Stony Brook University
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
SSStttooonnnyyy BBBrrrooooookkk UUUnnniiivvveeerrrsssiiitttyyy The official electronic file of this thesis or dissertation is maintained by the University Libraries on behalf of The Graduate School at Stony Brook University. ©©© AAAllllll RRRiiiggghhhtttsss RRReeessseeerrrvvveeeddd bbbyyy AAAuuuttthhhooorrr... American Masculinity and Home in Antebellum Literature A Dissertation Presented by Derek Scott McGrath to The Graduate School in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Literature Stony Brook University May 2014 Copyright by Derek Scott McGrath 2014 Stony Brook University The Graduate School Derek Scott McGrath We, the dissertation committee for the above candidate for the Doctor of Philosophy degree, hereby recommend acceptance of this dissertation. Dr. Susan Scheckel - Dissertation Advisor Associate Professor, English Department Dr. Andrew Newman - Chairperson of Defense Associate Professor, English Department Dr. Jeffrey Santa Ana - Committee Member Assistant Professor, English Department Dr. Michael Kimmel - Committee Member Distinguished Professor, Sociology Department, Stony Brook University This dissertation is accepted by the Graduate School Charles Taber Dean of the Graduate School ii Abstract of the Dissertation “American Masculinity and Home in Antebellum Literature” by Derek Scott McGrath Doctor of Philosophy in English Literature Stony Brook University 2014 The conventional argument in literary and gender studies of nineteenth-century United States culture has been that the home was women’s claimed sphere of influence, whereas men were excluded from the home because of their economic, cultural, and societal commitments to the public sphere. Even as Catharine Beecher, Lydia Maria Child, Sarah Josepha Hale, and other adherents to a conservative domestic ideology closely associated the private sphere with women, these same writers identified specific roles and spaces that they expected men to occupy in the home. Hardly only a woman’s domain, the home was a powerful force in motivating constructions of masculine subjectivities before the Civil War and long after. Building on the works of scholars such as Cathy Davidson, Monika Elbert, and Glenn Hendler, “American Masculinity and Home in Antebellum Literature” considers how nineteenth-century writers defined varying forms of domestic masculinity. Beginning with Nathaniel Hawthorne’s definition of the nineteenth-century American romance as a style emerging from the highly domestic space of “the parlor,” this study critically assesses authors who, while not all conventionally associated with household rhetoric, used their literature to offer alternative models of gendered identity by building upon, rather than only dismantling, prevalent domestic ideology. Domestic masculinity served as one topic for various writers—including Edgar Allan Poe, Sojourner Truth, George Copway, and Mark Twain—to define alternative forms of gendered, racial, and national identity that could provide readers with a sense of stable home- space, both in untraditional locations and in the midst of drastic changes to American law, culture, and literary form. This study traces the permeable boundary between the supposedly masculine public and supposedly feminine private spheres, to identify the opportunities and challenges that the home provided to United States writers, men and women, and across the spectrums of race, class, region, and religion. iii Table of Contents Introduction ......................................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1. “Home No More”: Poe’s Negotiation of Gender and Domesticity in Antebellum Print Culture .......................................................................................21 I. “By a Bostonian”: The Birthplace of Poe and His Early Literary Career ..................26 II. “My Home No More”: “Tamerlane,” Domestic Masculinity, and Bringing the Orient to Boston ................................................................................................................34 III. “Boyish, Feeble, and Altogether Deficient”: Publishing in Godey’s Lady’s Book ....46 IV. Detecting the Complementary Poles of Sentiment and Sensation in “The Oblong Box” .................................................................................................54 V. An Expression of Romance: A Southerner’s Last Publications in the Abolitionist Newspaper Flag of Our Union ..............................................................................69 VI. “Troubles Made His Manhood Disappear”: Poe’s Legacy in Gendered Portrayals ...............................................................................................76 Chapter 2. Neutral Territory: Androgyny, Misogyny, and Hawthorne’s Development of the Domestic Romance ................................................................................................79 I. Hawthorne’s Definition of the Romance .....................................................................87 II. “These Things Hide the Man”: The “Abode” in Hawthorne’s Literature ................101 III. “Before the Public Stark Naked”: Women in Hawthorne’s Homes .........................106 IV. “The First Time That I Ever Came Home”: Sophia Peabody and Her Husband ......117 Chapter 3. “To the Fireside of the Paleface”: Domesticity and Native American Identity in the Works of George Copway ...................................................................................124 iv I. From Ojibwe Homes to White Homes: Copway’s Early Life and Entrance into Publishing ............................................................................................................127 II. Kah-Ge-Ga and Boston: Lost and Failed Native American Communities ...............138 III. Occupy the State House: Domestic Ideology and Politics ........................................145 IV. “Domestic Life Among the Indians”: Copway’s Critical Intervention into Publishing .....................................................................................................153 V. Dwell in the Heart, Stand Forever .............................................................................156 Chapter 4. The Question Before the House: Sojourner Truth’s Public Home ...........................161 I. Libyan Sibyl: Sharing a Home with Stowe...............................................................167 II. Sit in at the White House: Freedman’s Village and Meeting Lincoln ......................178 Chapter 5. Why Is Huck Silent? Fatherhood, Slavery, and Domesticity in the Works and Life of Mark Twain ..........................................................................................................186 I. Travel without Charm: Twain’s Itinerant Life..........................................................190 II. The Floating House ....................................................................................................192 III. Emotional Huck .........................................................................................................195 IV. Childish Men ..............................................................................................................198 V. Sandy’s Silence ..........................................................................................................201 Bibliography ................................................................................................................................204 v Acknowledgements It is coincidental that I was developing a dissertation about masculinity defined in relation to domesticity at a time in my life where I moved frequently—from one apartment to another, whether as a result of irate landlords, flooded basements, and a compromised budget with rent being too high. Such are the joys of a graduate student’s life, as my colleagues and my students have understood because of the complications that everyone has trying to find a place to call home. My friends and advisers have told me that every person’s dissertation is a reflection of their personal life; I hope the following study, rather than only emphasizing the negative aspects of such moves, emphasizes what I have gained from numerous moves. I also hope that the housing challenges experienced by many undergraduate and graduate students inspires others to do work to correct these problems in the near future: an education is best gained when students have a stable setting in which to learn and work, and we owe it to our students to make our universities places where they feel safe. In my efforts collaborating with organizations at Stony Brook University, including the Graduate Student Organization, the Graduate Student Employees Union, and the Safe Space Program, there is more work to be done. Because this dissertation is the culmination of seven years of doctoral studies at Stony Brook University, I have many people to thank at this university and elsewhere for their support. Susan Scheckel, the chair of this dissertation, has been a helpful, compassionate mentor. Susan has made herself available particularly when it comes to discussing how to coordinate research and teaching interests so that each draws upon the other—and has helped guide some of my personal interests in reading the nineteenth century forward into studies of contemporary vi literature and culture. Her feedback to the chapters helped to focus the broad attention I have had when it comes to representations of gender and