated.  Then,  as  time  progresses,  even  fewer  are  collected  into  anthologies,  and  of  those  how  many  did  you  actually  read  for  your  American  Literature  class?  

Despite  our  love  for  modernist  poetry  and  transcendentalist  essays,  is  there  not  something  problematic  in  the  fact  that  the  word  “American  Literature”  brings  up  the  cast  of  Midnight  in  Paris  more  than  the  Cherokee  oral  tradition  on  the  creation  of  the  world?  American  Literature  as  it  has  been  historically  taught  is  not  a  study  in  American  Literature  at  all.  It  is  a  study  in  the  history  of  American  publishing.  As  a  result,  non-­‐print  narratives  are  often  overlooked  in  favor  of  the  published  few.  From  the  nearly  forgotten  oral  traditions  of  Native  Americans  to  the  burgeoning  impact  of  digital  literature,  this  self-­‐published  digital  report  uses  the  material  found  in  the  Bedford  Anthology  of  American  Literature  and  students’  responses  to  it  to  urge  readers  to  remain  vigilantly  self-­‐conscious  in  their  exploration  of  American  Literature.  Although  the  anthology  does  an  excellent  job  of  outlining  the  discriminatory  impact  publishing  practices  have  had  on  what  constitutes  American  literature,  its  format  somewhat  perpetuates  the  notion  that  only  published  texts  are  literary  texts.  With  this  online  format,  this  “paper”  aims  to  ask  not  only  which  American  voices  have  been  ignored  in  the  past,  but  also  which  voices  are  we  ignoring  now.    

 

Sims 2

...From the “beginning”  

Far  before  the  exploration  of  the  Americas  by  European  explorers,  Native  American  populations  had  their  own  distinct  languages  and  cultures  across  what  would  eventually  become  the  geographical  expanse  of  the  United  States.  Adapting  to  their  local  environments,  there  existed  diverse  stories,  narratives,  and  voices  that  constituted  an  American  Literature  that  predates  publishing  altogether.  Although  petroglyphs  and  pictographs  were  used  by  some  groups  as  a  form  of  recording  information,  the  majority  of  communication  across  generations  was  through  oral  tradition.  Poems,  songs,  and  stories  were  passed  down  orally  with  the  significance  of  preserving  the  custom,  history,  and  traditions  of  humanity  (4).  There  were  even  stories  about  the  origin  of  stories,  showing  that  these  stories  held  the  same  degree  of  esteem  that  modern  English  majors  now  assign  to  the  word  “Literature”  (35).  

 One  such  story  is  the  tale  of  Gaqka  from  the  Iroquois  Confederacy,  first  recorded  in  the  written  word  by  David  Cusick  in  1827.  In  the  story,  Gaqka  is  an  outcast  who  runs  away  and  hears  a  mysterious  voice  coming  from  the  rocks  of  a  cliff.  The  voice  asks  for  tobacco  in  exchange  for  stories,  and  Gaqka  obliges,  eventually  collecting  a  bag  full  of  the  “wonder  tales  of  the  old  days”  (37).  Gaqka  shares  these  stories  with  the  people  and  becomes  an  honored  member  of  the  community  as  a  storyteller.  The  story  relates  not  only  the  importance  of  stories,  but  also  the  importance  of  storytelling,  showing  that  the  strength  in  stories  is  that  there  is  both  an  origin  and  a  destination,  both  a  teller  and  a  listener.    

 Unfortunately,  the  European  explorers  who  would  bring  publishing  and  print  culture  to  the  Americas  would  be  less  interested  in  listening  to  these  stories  than  in  exploiting  the  newfound  land  and  resources.  After  the  devastating  effects  of  European  exploration,  colonization,  and  disease,  Native  American  populations  had  decreased  dramatically  by  the  mid-­‐1700s,  and  it  wasn’t  until  the  nineteenth  century  that  the  effort  to  preserve  Native  American  literature  was  taken  seriously,  “when  Native  Americans  and  their  rich  cultures  were  being  erased  from  the  landscape  and  memory  of  the  nation”  (31).  Compared  to  the  publishing  of  Columbus’s  travel  narrative  in  1493,  these  ancient  narratives  were  not  published  until  nearly  400  years  later,  when  anthropologists  and  historians  scrambled  to  preserve  them  before  they  disappeared.  Unfortunately,  the  very  nature  of  the  stories  is  altered  when  published  in  print  form,  since  the  full  force  of  the  narratives  lies  in  their  oral  tradition  and  performance  (33).  Therefore,  although  these  tales  were  shaping  the  history  of  American  Literature  far  before  Columbus  landed  in  what  he  thought  was  Asia,  they  were  largely  ignored  by  the  publishing  industry  until  they  were  nearly  lost,  and  even  when  they  were  published  could  not  be  fully  appreciated  in  their  print  form.      

