User:English 468/Transatlantic literary studies

Transatlantic literary studies refers to the study of North American and European literature in a manner that takes into consideration transatlantic influences in its scope of research and analysis. Most commonly, transatlantic literary studies focuses on Anglo-American literature, placing the bodies of American Literature and British Literature in a transatlantic context.

Transatlantic literary studies is a part of transatlantic studies, a broader topic of study that encompasses many disciplines, including: Political Science, Comparative Constitutionalism, International Relations, Art History, Security Studies, History, Literature, Cultural Geography, Population Studies, and Environmental Studies. The inauguration of the Transatlantic Studies Association on July 11th, 2002 garnered scholarly interest for the transatlantic perspective of literary studies. NATO commended the initiative of this association, and from it The Journal of Transatlantic Studies [1] was born.

Though transatlantic anthologies have begun circulating as early as 1945 with Robert Charles Le Clair’s Three American travelers in England: James Russell Lowell, Henry Adams, Henry James, the study of transatlantic literature is relatively new and groundbreaking. Paul Giles, a university lecturer in American Literature at the University of Cambridge is a prominent researcher using this approach to Anglo-American literature. His published works, which include Transatlantic Insurrections: British Culture and the Formation of American Literature, 1730-1860 (2001), and Atlantic Republic: The American Tradition in English Literature (2006), explore methods and aims of studying American Literature and British Literature in a transatlantic manner.

Transatlantic literary studies aims to break away from the traditional canonical technique of studying the two bodies of literature in isolation. In transatlantic literary studies, British and American Literature are read comparatively, but are also considered in relation to the historical, political, economic, and cultural contexts in which they were created.

Transatlantic Literary Studies in the 19th Century

The end of the American Revolutionary War in 1776 through the finalization of the Berne Convention in 1886 marks a vital time period in transatlantic literature. Scholars often focus on this era in transatlantic literary studies because the beginning and closing historical events hold much transatlantic significance. With the end of the Revolutionary War, the United States, free of England, begins to develop its own national identity and national culture. During this time, publishers on one side of the Atlantic could reprint works published on the other side at no cost. Consequently, English and American readers alike had access to a wealth of inexpensive literature from their transatlantic counterparts. Among other examples, Uncle Tom's Cabin was a best-seller in England, while Charles Dickens's novels sold many thousands of copies in the United States. Walt Whitman's poetry went through a number of pirated editions in Britain, which were bowdlerized, to Whitman's discontent, but also highly popular. With the finalization of the Berne Convention in 1886, International Copyright Law, which had been nonexistent since United States independence, is born, and American literature becomes more expensive and more subject to authorial control in Britain, as does English literature in the United States.

Technological advancements such as the steam ship and the telegraph further aided communication and literary exchange between the United States and Great Britain. In addition, the two nations were bound together by the reform movements of anti-slavery, suffrage and temperance. They also shared cultural similarities such as language, law, government, and for many, religion and common ancestry.

Transatlantic Ties

The Circulation of Literature and Reprints

Before the nineteenth century, due to limited communication between nations, literature was almost exclusively published and distributed within the authors’ own countries . However, soon after 1800, what we now call “piracy of literature” was considered to be a perfectly legal practice and even part of the cultural norm (McGill 3). Many countries were involved in the “reprinting” of literature, but none more famously than the United States. In 1790, the United States introduced copyright protection, but only for American citizens, allowing them to continue to reprint writings from other countries, such as Great Britain (Ploman, Hamilton 19). Without an international copyright law in place, publishers were able to reprint thousands of works created by overseas writers. Authors may have entered into a contract with a foreign publisher, but they still held no foreign rights to their books or had any say in what happened with their writings (Nowell-Smith 52). Publishers were even able to change things about the original text with full discretion due to the lack of an international copyright law. For example, Charles Dickens’ American Notes was a two-volume book consisting of 614 pages when originally published in Britain. When it was published in America, it turned into 46 pages and sold at one-fortieth of the cost of the original (McGill 22). The shortening of texts was common during this time because the main source of literary circulation was newspapers and magazines, which held limited space to print (McGill 1). Publishers during this time were also able to reprint books very quickly and at a lower cost, which caused the sale rates to rise and the prices for the public to decrease. With the costs decreasing, literature was no longer solely available to the elite, and traveled across all social classes (Ploman, Hamilton18). Although many authors did not receive payment for the reprinting of their writing, they did gain a worldwide audience and a very public reputation. The absence of an international copyright law helped to establish a literary culture for new countries like the United States, and created a mass-market for transatlantic literature.

The Slave Trade Triangle

From the sixteenth up to the nineteenth century, the transatlantic slave trade was a unifying force between England and the United States, with both countries importing a total of around 30 million slaves by 1816 (1). But by the later half of the 16th century, there is a noticeable shift in the degree in which people in England are comfortable with the idea of the slave trade, and it became a popular topic of conversation among educated people (1.) In 1811, Lord Brougham officially declared slave-trade a felony in England; however, even as many as 40 years later, contraband slave-trade was still heavily pursued by those willing to risk the penalty (1). Meanwhile, the slave trade was still flourishing in the United States. This physical connection of trade between countries across the Atlantic sparked a wave of criticisms. Some of the first public outcries against this practice occurred in the middle of the seventeenth century in the writings of the English clergymen, Morgan Godwyn, and about 100 years later, he was joined by two American members of the Society of Friends, John Woolman and Anthony Benezet(1). Much of the writing against the slave trade was directed at the horrific practices and treatment of Africans on the voyage overseas, and often, had significant overlap with the slavery reform writing of the time.

