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- Title
The Joys of the Elevated: William Dean Howells and the Urban Picturesque.
- Authors
Bernstein, Samantha
- Abstract
This article examines picturesque aesthetics in nineteenth-century American realism as an expression of unease about middle-class life and as a manifestation of liberal guilt. Previous scholarship on the picturesque in American literature sees it as the failure of middle-class writers to represent urban poverty. I demonstrate the historical association of the picturesque with the formation of the middle class and argue that, since the eighteenth century, picturesque aesthetics have played a significant role in discourse about class relations. Through a reading of William Dean Howells's A Hazard of New Fortunes, I examine the picturesque as a means of addressing the ethical dilemmas of liberal humanists, whose compassion for the poor is undermined by a sense of its ineffectuality. Picturesque aesthetics are culturally significant today, suggesting a need to examine their social and ethical implications.
- Subjects
HOWELLS, William Dean, 1837-1920; HAZARD of New Fortunes, A (Book : Howells); PICTURESQUE, The; REALISM; 19TH century aesthetics; MIDDLE class in literature; NINETEENTH century; HISTORY; REALISM (Literary period)
- Publication
Canadian Review of American Studies, 2015, Vol 45, Issue 3, p278
- ISSN
0007-7720
- Publication type
Literary Criticism
- DOI
10.3138/cras.2015.S08