Sims 3

Meanwhile,  Columbus’s  letter  to  the  Spanish  sovereign  is  available  almost  word  for  word  as  it  was  originally  written,  although  translated  from  Italian  to  Latin  to  English  in  multiple  editions  until  its  presentation  in  the  Bedford  Anthology.  Published  in  Barcelona  in  1493,  the  letter  chronicles  Columbus’s  voyage  to  the  Americas,  including  vivid  descriptions  of  its  inhabitants  and  rich  resources  (61).  Inspired  by  his  favorite  book,  The  Travels  of  Marco  Polo,  Columbus’s  “factual,  first  hand  account”  was  nonetheless  tinged  with  exaggeration  and  his  biased,  European  lens  (65):    

 

“...as a result of this voyage I can say that this island is larger than England and Scotland together, for, beyond these one hundred and seven leagues, there remain to the westward two provinces to which I have not gone. One of these provinces they call “Avan,” and there people are born with tails.” (70)

   

Unsurprisingly,  Columbus’s  letter  was  closely  related  to  the  development  of  publishing  itself,  as  one  of  the  first  letters  to  be  printed  and  disseminated  across  Europe  less  than  fifty  years  after  the  invention  of  the  Gutenberg  printing  press  (2).  Columbus  had  this  developing  technology  in  mind  when  writing  his  letter,  fully  intending  for  the  letter  to  be  published  as  “a  kind  of  official  patent”  of  his  discoveries  (61).  Therefore,  although  Columbus  was  not  the  first  explorer  to  come  in  contact  with  the  Americas,  he  was  the  best  publicized,  and  as  Cody  Barnhill  writes  in  “Columbus  and  the  Birth  of  American  Beginnings,”  the  letter  became  a  “generally  accepted  origin  story  of  the  Modern  America”  (Barnhill).  Barnhill  argues  that  while  the  letter  “was  not  the  only  beginning  story  for  America,  it  was  a  particular  first,  that  encapsulated  the  idea  of  a  new  world  of  opportunity  for  those  willing  to  come  and  find  it,”  an  idea  which  many  readers  could  relate  to  their  own  European  ancestors’  immigration  to  the  Americas.  Columbus’  letter  is  an  example  of  how  the  favor  of  publishing  can  elevate  the  importance  of  certain  voices,  while  obscuring  the  realities  of  other,  less-­‐represented  narratives,  especially  those  of  a  more  auditory  tradition.    

           

Sims 4

...Revolution!  

     Fast  forward  to  the  1700s  where,  as  Cody  argues,  Columbus’s  exploration  is  an  accepted  “origin  story”  for  the  many  descendants  of  European  immigrants  living  in  the  American  colonies.  While  Columbus’s  success  was  the  result  of  the  Gutenberg  press’s  influence  in  Europe,  the  colonies  themselves  have  begun  to  develop  their  own  distinct  print  and  publishing  culture.  As  writing,  reading,  and  printing  develop  in  the  colonies  between  1750  and  1776,  so  do  the  ideological  discussions  of  “colonial  solidarity”  and  “national  identity,”  that  eventually  culminate  in  the  American  Revolution  (260).      However,  despite  the  diverse  background  of  the  American  populace,  these  voices  were  not  equally  represented  in  the  growth  of  an  American  print  culture  separate  from  those  of  Europe.  Although  pre-­‐revolution  America  was  home  to  immigrants  of  English,  Scotch-­‐Irish,  Dutch,  German  descent  as  well  as  Native  Americans  and  slaves  of  African  descent,  publishing  was  almost  exclusively  reserved  for  a  very  specific  set  of  voices  (262).  The  largest  voice,  arguably,  was  that  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  whose  connections  to  publishing  and  influential  impact  on  American  culture  are  unlikely  the  result  of  pure  coincidence.    