Advancement in Steamships/Transportation

In the nineteenth century, there was an explosion of new innovations in transportation, especially that of transatlantic travel. More and more people were becoming curious about the outside world and were looking for ways to explore these unknown lands. The steamship was a helping hand to the explorers and adventurers of this time by making travel faster, easier, and cheaper. The North Atlantic Ocean served, not only as a geographic link between Great Britain and North America, but as a sphere of cultural, economic, and technological development shared by the two regions. During the 1830’s, a major shift was made in the construction of ocean liners when iron hulls began to take the place of the traditional wooden hulls. Iron hulls were more durable than wooden ones; cheaper due to the advances of England’s Industrial Revolution and the scarcity of English timber; and allowed for the building of more massive ships. This innovation, once perfected, made transatlantic travel safer and more accessible.4 Another precipitator of change in North Atlantic Ocean voyages was Canadian entrepreneur Samuel Cunard. In 1840, Cunard helped move the transport of mail between Great Britain and North America from the small, unreliable boats--called “mail packets--” to his fleet of steamships when he established his shipping company The Cunard Line. The Cunard Line ships carried travelers, as well as mail, and gained a reputation for their relative safety and reasonable amenities. One of his ships, the Britannia, was also the same ship two years later that carried the celebrated English author Charles Dickens to America. While The Cunard Line ships were the most popular form of transport between North America and Great Britain upon their establishment, other English and American based shipping companies, such as The Collins Line, emerged and challenged Cunard’s government contracts for the delivery of mail and popularity with travelers.

The North Atlantic Ocean presented opportunities for improving and capitalizing on way to connect peoples on both sides of the ocean. However, the new means of transportation did not only affect travelers, it also affected literature. Since people were now able to travel faster, cheaper and with more ease, there was an increase of travel memoirs (Need to cite.) People were able to go to the United States or England and gain access to new areas that would have otherwise been too difficult or too distant to reach. This especially affected the United States because of its size and expansiveness. With the invention of the steamboat, travelers were able to see areas beyond the east coast, like Niagara Falls, the Native American territories, and the Southern states. This provided outsiders a more comprehensive image of the United States and produced memoirs that were more informed.

Drama and Theater

Drama and the theatre throughout the 19th Century were an important source of sharing transatlantic culture. The portrayal of these dramatic works on stage often paralleled feelings of animosity between Britain and the United States. Perhaps the most well known playwright whose work demonstrated this cultural tension was William Shakespeare. When Shakespeare’s works traveled across the Atlantic and were performed in America, they were done so not only by American actors, but English actors as well. The competition and passion got even more out of control when English actors would cross the ocean in hopes of showing Americans a more authentic performance; in one example, known as the Astor Place Riots, “a crowd of 10,000 outside the New York Opera House” gathered ready to riot in protest of “the appearance of English actor William Macready in Macbeth” (Bordman). In Nigel Cliff's novel, The Shakespeare Riots, explores the causes of the conflict, explaining how the rivalry originated when comparisons were made between English actor, William Macready, and American actor, Edwin Forrest, regarding both of their interpretations and performances of Shakespearean works. 19th Century transatlantic relationship also played a large role in another exciting form of dramatic performance: Vaudeville. These presentations were meant to spark curiosity. Such performances often contained “…eccentric dancers, barrelhouse songbirds, ventriloquists, magicians, tumblers, and jugglers…” (Cullen xi). Vaudeville was an exciting and exotic form of entertainment that many gathered to witness. Similar to the atmosphere of vaudeville were circuses. In circuses animals were put on display often performing tricks for the audience. A famous attraction featured in a circus act was an elephant named Jumbo, who was brought over from London to America as the “undisputed star” of P.T. Barnum’s Show, “The Greatest Show on Earth” (Saxon 297). In addition to Vaudeville shows and works of famous playwrights, much more transatlantic literature has been transformed into dramatic stage adaptations. Examples of this include Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which is still a popular and vital scene in Rogers and Hammerstein's musical, The King and I. Also, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, has been interpreted into many different films. Despite the great feelings of tension during their period of creation, these treasured works of drama continue to be performed all over the world today.

The Telegraph

On both sides of the Atlantic, there was a lot of interest, demand and excitement about the possibility of creating a submarine cable that would stretch from London, Newfoundland, and New York. In 1856, four men-Cyrus Field, a rich American businessman, Charles Bright an engineer, John Brett, and Edward Whitehouse, an electrician- started a company called the Atlantic Telegraph Company in hopes of making it a reality (Mullaly14). After several failed attempts, a functional cable was carried to sea by the Great Eastern and by July 26th, the ship came into Trinity Bay with successful news. The connection of the cable was made at Heart’s Content, a small Newfoundland fishing village, and thus the two countries were finally connected (Alden 569). Tom Standage described in his novel, The Victorian Internet: “At the time, [before the cable was finished] sending a message to someone over a 100 miles away took the best part of a day – the time it took a messenger traveling on horseback to cover the distance. This unavoidable delay had remained a constant for thousands of years: it was as much a fact of life for George Washington as it was for Henry VIII, or Charlemagne, or Julius Caesar.” The new high-speed method of communication drastically changed the way the entire world operated, making the opposite side of the Atlantic feel closer than it ever had before.

Forms of Transatlantic Literature

Travel Writing as a Genre

Travel writing was a popular form of literature in the 19th century. People traveled from Britain to America and vice versa during this time period at an exponentially greater rate than in previous years. This increase in rate was due to the new links between the two countries, such as the newly developed accessibility and ease of sea travel (Kondolf). Authors described and published first hand accounts and experiences of their journeys in the form of travel logs and developed this genre of travel writing by utilizing a variety of stylistic and rhetorical devices. Letters acted as first hand accounts of the author’s travels which helped the audience to feel connected to the text and the land they were reading about, and the narratives acted as professional reviews of the different countries which helped the audience to trust what they were reading as fact rather than the opinions of the authors (Leask).

