![]() ![]() imagine national (and geographic) rifts in the 'form of a family history and/or heterosexual love affair.'. Recipe 2 is what Buell calls 'the romance of the divide.' Novels of this kind. Recipe 1 is to write a novel that is 'subjected to a series of memorable rewritings.'. Its true cultural worth must not be recognized upon its publication.Īdditionally, Shreve states, referencing Buell, that "several 'templates' or 'recipes' for the Great American Novel emerged.Its author must have been born in the United States or have adopted the country as his or her own.It must be democratic in spirit and form. ![]() It must encompass the entire nation and not be too consumed with a particular region.According to JSTOR Daily's Grant Shreve, as the concept grew, concrete criteria for the Great American Novel developed: Lawerence Buell stated that the concept was seen as a part of a larger national, cultural and political consolidation. The term soon became popular, its ubiquity considered a cliché and disparaged by literary critics. In 1880, writer Henry James simplified the term with the initialism "GAN". Previously, only five percent of American books were marked as novels, with most fictional works given the self-effacing title of a "tale". The essay's publication coincided with the rising prestige of the novel. Although De Forest espoused praise and critique for contemporaneous novels, he ultimately concluded that the Great American Novel had yet to be written. Similarly, Daniel Pierce Thompson said it had to be distinctly American. De Forest saw it serving as a "tableau" of American society, and said that the novel would "paint the American soul" and capture "the ordinary emotions and manners of American existence". The term "Great American Novel" originated in an 1868 essay by American Civil War novelist John William De Forest. Calls for an "autonomous national literature" first appeared during the American Revolution, and, by the mid-18th century, the possibility of American literature exceeding its European counterparts began to take shape, as did that of the Great American Novel, this time being the genesis of novels that would later be considered the Great American Novel. The development of American literature coincided with the nation's development, especially of its identity. John William De Forest coined the term in 1868, and Henry James shortened it to GAN in 1880. History Background and origin of the term ![]() Writers and academics have commented upon the term's pragmatics, the different types of novels befitting of title and the idea's relation to race and gender. William Carlos Williams, Clyde Brion Davis and Philip Roth have written novels about the Great American Novel-titled as such-the latter in the 1970s, a time of prosperity for the concept.Įquivalents to and interpretations of the Great American Novel have arisen. Exactly what novel or novels warrant the title is without consensus and an assortment have been contended as the idea has evolved and continued into the modern age, with fluctuations in popular and critical regard. Practically, the term refers to a small number of books that have historically been the nexus of discussion, including Moby-Dick (1851), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), The Great Gatsby (1925), and Gone with the Wind (1936). De Forest noted that the Great American Novel had most likely not been written yet. The term was coined by John William De Forest in an 1868 essay and later shortened to GAN. The Great American Novel (sometimes abbreviated as GAN) is the term for a canonical novel that generally embodies and examines the essence and character of the United States. Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) by Harriet Beecher Stowe is commonly cited as the Great American Novel- John William De Forest saw it as the closest possible novel. For other uses, see Great American Novel (disambiguation). This article is about the Great American Novel as a concept. ![]()
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