American Revolution: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/The_Siege_and_Relief_of_Gibraltar_(2).jpg

Sims 5

 Like  Columbus,  Franklin  understood  the  power  and  importance  of  publication  in  establishing  cultural  influence  and  actively  sought  to  improve  the  publishing  industry  in  the  colonies.  From  the  age  of  twelve,  Franklin  began  working  in  the  publishing  industry  as  an  apprentice  in  his  brother’s  printing  shop  (290).  He  would  eventually  travel  to  England,  whose  advanced  publishing  processes  he  would  bring  back  to  the  colonies  to  start  his  own  business  in  1726.  Franklin  would  ultimately  take  over  the  Pennsylvania  Gazette  and  publish  original  colonialist  reading  material,  much  of  which  written  by  himself.    As  Franklin  explains  in  his  autobiography,  he  was  originally  interested  in  writing  poetry,  but  was  discouraged  by  his  father  and  instead  took  up  prose  writing.  It  was  then  through  his  expertise  in  printing  that  allowed  these  works  to  establish  his  success  as  writer  and  founding  father  of  the  United  States  of  America:      

 

“But my Father discourag’d me...telling me Verse-makers were generally Beggars; so I escap’d being a Poet, most probably a very bad one. But as Prose Writing has been a great Use to me in the Course of my Life, and was a principal Means of my Advancement, I shall tell you how in such a Situation I acquir’d what little Ability I have in that Way.” (302)

   

However,  despite  Benjamin  Franklin’s  talents,  he  had  the  advantage  of  being  a  white  male  of  European  descent.  As  Andrew  Rikard  explains  in  “Fit  to  Be  Imitated  -­‐-­‐  The  American  Opportunity  Myth,”  Franklin’s  rags  to  riches  story  is  often  misrepresented,  obscuring  the  struggles  of  other  individuals  in  access  to  publication  and  representation  of  voice  in  American  history  and  literature.  Rikard  argues  that  “though  [Franklin]  lacked  material  goods  upon  entry  to  Philadelphia,  he  had  a  wealth  of  capabilities  given  to  him  by  the  access  provided  by  his  family,  his  race,  and  his  gender”  (Rikard).  Meanwhile,  women  were  limited  to  mostly  handwritten  publishing  through  manuscripts  of  poems,  stories,  and  letters  shared  amongst  themselves  (262).  Literacy,  which  would  provide  an  initial  access  to  publication,  was  illegal  for  slaves  and  varied  greatly  by  class,  religion,  and  location,  with  rates  higher  in  urban  compared  to  rural  communities  (270).    

Sims 6

Despite  such  obstacles,  disenfranchised  individuals  such  as  Absalom  Jones  were  able  to  have  their  voices  heard-­‐-­‐literally-­‐-­‐by  giving  influential  sermons  or  speeches,  although  the  survival  of  these  voices  still  depended  on  published,  printed  works.  For  example,  Jones’s  “Petition  of  the  People  of  Colour”  (1799)  is  a  written  plea  to  the  President  on  behalf  of  the  many  unheard  cries  of  a  people  whose  rights  have  been  ignored  in  the  drafting  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  and  the  Bill  of  Rights.  The  fact  that  Jones  (a  man  who  remarkably  bought  his  freedom  and  taught  himself  to  read  and  write)  felt  compelled  to  speak  for  an  entire  people  shows  the  degree  to  which  favoring  print  over  non-­‐print  narratives  acted  as  a  way  of  favoring  certain  voices  over  others  (406).  In  other  words,  despite  the  multitude  of  voices  that  existed  during  the  revolutionary  era  of  American  Literature,  many  non-­‐print  narratives  were  overlooked  and  are  now  lost  and  inaccessible,  leaving  a  biased,  unrepresentative  lens  on  the  American  literature  of  the  time  period.  