Thomas Moore, a British citizen traveling to America with the purpose of exploring the landscape and government of the new world, writes in letter form (Moore). His letters were all addressed to his mother and were not necessarily intended for publication (Symington). He uses religious imagery to express his ideas of U.S. landscape, governmental practices, and personal interactions. Moore wrote to his mother, and ultimately the British people, about the “uncivilized” nature of Americans, their government, and their treatment of Native Americans. However, he did write positively about the natural landscape of America, talking about its “beauty,” “holy magnificence,” and “rapture and amazement” (Moore). Moore falls into the same category as many travel writers, such as Douglass, who spoke adamantly of Britain’s superiority over America due to America’s failures in government, education, and refinement (Symington).

Frances Wright documents her travel log in the form of letters, yet many speculate she had the intention of publishing all along . This style of writing increases an intimacy with her audience as they read her first hand account of traveling to America (Leask). She paints the U.S. in a positive light as she speaks of beneficial representations of American women and the deep human connections she shared with the individuals she met, and states that she saw “nothing but beauty and excellence.” However, she mentions her disgust with American slavery, capital punishment, and the education system. We see that she notices, unlike Moore, American institutions and comments on their differences from British institutions, but doesn’t condemn America for their lack of progress as she explains they are a new nation and are working towards becoming what Britain is already established as, a progressive nation (Wright). Wright, unlike Frances Trollope, was a popular travel writer in America because of this positive portrayal and affirmation of America, and this intimate writing style she employed .

Frances Trollope is an English born citizen who moves to America to start a business and, after its failure, turns to writing travel logs. Her carefully constructed excerpts are well-received in England as she paints America as an “unrefined” place filled with people who aren’t educated (Trollope). She forms her arguments in a controversial way – she states her opinion subtly, trying to excuse her of any blame Americans would convict her of, yet she ends her claims with a reiteration of her original, and pro-Britain, claim . Yet this tactic doesn’t work as American citizens see through her constructed words to her hidden controversial meaning and do not receive her writing in any positive way (Smalley). Trollope’s writing was viewed as trivial by some as she concentrated on women’s fashion in America versus Britain, social interactions between individuals, the contrasting housing of the two nations, and the missing “refinements” of American culture (Kissel, Trollope).

Anthony Trollope was much better received in America than his mother, Frances Trollope was, but the same cannot be said of his reception in Britain (Ward). Trollope was a very popular novelist and carried this style into his travel writing, a new method utilized at the time (Leask). His works were not as factual as other travel journals were which made his writing stand out, yet because of this he received flak from British literary critics and readers of his novels . Trollope painted America in a much better light than his mother did as he talks of social interactions, differences in power and esteem between white men and women, the history of America, it’s Civil War, and it’s reliance on slavery (Trollope). While Trollope talks of these big issues, he never states solutions to them; in this sense, he is less of a novelist and more of a historian as he, unlike his mother, leaves his opinions out of his text (Escott). Additionally, Trollope writes in this way as he doesn’t want to offend the American people as his mother previously did (Mullen).

Transatlantic Letters

Analyzing letters from the time period is a fundamental aspect of Transatlantic literary Studies, as it was a popular trend in writing for writers who traveled across the Atlantic. Through Transatlantic letters, literary critics can obtain personal recollections of specific details from the various countries, as well as the unique perspectives of the authors lending to an enhanced understanding of the literary style during this time period. Thomas Moore traveled to America early in the 19th century and between 1803 and 1804 wrote letters to his mother about the new country. He criticized much of what he experienced, such as the people he encountered in the streets of America. Moore paid great attention to the aesthetic details of his journey and in his letters his trip becomes essentially a visual spectacle. He writes of his experience of traveling to Niagara Falls, which is a common attraction in much transatlantic travel literature. His visit to Niagara Falls is one of the few positive things he describes although in the majority of his letters he describes many of the negative aspects of America. His negative descriptions serve various purposes, perhaps to pacify his mother and insist that she is not missing much, or to simply raise his own homeland above the foreign one. Frances Wright, an Englishwoman visiting America, also wrote letters about America that were published in her Views of Society and Manners in America. However, Wright had intended on publishing her work for a general audience instead of just writing the letters for her close friends and family. She provides examples as evidence of her intended audience and writes about women’s attire, national and individual character, freedom, mortality, and slavery. For other authors that wrote in the same transatlantic letter writing style see Stowe.

Reform Writing

Many notable authors from both sides of the Atlantic began using travel accounts as a platform to address issues like slavery, racism, abolition, women’s rights, and temperance, extending the genre of the travel journal into the realm of political reform writing.

Slavery

The issue of slavery frequently appears in transatlantic literature of the nineteenth century and raises serious questions regarding national identity. With Britain's abolition movement occurring early in the nineteenth century (abolishing the Slave Trade Act in 1807 and abolishing slavery in 1833)(cite?) and the United States’ emancipation occurring after the American Civil War in 1865, there was a critical lag period on the part of the United States that sparked much conversation between the two countries. While both countries were formerly united on the issue of slavery through trade, the later divergence regarding abolition was seen by some writers (see below) as evidence for the superiority of England as more refined, advanced and morally conscious “parent country” (See National Figures of Identity). Likewise, increased travel and communication between the two countries at this time reinforced the cultural differences in the minds of the general public(1). Just as African Americans, many of whom were fugitive and former slaves, traveled to Britain and experienced a noticeable absence of prejudice and oppression, so too English writers traveled to the South and witnessed the horrors of American slavery. Two common questions addressed in these transatlantic works are: “What does it mean to be a slave in the United States?” and “How can a country formed on the principles of freedom subscribe to the tyranny associated with slavery?” In Frederick Douglass' autobiography, “The Life and Times,” he describes his travels as a fugitive slave in England and addresses the peculiar relationship between a slave and national identity (I’m a little confused here- do you mean between being a slave and national identity? (1). In England, Douglass achieves instant fame and recognition for his lecture tours about his experience with slavery in the United States. He describes his reception into the new country as warm, friendly, and absent the prejudice he knows in America (2). Douglass takes full advantage of his freedom in England, like in one of his famous speeches, “England Should Lead,” (3) when he encourages all English citizens allied with his cause to speak out against slavery in the United States. However, even in England, Douglass felt a sort of national isolation; in a letter to his friend Mr. Garrison, he writes about his travel account, “I have no end to serve, no creed to uphold, no government to defend; and as to nation, I belong to none. I have no protection at home, or resting-place abroad” (1.) Unable to associate with a country that enslaves his people, Douglass finds comfort with England’s protection from the American South’s Fugitive Slave Act.

