Exceptionalism and Transatlanticism in Early American Literature (1760 – 1860) and Classic Hollywood Cinema (1930-1960)
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ABSTRACT EXCEPTIONALISM AND TRANSATLANTICISM IN EARLY AMERICAN LITERATURE (1760 – 1860) AND CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD CINEMA (1930-1960) John M. Price, PhD, Department of English Northern Illinois University, 2019 Scott Balcerzak, Co-Director Jeffrey Einboden, Co-Director This dissertation explores the seemingly contradictory characteristics of two distinct art forms in two distinct eras. When exploring the period 1760 to 1860, scholars of transatlanticism argue that the literature of Great Britain and the young United States are of one unified cultural identity, and yet this period is also one in which American writers sought to establish a unique national voice. To understand this dichotomy, this dissertation examines the parallels between Early American Literature, or EAL, and classic Hollywood cinema (1930-1960). This exercise in intertextuality demonstrates how both mediums in both periods absorbed influences from other countries and other times and shaped it into a culturally unique art form that expressed a national identity. The chapters compare and contrast the following films and literary works: Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter (1850) and two screen adaptations (1926 and 1934), works which, on the one hand, display the very “language” of a hybridized art form and, on the other, deviate from those newly set standards; an exploration of “orientalism” and romantic escapism through a juxtaposition of Washington Irving’s Tales of the Alhambra (1832) and Frank Capra’s Lost Horizon (1937); Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography (1771-1790) and the film Sergeant York (1941), both of which deal with a concrete attempt to alter national identity; and a comparison of Herman Melville’s Moby Dick (1851) and John Ford’s The Searchers (1956), which bare similarities beyond just the obvious monomaniacal quest and its inherent distortion of the hunter. By stressing the conflict between the forces of transnationalism and national exceptionalism, this project confirms the significance of hybridization — an approach which transcends the parameters of medium, language, genre, and nationality, and explores the liminal spaces between Romanticism and Realism. NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY DE KALB, ILLINOIS MAY 2019 EXCEPTIONALISM AND TRANSATLANTICISM IN EARLY AMERICAN LITERATURE (1760 – 1860) AND CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD CINEMA (1930-1960) BY JOHN M. PRICE ©2019 John M. Price A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH Dissertation Co-Directors: Scott Balcerzak Jeffrey Einboden TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... iii INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1. EARLY AMERICAN LITERATURE MEETS CLASSIC HOLLYWOOD: THE SCARLET LETTER (1926/1934) ......................................................................................41 2. ROMANTICISM AND DISILLUSIONMENT: THE ‘LAST SIGH OF THE MOOR’ AND LOST HORIZON (1937) .........................................................................................79 3. OBSERVED LIVES: THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND SERGEANT YORK (1941) ..............................................................................................113 4. MELVILLE AND FORD: AHAB AND THE DUKE .................................................159 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................198 WORKS CITED ..........................................................................................................................209 LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Standard camera angles for classic dialogue scene .........................................................61 INTRODUCTION In 1820, Sydney Smith famously and provocatively asked, “Who reads an American book?” (79). Similarly, but conversely, by the 1930s, it could reasonably be asked—“Who does not watch an American movie?” This succession of primacy, albeit across mediums, appears to lend credence to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s 1856 prophecy that “England, an old and exhausted island, must one day be contented, like other parents, to be strong only in her children” (Centenary 5:275).1 The novel of the first half of the nineteenth century and the movie of the first half of the twentieth century were the preeminent forms of pop culture in their respective times, and American cinema by the 1930s had, just as British literature had a century earlier, set a standard against which the rest of world cinema would, like a child striving to emerge from its parents’ shadow, struggle, and by which all future efforts would be measured. The contentiousness of comments such as Smith’s and Emerson’s embodied a period, 1760-1860, which featured a great paradox. This period of Early American literature (EAL) is one that modern literary studies attempts to examine through the lens of transatlanticism. Transatlanticism, as indeed does its larger aspiration—transnationalism, seeks to find those aspects of different cultures that transcend boundaries of nationhood. Obviously, such an endeavor stresses commonality. However, as Smith and Emerson indicate, this period is one in which a deliberate attempt was made to differentiate American literature from its formidable British predecessor. In 1837, in “The American Scholar,” often referred to as the American declaration of cultural independence, Emerson states, “We have listened too long to the courtly 1 English Traits (1856). 2 muses of Europe” (Centenary 1:114). 1760 to 1860 is an ideal period for the study of this dichotomy, extending as it does from the origins of the American Revolution to the doorstep of the American Civil War—a period spanning political independence to cultural independence. Such an autonomous enterprise would call heavily upon previous allusions to and, indeed, augment the notion of, American exceptionalism. Yet, as transatlanticism reminds us, this new and supposedly unique American voice was irrevocably infused with influences from other times and places. A strikingly similar set of circumstances existed in what is often called classic Hollywood, a period this dissertation defines as 1930 to 1960.2 The earliest claims to the invention of cinema belong to the French, namely the Lumiere brothers and Georges Méliès.3 However, as many have suggested, and as will be discussed in detail later, the developments by Edwin S. Porter and D. W. Griffith placed the United States in the vanguard of the evolution of the language of narrative cinema. To designate, therefore, Hollywood in the 1930s as the culmination of this language is to also immediately admit a debt to those who, even in their own country, went before. Similarly, the writers of, what F. O. Matthiessen calls, the “American Renaissance” owed an equal debt to earlier literary rumblings of “Americanism.” Furthermore, despite the preeminence of Hollywood’s role in film, other influences were greatly affecting this 2 Robert Ray and Richard Jewell feel that the period begins at the start of the sound era, while David Bordwell takes it back to 1917. Jewell sees it ending in 1945, while Bordwell pushes to 1960. Irrespective of the exact dates, classic Hollywood demonstrated what Andre Bazin called the “genius of the system.” It is a period in which both earlier and external elements were codified into the very language of narrative cinema, and in so doing, forever intertwine “Americanness” and the movies. 3 The United States’ claim to the initial technological discovery of cinema are those developments made by Thomas Edison. However, as Frank Nugent wrote in 1939, it was the First World War and its aftermath that allowed the United States to wrest dominance of the film industry from the rest of the world (137). 3 cinematic “grammar,” such as Soviet montage and German Expressionism. The studio system of the sound era was inarguably built upon the foundations laid out by silent films and heavily influenced by foreign films—both stylistically and in the body of individual artists. Yet despite these transnational permeations, this period was one that saw Hollywood films become the number one exporter of American cultural identity to the world.4 On the surface, a comparison between EAL and classic Hollywood appears a bit strained. Classic Hollywood profusely adapted nineteenth-century literature, but early American literature was never as fertile a medium as British literature of the same period. The examples are numerous: Frankenstein (1931), Wuthering Heights (1939), and Jane Eyre twice (1934 and 1943). Charles Dickens’ work saw several adaptations: David Copperfield and A Tale of Two Cites, both in 1935, as well as A Christmas Carol (1938). This proclivity for British literature also extended to the second half of the nineteenth century, and as such includes: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Dracula in 1931, The Invisible Man (1933), Treasure Island (1934), The Prisoner of Zenda and Captains Courageous both in 1937, and Sherlock Holmes twice in 1939.5 Even French literature of the period was more desirable as source material than American literature: The Count of Monte Cristo (1934), Les Miserables (1935), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939), and three times, including the silent era, The Three Musketeers (1921, 1935 and 1948). 4 Classic Hollywood, in the body of