American University
Browse

Suicidal naturalism: Self-murder in late nineteenth-century American literature

Download (2.61 MB)
thesis
posted on 2023-09-06, 03:32 authored by Daniel Edward Hickey

"Suicidal Naturalism: Self-Murder in Late-Nineteenth Century American Literature" seeks to clarify the characteristics of American Literary Naturalism by studying instances of suicide in American literature that has come to be considered Naturalist. The study first presents suicide as a formidable genre in American literature worth consideration. The thesis also contains in review of the evolving attitudes toward suicide in America from colonial times to the late nineteenth century. The work proceeds to provide defining aspects of Naturalist literature. Four works containing both the characteristics of American Naturalism and an instance of suicide in the plot are analyzed. These works include: "Life in the Iron Mills" by Rebecca Harding Davis, which is argued to be one of the earliest occurrences of American Naturalism; Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane, which is described as classic Naturalism; Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser, which is described as prototypical Naturalism; The Story of a Country Town by Edgar Watson Howe, another early instance of American Naturalism and an example of Naturalism in the American frontier as opposed to the city.

History

Publisher

ProQuest

Language

English

Notes

Thesis (M.A.)--American University, 1997.

Handle

http://hdl.handle.net/1961/thesesdissertations:5546

Media type

application/pdf

Access statement

Part of thesis digitization project, awaiting processing.

Usage metrics

    Theses and Dissertations

    Exports

    RefWorks
    BibTeX
    Ref. manager
    Endnote
    DataCite
    NLM
    DC