William Wells Brown, another famous writer, abolitionist, and fugitive slave traveling in England, writes with more nostalgia for the United States in his autobiography, Three Years in Europe; Or, Places I Have Seen and People I Have Met. Unlike Douglass, Brown shows a complication of loyalties expressing sadness for leaving what he calls his “native land” (4) to enter the “old world” (or England). On the other hand, he also speaks out against the United States, pointing out the irony of being a slave in a country that broke away from the tyranny of England’s monarchy, exclaiming, “England is, indeed, the ‘land of the free, and the home of the brave’" (4.) Harriet Beecher Stowe, popular American reform novelist and abolitionist lecturer also experienced a welcoming atmosphere upon arriving in England (5). Like Douglass, Stowe benefited from English audiences popularizing her novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin, and used it as a platform to spread her abolitionist agenda. Stowe comments on her encounters with slavery and the need for abolition in America in her travel book Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands (5). Of the English travel journals that deal with slavery, one of the most notable was Charles Dickens’ America Notes for General Circulation. Dickens' experiences in the American South filled him with a “sense of shame and self-reproach” (6) as he witnessed lynching and other forms of slavery’s physical and psychological oppression. Known for his ability to adapt his style and tone to achieve his means as a writer, his chapter on slavery (essentially a list of many horrific examples of violence against slaves) is no doubt meant to persuade his broad audience about the evils of slavery (7).

Temperance

The temperance movement, another major reform movement of the nineteenth century, was propelled by many events, such as conventions and public speeches, but reform writing helped highlight the movement on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Fix this underlining issue Samuel Fenton Clay, a congressman, an active temperance reformer, and a prohibitionist lecturer (house.gov website), wrote The National Temperance Offering, and Sons and Daughters of Gift, hoping to persuade others that alcohol was a horrible addition to the American culture. He wrote that temperance would allow for “the moral and religious renovation of a wicked world” (Clay, iv). Clay was one of many using his reformist writing to push forward the temperance movement. England's Peter Burne wrote The Teetotaler’s Companion; or a Plea for Temperance, showing that temperance had become a transatlantic issue. Burne requested that people abstain from alcohol and provided pledges in his books for those who wanted to devote themselves to temperance. He had a “long pledge” and a “short pledge”, stating, “I agree to abstain from the use of all intoxicating liquors, except as medicines, or in religious ordinance” (iv, Burne). Burne listed the gallons of wine, beer, and malt liquors drank each year and their steady increase in England over the years of their distribution. The increase in alcohol consumption led to his conclusion that they were “a more drunken and dissipated generation than [their] fathers” (Burne 30). Henry William Blair, a United States representative and senator, wrote The Temperance Movement: or, the Conflict between Man and Alcohol, arguing that temperance was not only a national problem, but also an international epidemic. He stated that Europeans and Americans suffered more from alcohol abuse than other nations (Blair 255). He argued that the temperance movement would be futile if it was only confined to one nation and that it must be spread worldwide (Blair 55).

Women's Suffrage

Much like with slavery, the increasingly rapid communication across the Atlantic made it possible for like-minded women interested in reform to connect and begin to share ideas about the proper place for women in society, the legal system and marriage (1). Famous female literary celebrities like Harriet Beecher Stowe and George Sand (I assume George is female?) became, without intent, symbols of female independence and outspokenness, adding a strength and numbers to an already existing network of activists (1). Stowe’s popularity in the women’s rights movement came largely from her determination to speak out against slavery and her willingness to go through lengths and travels to spread her anti-slavery message (1). George Sand on the other hand became associated through her novels and their ideas of freedom in love. With models like Stowe and Sand more and more upper to middle class women began traveling “unprotected” (without a male escort) across the Atlantic and writing and talking about female emancipation (1).

The networks that were formed by common thinking gave way to the formation of several women’s suffrage societies. A notable figure in the transatlantic network was Elizabeth Cady Stanton, an American woman who made three trips to England in the 1880s and 1890s. Through friendships made in England, she became strongly connected to the Bright family, a Quaker family very involved in the British women’s rights movement (2). She extended her ideas on reform from her involvement in the British suffrage movement to the United States with the formation of the Women’s Franchise League in 1889 (2). While in the United States, Stanton maintained her connections to reformers in England, often finding herself amongst the some of the same major players in the abolition movement like William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass. Many scholars agree that the foundation for the women’s suffrage movement evolved out of the abolition movement. A notable example occurred in London in 1840 at the World Anti-slavery Convention Women when women were banned from being on the floor and participating in the debates (3). Some of the language and rhetoric used at the convention about equality and “the basic principles of liberal humanism” for all people were adopted by former abolitionists to strengthen the existing movement toward equal female rights(3).

Settlement Houses

Reform writing was also a driving force behind another social reform movement: The Settlement Movement. One of the transatlantic authors associated with the movement in Jane Addams, the founder of the Hull House, one of the most influential settlement houses located in Chicago, Illinois. In her novel, Addams detailed her life and her experiences with Hull House, as well as her visit to England. She recounts in her autobiography that she wanted to stray from the idea that the tenants may “lose themselves in the cave of their own companionship”, as is the saying of Toynbee Hall, the most well known settlement house in England (Addams 90). Addams also explains how Americans were inspired by the settlement movement in England. The transatlantic voyages taken by reformers helped them learn how to further their own settlement houses in the United States. Robert A. Woods visited Toynbee Hall and came back to Boston where he started the Andover House.