 

Absalom Jones: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Absalom-Jones_Peale.jpg

Sims 7

…American Renaissance  

Thankfully,  as  printing  and  publishing  progressed  in  the  United  States,  so  did  access  to  it,  and  therefore  representation  of  a  greater  variety  of  voices.  During  the  literary  period  of  1830  -­‐  1865,  American  publishing  flourished  in  the  growth  and  development  of  newspapers,  books,  periodicals,  shorts  stories,  and  novels  so  much  so  that  the  period  is  often  referred  to  as  the  American  Renaissance.  This  development  was  largely  due  to  technological  developments  in  paper  and  power-­‐press  printing,  allowing  for  cheaper  production  of  reading  material.  As  reading  material  grew,  so  did  literacy,  even  across  physical  and  social  boundaries  (486).  An  expanding  library  system  provided  opportunities  for  people  from  Walt  Whitman  to  Frederick  Douglass  the  opportunity  to  self-­‐educate  themselves  and  access  print  culture  despite  their  varied  circumstances  (486).    

       

 

Frederick Douglass: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/Frederick_Douglass_c1860s.jpg

Sims 8

As  education  and  literacy  increased,  so  did  the  call  for  social  progress,  the  most  widely  debated  issue  being  slavery.  The  hotly-­‐debated  topic  would  eventually  play  a  role  in  the  unfolding  of  the  Civil  War  (510).  However,  not  only  were  social  progressives  taking  advantage  of  the  burgeoning  print  industry,  they  were  also  taking  advantage  of  the  spoken  word.  During  this  time  of  the  American  Renaissance,  not  only  did  print  flourish,  but  non-­‐print  forms  were  also  quintessential  in  rousing  people  to  a  cause.  Many  of  the  most  renowned  writers  of  the  time  were  also  excellent  speakers,  whose  famous  “texts”  were  originally  lectures  or  sermons.  However,  over  time,  the  dual  importance  of  print  and  non-­‐print  forms  of  literature  were  forgotten  and  such  famous  works  of  Emerson  and  Douglass  are  often  treated  solely  as  texts,  which  dangerously  undermines  the  specific  significance  they  lend  to  American  literature  and  culture  as  works  of  spoken  word.  As  explained  by  the  Bedford  Anthology,  “By  exploiting  the  potent  combination  of  print  and  public  lectures  -­‐-­‐  many  of  which  were  either  reported  on  or  printed  in  newspapers  -­‐-­‐  reformers  appealed  at  once  to  the  individual  consciences  of  their  auditors  and  the  conscience  of  the  nation  to  address  the  many  injustices  in  the  United  States”  (504).      However,  Emerson  and  Douglass  had  very  different  reasons  for  using  both  print  and  speech  to  promote  their  causes.  While  Emerson’s  “The  American  Scholar”(1837)  was  published  as  a  means  to  preserve  his  influential  lecture  to  the  Kappa  society  at  Harvard  Divinity  School,  Douglass’s  Narrative  of  the  Life  of  Frederick  Douglass  was  a  means  to  prove  the  authenticity  of  the  story  behind  his  rousing  oratory  performances.  The  printed  version  of  Emerson’s  “The  American  Scholar”  celebrated  the  lecture  that  “marked  the  beginning  of  his  engagement  with  a  larger  audience”  (540).  However,  the  written  account  of  Douglass’s  Narrative  was  in  part  “a  response  to  doubts  about  the  authenticity”  of  his  story,  since  many  auditors  thought  his  “mastery  of  language  and  rhetoric...seemed  at  odds  with  his  story  of  laboriously  teaching  himself  to  read  and  write”  (702).  Only  by  analyzing  the  relationship  between  these  works  as  speeches  and  as  texts  do  readers  understand  the  full  story  behind  the  narratives.  Understanding  the  difference  between  Emerson’s  conversion  of  lecture  to  essays  versus  Douglass’s  conversion  of  speech  to  book,  illuminates  the  full  extent  of  the  biases  within  print  culture  and  American  literature.  By  ignoring  the  oratory  history  behind  these  texts,  we  ignore  a  crucial  lesson  on  privilege,  in  which  Emerson  did  not  need  to  prove  the  authenticity  of  his  arguments  because  of  his  race,  while  Douglass  did.  In  essence,  we  ignore  the  nuanced  messages  of  discrimination  in  the  voices  of  the  underprivileged.              

