The rise of the American culture of sensationalism: 1620--1860
Item
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Title
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The rise of the American culture of sensationalism: 1620--1860
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:ef134304938b:11409
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identifier
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11225
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Creator
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Moudrov, Alexander,
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Contributor
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Vincent Crapanzano
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Date
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2011
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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American studies | American literature | American history | Crime | Poe | Pornography | Puritanism | Scandals | Sensationalism
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Abstract
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Much has been written about the unprecedented proliferation of sensationalist literature in the nineteenth century but very little about its origins. Such an oversight leaves our sense of early American literary history incomplete and even distorted by some persistent misconceptions about the concept of sensationalism and its place in American culture. In this dissertation I devise methodical ways of approaching this subject and explain its significance in the formation of American literary conventions. My project expands the scope of recent scholarship on sensationalist literature by examining the two areas which have so far been neglected in American studies: the origins of the American tradition of sensationalism and its place in the transatlantic context. As I demonstrate, the spectacular rise of sensationalist literature in the nineteenth century was not a spontaneous development. It grew out of a long domestic tradition of sensationalist rhetoric that emerged in the colonial period---much earlier than what is commonly perceived as the first significant outbreak of literary sensationalism in the aftermath of the American Revolution. Furthermore, patterns of provocative rhetoric, which also emerged early in the colonial period, formed an enduring rhetorical tradition whose proponents relied on a set of recognizable conventions that made a notable impact on American literary history.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Comparative Literature