Themes in Transatlantic Literature

National Identity

Fictional Characters as National Symbols

Despite America’s origin stemming from Britain, aspects of both cultures differed. Some writers of transatlantic literature looked to pre-established characters or even fabricated their own in order to sufficiently portray the people of the nation in which they are visiting. Two notable writers from opposite sides of the Atlantic, Anthony Trollope and Washington Irving, included such characters in their writing.

While traveling in America, Anthony Trollope—the son of Frances Trollope—worked on travel notes entitled North America. In a passage in North America, Trollope fabricates a stereotypical American entrepreneur named Monroe P. Jones. To Trollope, Jones epitomizes key traits in the American spirit: perseverance, greed, and ambition. He establishes the first trait, perseverance, in his introduction of Mr. Jones: “Monroe P. Jones, the speculator, is very probably ruined, and then begins the world again, nothing daunted.” Trollope then illustrates Jones’s greed, stating that Jones is “greedy of dollars” and as “for his children he has no desire of leaving them money.” Ambition, the final trait, is revealed when Trollope describes Jones to have “the vigorous frontier mind, the true pioneering organization.”

John Bull, the personification of Britain, was already a famous character before appearing in Washington Irving’s The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon Gent. However, Irving’s depiction paints a closer look at British national identity, showcasing John Bull as a man of many worthy traits. He is proud, and “will contrive to argue every fault into a merit, and will frankly convict himself of being the honestest fellow in existence.” He is both economical and extravagant, for he will “begrudge himself [of] a beefsteak” while attempting “to devise how he may afford to be extravagant.” He is also a family-oriented man, having a “great disposition to protect and patronize” even if he is eventually “eaten up by dependents.” Lastly, he is patriotic. Irving writes that Bull “thinks not merely for himself and family, but for all the country round, and is most generously disposed to be everybody’s champion.”

Fictional characters embodying the traits of a nation were not limited to travel writing. In Edward Bulwer Lytton’s King Arthur (1849), King Arthur is the epitome of patriotism, sacrificing himself for the prosperity of a nation. A volunteer regiment in Nottingham in 1859 was called the Robin Hood Rifles, associating the character, Robin Hood, with patriotic volunteer soldiers.

Dynamic Between the Nations

The multiple and varying relationships between Britain and America have played a prominent role in 19th Century Transatlantic Victorian literature. Britain and North America are often considered mother and daughter countries. This theme has shown up, both literally and figuratively, in transatlantic works such as Anthony Trollope’s North America, and William Wells Brown’s The American Fugitive in Europe (also Three Years in Europe: Or, Places I Have Seen and People I Have Met). Trollope reprimands America’s instability and war, much as a parent would scold a child for ill behavior.

Another prominent relationship between Britain and North America is their combative relationship. America and Britain have constantly fought, from the American Revolutionary War, to the War of 1812. Many authors including Thomas Moore and Robert Walsh have traveled overseas and continuously throughout their travel journals compared the foreign country to their home country. Moore wrote letters to his mother (later published them) and discussed how much he disliked America. Walsh wrote An Appeal From the Judgments of Great Britain Respecting the United States of America in defense of his native country.

Amidst this fighting there has also been admiration between the two countries. Britain admired America for its energy and independence, while America idolized Britain for its sense of tradition and its no-slavery stance. Americans often traveled to Britain to gain support for their anti-slavery cause and many English writers traveled to America to gain information about slavery. Frederick Douglass, as well as Harriet Beecher Stowe, traveled to England and gave speeches about slavery and greatly advocated the anti-slavery movement. Douglass wrote about his travels in The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, and Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote a section of her piece Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands about her efforts to promote anti-slavery in Europe.

Essentially, the two nations could be considered one in the same simply divided by the Atlantic Ocean as all Americans, excluding Native Americans, initially came from Britain. As thus, in the 1900’s Britain and America settlers shared a common language, ethnicity of citizens, and often religion. Charles Wentworth Dilke discusses this in his piece Problems of Greater Britain. Dilke states that the two countries, although they may seem to be very different, are one cohesive nation.

Figures of National Identity

Important figures in literary history are heralded as symbols of national identity. However, when two nations are so closely tied together as are Britain and The United States, distinguishing a figure as a symbol for only one of these nations becomes difficult. Shakespeare is the most prevalent of these figures for example, and is thought to belong to both Britons and Americans.

Shakespeare was born and grew up in Britain, where he became the glorified poet and playwright he is know as today. His plays were performed at the famous Globe Theatre in London, although he originally began as an actor. Shakespeare’s plays were incredibly popular during his life, in spite of other attractions such as cock-fighting, and continued to influence literature and the English language long after his death.

Because his plays were a part of the literature to make the transatlantic journey to the United States, Shakespeare’s plays became an integral part of America’s culture and society. French writer Alexis de Tocqueville commented on Shakespeare’s presence in America in his travelogues during the 1830s: “There is hardly a pioneer's hut that does not contain a few odd volumes of Shakespeare. I remember that I read the feudal drama of Henry V for the first time in a log cabin.” His plays were performed on American soil just as they were across the Atlantic. Shakespeare was the most popular playwright in America during the nineteenth century.

Since Shakespeare has such a dominating presence in both the minds of Britons and Americans when it comes to literature, perhaps he does not belong to one nation or the other, but is a national symbol for both.

Tourist Landmarks

Stratford-on-Avon

Given Shakespeare’s popularity, American travelers, many of which were writers themselves, frequently visited landmarks, which had connections to Shakespeare. Stratford-Upon-Avon was the most important of these landmarks, featuring not only Shakespeare's birthplace and the house he owned in his adult years, but also his burial site. More notable American authors who wrote about their visit to Stratford in the 19th century include Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Washington Irving.