Sims 9

...the Civil War

 

     Following  the  Civil  War,  further  developments  in  publishing  continued  to  increase  the  prevalence  of  print  culture  in  American  literature.  However,  while  inventions  such  as  the  typewriter,  automated  presses,  and  linotype  machine  increased  the  dissemination  of  print  narratives  and  demand  for  reading  material,  other  new  technologies  such  as  the  radio  and  motion  picture  also  emphasized  the  influence  of  non-­‐print  narratives  on  American  Literature  (1117).  Unsurprisingly,  with  both  auditory  and  textual  technological  advances  in  the  backdrop,  this  period  of  American  Literature  introduced  the  practice  of  bringing  the  spoken  word  into  the  written,  especially  with  the  emergence  of  fiction  as  a  growing  topic  of  literary  criticism.        As  periodicals  such  as  the  commercially  successful  magazine  flourished  during  the  years  between  1865  -­‐  1914,  the  story  short  became  one  of  the  symbols  of  American  literature  (1120).  As  Brander  Matthew  commented  in  1885,  “Almost  as  soon  as  America  began  to  have  any  literature  at  all  it  had  good  short  stories”  (1122).  With  this,  the  role  of  fiction  in  representing  the  variety  of  “American”  experiences  began  to  emerge,  as  analyzed  by  

Civil War: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/Chickamauga.jpg

Sims 10

literary  critics  such  as  William  Dean  Howells.  Howells,  a  proponent  of  realism,  emphasized  in  Criticism  and  Fiction  (1891)  that  authors  of  fiction  should  “concern  themselves  with  the  more  smiling  aspects  of  life,  which  are  the  more  American,  and  seek  the  universal  in  the  individual  rather  than  the  social  interests”  (1149).      However,  Howell’s  argument  is  made  from  the  lens  of  a  privileged  individual  in  society  when  he  claims  that  “few  shadows  and  inequalities”  shade  the  “broad  level  of  prosperity”  in  19th  century  America.  His  assertion  that  authors  should  stick  to  these  “smiling”  aspects  in  order  to  write  distinctively  “American”  literature  encourages  the  discrimination  of  certain  narratives  over  others.  As  an  influential  critic  and  editor  of  Harper’s  New  Monthly  Magazine,  Howell’s  opinions  show  how  publishers  in  the  19th  century  continue  to  discriminate  by  printing  only  what  they  determined  was  worthy  of  the  definition  “American”  and  “Literature.”    Nevertheless,  Howells  published  Mark  Twain’s  “A  True  Story,  Repeated  Word  for  Word  as  I  Heard  It”  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly,  which  while  read  from  the  perspective  of  the  narrator  could  be  classified  as  “smiling,”  reading  the  story  from  the  perspective  of  Aunt  Rachel  exposes  the  continuing  oppression  of  African  Americans  post-­‐Civil  War  and  Reconstruction.  When  the  narrator  exposes  his  ignorance  by  asking  Aunt  Rachel,  “how  is  that  you’ve  lived  sixty  years  and  never  had  any  trouble?”  Aunt  Rachel  immediately  drops  her  cheerful  demeanor  and  asks  in  disbelief,  “Misto  C-­‐-­‐,  is  you  in  ‘arnest?”  before  relating  a  tragic  tale  of  lost  and  perseverance  in  the  face  of  slavery’s  vicious  reality  (1164).  By  writing  in  vernacular  and  dialect,  Twain  brings  the  nonprint  narrative  elements  of  storytelling  into  a  print  format,  exposing  a  voice  that  would  have  otherwise  gone  unheard  without  the  intervention  of    someone  with  access  to  print  culture  (1163).                                

Sims 11

…Modernism

While  the  American  short  story  gained  prominence  between  the  years  of  1865  -­‐  1914,  the  period  between  the  two  World  Wars  was  renowned  for  its  developments  in  poetry.  Inspired  by  the  experimental  art  movements  of  Europe,  the  American  literature  from  1914  -­‐  1945  was  characterized  by  experimental  work  of  then  little-­‐known  writers.  “Little  magazines”  such  as  Poetry  encouraged  writers  to  break  from  the  traditional  in  everything  from  form  to  subject  matter  (1485).  As  writers  and  poets  experimented  with  their  work,  they  often  continued  the  trend  of  predecessors  like  Mark  Twain  in  bringing  elements  of  non-­‐print  narratives  into  the  printed.  As  Wallace  Stevens  observed  in  1937,  “Times  change  and  forms  and  their  meaning  alter...Thus  new  poems  are  necessary.  Their  forms  must  be  discovered  in  the  spoken,  the  living  language  of  their  day”  (1512).  During  the  Modernist  period  of  American  Literature,  the  divide  between  auditory  and  textual  art  began  to  blend,  as  artists  drew  from  musical  references  such  as  Jazz  and  continued  to  include  dialect  and  the  vernacular  in  their  works.  During  the  modernist  period,  when  “talkies”  and  Jazz  clubs  provided  the  cultural  backdrop,  the  discrimination  of  non-­‐print  narrative  for  print  narratives  decreased  dramatically,  to  the  point  that  print  narratives  began  to  experience  commercial  and  cultural  “competition”  with  “the  radio,  movies,  and  other  leisure-­‐time  activities”  (1493).          

