Genre and the representation of violence in American Civil War texts by Edmund Wright, John William De Forest, and Henry James

• Author / Creator

  Zenari, Vivian Alba

• This dissertation investigates the relationship between genre and the representation of war-time violence in five texts written during and shortly after the United States Civil War (1861-1865). The texts are The Narrative of Edmund Wright (1864), John William De Forest’s Miss Ravenel’s Conversion from Secession to Loyalty (1867), and three short stories by Henry James—“The Story of a Year” (1865), “Poor Richard” (1867), and “A Most Extraordinary Case” (1868). These texts deal with the theme of war violence through generic mechanisms associated with the spectrum of writings often dichotomized as romance and realism. The main theoretical approach to genre depends on a distinction between criterial theories of genre and contingency theories of genre. Criterial theories emphasize the shared characteristics of literary texts: that is, criterial theories of genre are classificatory in orientation. Contingency theories emphasize the ways in which social forces influence the act of classification: contingency theories of genre, in other words, concentrate on the notion that genres are social constructs. This dissertation maintains, in line with contingency theory, that genre is affected by the social, political and cultural circumstances of the period in which the genre operates; as a result, this dissertation uses documents from and about the American Civil War to substantiate its claims. The work of Alice Fahs, David Reynolds, and John Frow has influenced the approach to genre theory and to nineteenth-century American literary history.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Genre
  • "A Most Extraordinary Case"
  • American literature
  • Henry James
  • Nineteenth century
  • American Civil War, 1861-1865
  • Representation
  • The Narrative of Edmund Wright
  • "Poor Richard"
  • Violence
  • "The Story of a Year"
  • Popular literature
  • J.W. (John William) De Forest
  • Miss Ravenel's Conversion from Secession to Loyalty
  • History--United States

• Graduation date

  Fall 2010

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Doctor of Philosophy

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3S62T

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.