Irving himself described the journey as a "poetical pilgrimage" and took many sketches of Shakespeare's houses and various items that supposedly belonged to him, including a chair and lantern. Notable about his account are the descriptions of the relative disrepair much of Shakespeare's residences had fallen into, as Irving had visited Stratford approximately thirty years before the purchase and renovation of the Shakespeare residences in 1847. He is told by the caretaker of the house that the chair, "...had to be new bottomed at least once in three years." In his account of seeing the places where Shakespeare lived and frequented, Irving also speculates on what about Stratford-Upon-Avon inspired the playwright to produce such imaginative works, saying about Stratford, "...the whole country about here is poetic ground: everything is associated with the idea of Shakespeare.

Stowe, like Irving, traveled to Stratford as a kind of pilgrimage, but she used the journey to speculate more on what Shakespeare would have thought about current political events, particularly slavery, as her visit to Britain is around the time of the abolition debate in America, in which Stowe participated. She describes debating with her companions on whether Shakespeare would approve of slavery or whether he would have been for abolition, and comes to the conclusion that perhaps he would have stayed out of the matter. Stowe's visit to the Shakespeare residences falls after the buildings were purchased and renovated, and her account includes references to a "Shakespearean Club" who is responsible for it.

When Hawthorne wrote about Stratford, he was less interested in the biographical or inspirational qualities of being in the place where Shakespeare wrote than he was in the properties of the place and the people he met in the present day. He gives a great deal of attention to landscape and comparing the British countryside to America, whereas he describes being in Shakespeare's home but confesses that he "...was conscious of not the slightest emotion while viewing it, nor any quickening of the imagination.” Hawthorne's account of Stratford serves as an example of an experience with a landmark that is less fanciful and more factual.

Niagara Falls

For British travelers to America, Niagara Falls was an important landmark noted in many travel accounts. It was, in the nineteenth century, America's prominent attraction for tourists. It was a popular spot for Americans and honeymooners, but also for visitors from across the Atlantic, who simply had nothing like it in Europe. Its vastness and its uncontrollable and wild nature was symbolic for the way Americans saw their own country. As for Britons, visiting the falls was a way to transcend their usual political concerns and develop a closer relationship with God.

The appeal that Niagara Falls held for visitors touring America can be understood from accounts by Charles Dickens, Anthony Trollope, and Thomas Moore. Although the focus of their works often revolved around politics, they share a similar admiration for specific splendors of the falls, which overcomes their political focus. They each discuss the enveloping sound that preceded the sight of the falls and the awe-inspiring sublime that brings about a connection with God.

The three writers depict the sound that radiates from the falls as vast, and even slightly disorienting. Moore writes, "Just arrived within a mile and half of the Falls of Niagara, and their tremendous roar at this moment sounding in my ears.” Likewise, approaching the Falls, Dickens hears "a mighty rush of water," and is "deafened by the noise.” The sound is less invasive for Trollope: "the sound, I beg you to remember, is not an ear-cracking, agonizing crash and clang of noises; but is melodious, and soft withal, though as loud as thunder. It fills your ears, and, as it were, envelops them, but at the same time you can speak to your neighbor without an effort.”

The immensity of the falls is nearly indescribable for all three. Moore, upon first seeing the water of the falls through the trees, writes that he "received enough of its grandeur to set imagination on the wing; imagination which, even at Niagara, can outrun reality.” Similarly Dickens writes that he "was in a manner stunned, and unable to comprehend the vastness of the scene;” Trollope advises against trying to make sense of this immensity: "In looking at the grandest works of nature, and of art too, I fancy it is never well to see all. There should be something left to the imagination, and much should be half concealed in mystery.”

The stunning size, sound and beauty of the falls induced a state of spiritual contemplation, a feeling of sublimity that brings them closer to God. Dickens writes, "I felt how near to my Creator I was standing, the first effect, and the enduring one -- instant and lasting -- of the tremendous spectacle, was Peace.” Mesmerized from his first full glimpse, Moore writes, "I felt as if approaching the very residence of the Deity; the tears started into my eyes; and I remained, for moments after we had lost sight of the scene, in that delicious absorption which pious enthusiasm alone can produce.” And for Trollope, after letting the scene sink in, "That which at first was only great and beautiful becomes gigantic and sublime, till the mind is at loss to find an epithet for its own use.”

American Indians

In 1850, Native American writer, lecturer, poet and Ojibwa Chief George Copway made a transatlantic journey to Britain as an official delegate of the “Christian Indians of America” to Britain’s world’s peace convention. Having converted to Christianity when he was twenty-two years old, Copway began as a missionary for the Methodist church and later became a Methodist preacher. (He was eventually expelled from the church on the grounds of embezzlement.)

Copway detailed his journey to Europe through his publication Running Sketches of Men and Places in England, France, Germany, Belgium, and Scotland. Copway’s ambivalence towards the Americans or “pale faces” is palpable, and he writes, “I have never asked a true American anything but I have received. I can do nothing more than to love and cherish them.”

Copway later states his distaste for the American’s treatment of Native Americans when he describes in Running Sketches, “I have a nature within me which, when I see the kind the acts of the white man, covers a multitude of sins.”

In Britain, Copway gave lectures to churches and the Mechanic’s Institute’s regarding the poetry, writings, beliefs, and traditions of the North American Native American. In the Transatlantic Indian, 1776-1930, by Kate Flint, Flint states that Copway’s work, Running Sketches “may be understood as an acknowledgment of the need for fluidity of styles and register when it comes to making some kind of sense and order of modern, urban existence.” A month before embarking on his transatlantic journey, Copway befriended fellow writer and poet Henry Longfellow. Longfellow described Copway as the “Ojibwa preacher and poet,” and the two remained friends until a couple of years later, when it is widely believed that Longfellow, in frustration of Copways persistent pleas for pecuniary funds to aide his fledgling weekly newspaper, “Copway’s American Indian” compared Copway to his mischievous character Pau-Puk-Keewis in his poem “The Song of Hiawatha.” Not much is known about Copway directly after his visit to Europe, but what is known is that he remained in America and became an herbal healer for the Iroquois tribe. It is also reported that Copway, an ex- Methodist converted to Roman Catholism, passed away in January 1869- just a day away from his first communion.

