Antebellum America
ENG 516/525: Literary Journalism
Lesson 3
July 16-18, 2001

Assignments

Read the works below as soon as possible and post the written assignment by 8 a.m. Monday of this week. 

Read:

Post: Draft of author headnote

Objectives

By the end of this unit, you should:
  • be familiar with the general character of antebellum American journalism;
  • be familiar with the general character of antebellum American literature;
  • have explored the journalistic and literary qualities in the writings of Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, and Walt Whitman.

Names 

Make sure you know the meaning and significance of each of the following names:

Resources

You can find more information about the subject covered in this lesson by consulting the print or electronic resources listed below:

The Press in America is a clear, concise overview of American journalism history, from its origins to modern times.  In addition to describing important figures and trends, it covers issues related to freedom of expression.

American Journalism: A History: 1690-1960 covers important people and developments in American journalism over the past three centuries.

Updated July 12, 2001
© Mark Canada, 2001
mark.canada@uncp.edu
 

Introduction

During class this week, we will take a look at the literature and journalism of antebellum America, focusing on works by Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, and Walt Whitman.  With the possible exception of Roughing It, which you can purchase at the UNCP bookstore, all of the readings listed in the box at the left are available online.

Please remember to post a draft of your author headnote on your online portfolio by Wednesday.  If your reading assignments are available online, make sure you include links on this headnote.  If they are not available online, you will need to bring photocopies for your classmates and me to class on Wednesday.

Discussion

In class this week, we will discuss the growth of American journalism in the antebellum period, paying special attention to the advent of the penny press in the 1830s.  Having immersed ourselves in this historical context, we then will take a look at the numerous American writers who dabbled in both journalism and literature during this period.  We will begin with Mark Twain, who wrote for his brother's newspaper and the Virginia Territorial Enterprise before writing his many famous novels, including Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.  On Wednesday, we will study Edgar Allan Poe, who edited several publications at the same time he was writing many of his short stories.  Finally, we will turn to Walt Whitman, who worked as a journalist before he came out with Leaves of Grass in 1855.

A number of other notable American belletrists also worked as journalists at this time.  William Cullen Bryant, one of the leading poets of the period, was editor of the New York Evening Post for nearly a half-century, beginning in 1829.  Margaret Fuller, author of Summer on the Lakes in 1843 and Woman in the Nineteenth Century, edited the Transcendentalist periodical The Dial and later wrote for the New York Tribune.  Finally, Sarah Willis, writing under the pseudonym Fanny Fern, was one of the best-known newspaper columnists of her time.  In addition to writing for the New York Ledger, she published several books, including the novel Ruth Hall.

Conclusion

Next week, three of you--Kelly Singer, Rebekah Revels, and Robin Duncan--will introduce us to the journalism of the postbellum period on Monday.  Using the comments I will send you, please revise and combine your period pages and post a single headnote that the rest of us can read in advance.  The three of you will be responsible for teaching the first half of Monday's class, using whatever tools and exercises you think are appropriate to help us understand the nature of postbellum journalism.  Kelly, then, will have the remainder of the class to introduce us to the literature and journalism of Frederick Douglass.  On Wednesday, Rebekah will lead us through the work of Rebecca Harding Davis, and Robin will introduce us to Bret Harte.

Exercises

I have designed the following exercises to help you get the most out of this unit.  Please keep them in mind as you study the reading assignments and jot down some notes that will help you respond to them in class.

Overview

1A.  How would you characterize the journalism of antebellum America?  In what ways does it resemble antebellum literature?  Why might a writer have crossed from one field to the other?  Did these writers even think of them as distinct fields?

Featured Writers: Mark Twain, Edgar Allan Poe, Walt Whitman

1B.  What journalistic elements do you find in Mark Twain's Roughing It?  How does Twain negotiate the line between truth and fiction?  Which parts do you think he invented or exaggerated for effect?  Note any passages where he has taken care to be truthful or deliberately vague.  Why might he have bent the truth in some places, but not in others?
1C.  Unlike "The Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Purloined Letter," two other detective stories by Poe, "The Mystery of Marie Roget" is based on a true story.  How has Poe taken facts and massaged them to create a compelling piece of fiction?  Is this story a work of fiction?
1D.  Imagine Walt Whitman working as a journalist in New York and New Orleans in the years before the Civil War.  How might have this experience shaped his outlook, personality, and poetry?