Truth Stranger Than Fiction: Race, Realism, and the U.S. Literary Marketplace [Hardcover]

Augusta Rohrbach (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 23, 2002

Augusta Rohrbach broadens our understanding of the American literary tradition by showing how African American literature and culture greatly influenced the development of realism. Rohrbach traces the influences of the slave narratives—such as the use of authenticating details, as well as dialect, and a frank treatment of the human body—in writings by Howells, Wharton, and others, and explores questions about the shifting relationship between literature and culture in the US from 1830-1930. Beginning with the question, “How might slave narratives—heralded as the first indigenous literature by Theodore Parker—have influenced the development of American Literature?” Rohrbach develops connections between an emerging literary marketplace, the rise of the professional writer, and literary realism.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Truth Stranger than Fiction is the first book to explore the direct relationship between slave narratives and realism in American fiction. It is a ground-breaking study, essential to the understanding of the history of American fictional realism, and should be read by all students and scholars of American literature. --Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Harvard University

About the Author

Augusta Rohrbach holds a joint appointment at the Bunting Fellowship Program and the W.E.B. Du Bois Institute for Afro-American Research at Harvard University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 1 edition (February 23, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312239211
• ISBN-13: 978-0312239213
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,241,268 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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