Transatlantic Literature beyond the US-UK Divide

The Pan-American European Divide

The Atlantic Ocean serves as a great physical distance for not only pairs of countries such as the United States and Great Britain, but for continents too. One such continental divide is the Pan-American European Divide, that is, the Americas (North and South) verses Europe.

The Americas and Europe were dislocated by more than the Atlantic Ocean, however. American and European culture have historically dislocated the continents from each other. American author turned British citizen Henry James wrote in the 19th century about these cultural dislocations, his novels often focusing on the differences between American and European culture.

Like with Great Britain and the United States, there are transatlantic ties that bind these two groups of people together, and literary works from one group are circulating and being read and critiqued by the other. As such, literature such as the works of Henry James, thematically concerned with the Pan-American European Divide, and popularly read on both sides of the Atlantic, are being put in their transatlantic context by literary scholars.

Helen Barolini, acclaimed critical scholar and writer, notes and traces Italian influences on Henry James, Emily Dickinson, Margaret Fuller. In Transatlantic Mirrors, Sidney D. Braun and Seymour Lanoff similarly trace French influences on an array of American authors: Emerson, Whitman, and Henry James, among others. Some of the same authors are said to have German influences as well, including, Hawthorne, Melville, Dickinson, and James.

Ireland

Transatlantic influence spanned beyond just England and America. Ireland has been historically intertwined with England, their cultures clashing due in large part to their geographic proximity. In the 19th century with the Great Famine, the potato blight starved much of the Irish population, resulting in large amount of deaths and subsequent emigration: Clare Island, a small island on the west side of Ireland, reported “576 deaths from starvation out of a population of 1700,” a third of their total population; men even “committed crimes to be transported out of Ireland” . Many Irish emigrants made the transatlantic voyage and settled in either Canada or America.

A notable transatlantic figure, Oscar Wilde was born in 1854 in Dublin, Ireland, but spent much of his life in England . Aside from these two countries he also spent time in France, Canada, and America. In 1882, Wilde spent ten months on a North American lecture tour as a spokesman for the Aesthetic Movement. This tour brought him to various cities in America and Canada, such as Montreal, Toronto, Baltimore, and New York. Preaching the importance of beauty, the Aesthetic Movement, as well as Wilde himself, was criticized widely by the public. England’s Punch magazine was largely responsible for the public’s view of the movement as a “farce, and the Aesthetes were effete poseurs mooning after beauty in a fatuous and sissified fashion” . Many cartoons in Punch depicted “the Aesthete typically lolled on a sofa with his legs in a tangle, sighing after the ‘consummately lovely’ or the ‘utterly too too’” . Satires sprouted up, supporting these representations, Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera, Patience, for one. On the other side of the Atlantic, the Washington Post added its own satire of the Aesthetic Movement in one of its comics .

Wilde’s lecture tour had another focus that had a transatlantic impact: the Arts and Crafts movement. This movement aimed on the ideal of the beauty of personal handiwork over industrialized, mass-produced products . Examples include handcrafted furniture, such as dining chairs, made of solid, dense wood with elegant patterns.

International events and cultures affected him and his work. Moving in an opposite direction from the Atlantic Ocean, his first play, Vera, could not be produced in 1881 “because of political conditions in Russia” . Being an aesthete he “approved of Queen Anne-style red brick houses, Japanese art of all kinds, [and] blue and white china” .

Oscar Wilde’s short story, “The Canterville Ghost,” serves as an example of transatlantic influence through conceptions of national identity. In the story, Wilde draws sharp contrasts between American and British cultures via a clash between an American family and an English ghost. Wilde compares accents, writing of “the sweetness of the New York accent as compared to the London drawl” . He also mentions the types of government in each country: the “British Aristocracy” and “Republican simplicity” . Americans are portrayed as being modern: the irate English ghost labels the family “some wretched modern Americans” . The American family is always using or suggesting the use of modern, household items such as “Paragon Detergent” or “Rising Sun Lubricator” .

George Bernard Shaw was infamous in the time of the 19th century. He was born in Ireland, but after becoming interested in writing, he began traveling all around the world. Shaw spent most of the years of his life touring through many different countries, on vacation, gathering ideas, or promoting his works, , and didn’t return to Ireland for twenty-eight years. Shaw gained a lot of inspiration from traveling to different areas. His Italian visits, along with the observations made in England of their pre-Raphaelite art, motivated him to write his play Candida. Shaw also used his experiences in Italy to argue for the healing power of attending mass in his essay “On Going to Church”. Within this essay he once again referred back to his sightings in England, but this time to the structure of their churches. Shaw wasn’t only influenced by his own venturing to other countries but also by other authors who were from other areas or had visited other nations. One of the earlier inspirations of Shaw’s writing came from German authors. He read essays and texts written by people such as Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Wagner. It was these author among a few others who became powerful attractions for Shaw to become a writer. Another instance where Shaw was persuaded by other writers was with the idea of traveling to America. He was tempted for most of his life (for seventy-seven years) to stay away from the United States only because of the writings he had read on the country. He had read many works such as ones by Mark Twain, Bret Harte, Frances Trollope and her son Anthony. Most of the works Shaw read led him to hold a negative view on America and the people who lived there. Because of this influence Shaw was known for representing American characters in his plays as cruel, hypocritical, and vulgar. Soon enough Shaw’s literature soon became part of the transnational scene. His works were praised all around the world from various countries. In some areas, such as America, he was incredibly famous. The one time that he did actually visit America he was swarmed with admirers and reporters . In other countries, such as Germany, Shaw’s rise was a very slow one. Then, in some, they were indifferent to him, especially France. Shaw’s reason for France’s lack of interest was that his work was meant for more intelligent people. France, on the other hand, was “so stupid” and “too far behind” for him to educate them (Ervine 375). It has been noted that other nations, like the ones dominated by Roman Catholics, didn’t care for Shaw’s writing either. They disagreed with the subject matters and content held within his writing. Shaw held the beliefs of a Protestant Puritan, and so topics such as prostitution and sexuality, were understandable to him to write about. However, many people did not feel the same as him and chose to forbid some of his more inappropriate plays and books, some of which are still banned to this day . George Bernard Shaw played a large role in 19th century transatlantic literature. He was greatly influenced by writings from all over the world and had his own texts traveling across nations. It was writers like him, that didn’t seclude themselves to their home nation, or their nation’s common beliefs, that brought so many new and interesting ideas and writings to our world.