     

Carl Sandburg: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4e/Carl_Sandburg_NYWTS.jpg/617px-Carl_Sandburg_NYWTS.jpg

Zora Neale Hurston: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/Hurston-Zora-Neale-LOC.jpg

Sims 12

Poets  like  Sandburg  began  to  call  the  literary  community  out  on  their  privilege  and  discrimination  of  narratives  by  bringing  “the  common  speech”  of  the  people  into  the  avant  garde  poetry  movement  (1567).  The  beginning  of  his  poem  “Chicago”  draws  on  a  respect  for  the  spoken  word  when  he  refers  to  the  flawed  city  as  the  “Hog  Butcher  for  the  World...Stormy,  husky,  brawling,/City  of  Big  Shoulders”  (1568).  Sandburg  chooses  to  write  in  the  voices  of  the  people  rather  than  in  the  flowery  or  unrepresentative  language  of  traditional  poetry.  Although  originally  considered  an  “affront  to  the  poetry-­‐loving  public,”  Sandburg’s  assertion  of  common  speech  as  worthy  of  admiration  in  the  literary  world  would  eventually  win  him  the  Poetry  prize  for  “best  poems”  of  the  year.    Likewise,  Zora  Neale  Hurston  used  dialect  and  vernacular  in  her  short  stories.  A  prominent  figure  in  the  Harlem  Renaissance,  Hurston  was  part  of  a  larger  literary  movement  that  asserted  an  African  American  woman’s  right  to  be  heard  and  create  art  in  a  society  that  didn’t  seem  to  be  listening  (1789).  Drawing  on  her  anthropological  research  in  black  folklore  in  the  South  and  the  Bahamas,  the  publishing  of  Hurston’s  work  marked  the  long  due  attention  of  a  literary  community  to  the  narrative  voices  of  the  historically  disenfranchised  (1789).  Unlike  Aunt  Rachel,  whose  non-­‐print  story  had  to  be  transcribed  by  a  white  male  to  be  recognized  by  publishers,  writers  such  as  Hurston  show  that  by  the  Modernist  period,  previously-­‐ignored  voices  were  gaining  literary  recognition  through  the  speakers  themselves.      

     

 

Jazz band: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Jazzing_orchestra_1921.png