Daniel O’Connel was an Irish political leader during the nineteenth century. He is placed as an important literary figure due to the publishing of the great speeches he gave during his lifetime . He spoke for many active groups, such as ones demanding Catholic Emancipation, repealing the union between Ireland and Great Britain, and slavery. O’Connel was one of the leading figures in the fight for abolition in Britain, and when his goal was achieved he still didn’t stop. Sacrificing his support in the other causes, O’Connel turned his full attention toward trying to succeed in the end of American slavery . He is said to have been “the single most important supporter that American anti-slavery had in Europe” . Daniel O’Connell was a hero to a very important American man, Frederick Douglass. Douglass had been completely captivated by O’Connell after he heard him speak at the repeal meeting in Dublin’s Conciliation Hall, where O’Connell had introduced Douglass as “the Black O’Connell of the United States” . O’Connell died in the early 19th century, but Douglass carried on his legacy. Douglass used O’Connell’s campaign tactics to continue fighting for American slaves, such as sending back the money of for the Repeal movement if it was sent by slave owners (Rolston 81). Daniel O’Connell may have never seen his final dream to come true for the freedom of American slaves, but his words and acts will be remembered as a great influence to this world. Due to his great achievements and courage, he has earned the title of “the Liberator” and an Irish patriot.

The Caribbean

The Caribbean is part of a transatlantic network that was originally fortified by the slave trade. The Caribbean was an element of the The Triangular Trade (the Slave Trade Triangle), as it was a stop on the second leg of the triangle, in which enslaved Africans were exported across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas and the Caribbean Islands.

The Middle Passage, the journey across the Atlantic from native homes to where the slaves would be enslaved, was a major theme in transatlantic Caribbean literature. Carl Pederson tracks this theme in Caribbean literature in his article “Middle passages: representations of the slave trade in Caribbean and African-American literature.”

The Caribbean also had strong transatlantic ties to Ireland. In Transatlantic Solidarities: Irish Nationalism and Caribbean Poetics, Michael Malouf examines a link between the two nations created primarily with their similar relations to the British Empire and their common spaces of migration in New York and London. Irish nationalist discourse expressed by Eamon de Valera, George Bernard Shaw, and James Joyce affected the Caribbean figures Marcus Garvey, Claude McKay, and Derek Walcott.

Notes

References

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Audrey Fisch, American Slaves in Victorian England (Cambridge University Press, 2000). ISBN: 9780521121651

Paul Giles, Atlantic Republic: The American Tradition in English Literature (Oxford University Press, 2006). ISBN 0199206333

_____. Transatlantic Insurrections:British Culture and the Formation of American literature, 1730-1850 (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2001). ISBN 9780812217674

Robert Charles Le Clair’s Three American travelers in England: James Russell Lowell, Henry Adams, Henry James (Greenwood, 1978; 1st ed. 1945).

Meredith McGill, American Literature and the Culture of Reprinting (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003). ISBN: 081223698X

Tom Standage, The Victorian Internet: The Remarkable Story of the Telegraph and the Nineteenth Century's On-line Pioneers (Walker, 2007). ISBN: 0802716040

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Stephanie L. Barczewski, Myth and National Identity in Nineteenth-Century Britain. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000)

George Copway, Running Sketches of Men and Places in England, France, Germany, Belgium, and Scotland. (New York: J. C. Riker, 1851)

Charles Dickens, American Notes For General Circulation (Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1867)

Charles W. Dilke, Problems of Greater Britain (two volumes; London and New York: Macmillan, 1890)

Kate Flint, The Transatlantic Indian, 1776-1930. (Princeton: Princeton Review Press, 2009)

Nathaniel Hawthorne, Our Old Home. (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell & Co., 1906)

Washington Irving, The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon Gent. (New York: Charles E. Merrill Co., 1906)

Lawrence W. Levine, "William Shakespeare and the American People: A Study in Cultural Transformation in The American Historican Review": Volume 89, No. 1. (1984).

Amanda Mabilliard, "William Shakespeare of Stratford: Shakespeare the Actor and Playwright," Shakespeare Online. 20 Aug. 2000. (14 Dec. 2009) http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography

Thomas Moore, in Edith I. Coombs, ed., America Visited

John F. Sears, Sacred places: American tourist attractions in the nineteenth century (Oxford University Press, 1989)

"Shakespeare in America, National Endowment for the Arts Presents Shakespeare in American Communities." (14 Dec. 2009). http://www.shakespeareinamericancommunities.org/education/america.shtml

Harriet Beecher Stowe, Sunny Memories of Foreign Lands. (Boston: Phillips, Sampson, and Co., 1854)

Anthony Trollope, North America: Volume 1 (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott & Co, 1862)