Sims 13

...And Here We Are Now  American  Literature  experienced  a  revolution  after  World  War  II,  when  the  G.I.  Bill  provided  education  for  a  record  number  of  people.  However,  many  institutions  of  higher  learning  continued  to  discriminate  against  non-­‐white  and  female  students,  showing  that  despite  the  progression  of  the  Modernist  period,  disempowered  voices  continue  to  struggle  to  be  heard  (1938).  Furthermore,  advancements  in  print  technology  made  books  cheaper  and  more  accessible  than  ever,  but  the  introduction  of  television  perpetuated  the  unrepresentative  conceptions  of  American  diversity,  focusing  mainly  on  “shows  about  white  suburban  families”  (1940).  In  a  culture  where  print  and  non-­‐print  narratives  were  now  more  intermingled  than  ever  before,  literature  started  to  take  on  a  stronger  role  as  self-­‐conscious  social  commentary.  The  Civil  Rights  Movement,  Feminist  Movement,  and  Gay  Liberation  Front  are  examples  of  the  combination  of  literary  publishing  and  the  voice  of  the  people  (1942).  If  print  culture  refused  to  publish  certain  voices,  then  these  voices  would  form  their  own  publishing  industries.  As  contemporary  writers  such  as  Donald  Barthelme  and  Joy  Harjo  show  in  their  works,  the  divide  between  print  and  non-­‐print  narratives  has  been  broken  down.    Donald  Barthelme’s  “The  School”  is  written  like  a  dramatic  monologue,  yet  is  published  as  a  text  (2149).  The  printed  text  evokes  a  non-­‐print  narrative,  with  the  narrator  beginning  as  if  in  the  middle  of  a  conversation,  saying  “Well,  we  had  all  these  children  out  planting  trees,  see,  because  we  figured  that  was  part  of  their  education,  to  see  how,  you  know,  the  root  systems…”  (2149).  The  distinction  between  print  and  non-­‐print  narratives  has  dissolved  in  regards  to  what  is  considered  American  Literature.      In  a  way,  American  Literature  has  come  full  circle,  from  discriminating  against  the  storytelling  culture  of  the  Native  Americans  to  celebrating  these  exact  origins  in  contemporary  texts  such  as  Joy  Harjo’s  poem  “New  Orleans.”  As  Daniel  Hierro  writes  in  “Rivers  of  Creation  and  Death,”  Harjo  incorporates  “Native  American  influences  like  history  and  oral  storytelling  to  drive  her  work.”  Hierro  points  to  the  fourth  stanza  of  the  poem,  which  reads  “I  have  a  memory./It  swims  deep  in  blood,/a  delta  in  the  skin.  It  swims  out  of  Oklahoma,/deep  the  Mississippi  River”  emphasize  that  “Native  American  history  runs  deep  in  the  souls  of  its  people”  and  in  the  history  of  the  United  States.  Therefore,  the  oral  tradition  of  storytelling  so  often  neglected  by  the  publishing  industry  has  and  continues  to  influence  what  constitutes  “American”  literature  and  culture.    

       

Sims 14

  ...Conclusion

 The  history  of  American  literature  is  indistinguishable  from  its  flawed  publishing  history.  The  preference  the  publishing  industry  has  had  for  printed  text  over  oral  storytelling  was  both  the  result  of  and  perpetuator  of  racial,  gender,  and  socio-­‐economic  discrimination  for  much  of  American  history.  However,  the  question  is  only  further  complicated  in  contemporary  writing  by  the  Digital  Age  and  the  presence  of  electronic  publishing.  How  does  the  definition  of  American  literature  continue  to  change  as  self-­‐publishing  is  now  as  easy  as  a  blog  post?  What  distinguishes  a  “literary”  writer  from  an  average  twitter-­‐poster  if  neither  needs  to  resort  to  a  publisher  to  legitimize  their  voices?  Is  self-­‐publishing  on  a  digital  platform  closer  to  non-­‐print  or  print  narratives?  While  it’s  presented  as  text,  it  comes  directly  from  the  writer  (through  the  internet)  to  the  reader,  similar  to  a  conversation  or  person-­‐to-­‐person  storytelling.  Most  importantly,  as  contemporary  writers  experiment  with  digital  technology,  what  insidious  implications  could  it  have  for  those  without  Internet  access,  or  without  the  financial  means  to  purchase  a  computer?  Despite  an  exciting  new  era  in  American  literature,  the  threat  of  discrimination  can  emerge  with  any  new  technology,  as  it  did  with  the  television,  with  the  printing  press,  and  with  the  written  word.  As  the  electronic  age  promises  unlimited  access  to  infinite  voices  and  perspectives,  authors  of  American  literature  should  remain  characteristically  self-­‐conscious  and  question:  unlimited,  but  for  whom?      

             

Works  Cited  Barnhill,  Cody.  “Columbus  and  the  Birth  of  American  Beginnings.”  American  Literature  to  

2000.  Davidson  College  ENG  280.  Web.  15  Dec  2014.    Belasco,  Susan  and  Johnson,  Linck,  eds.  The  Bedford  Anthology  of  American  Literature.  New  

York:  Bedford/St.  Martins.  Print.  Hierro,  Daniel.  “Rivers  of  Creation  and  Death.”  American  Literature  to  2000.  Davidson  

College  ENG  280.  Web.  15  Dec  2014.    Rikard,  Andrew.  “Fit  to  be  Imitated  -­‐  the  American  Opportunity  Myth.”  American  Literature  

to  2000.  Davidson  College  ENG  280.  Web.  15  Dec  2014.