Young America In Literature
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In 1831, Giuseppe Mazzini founded Young Italy, an organization dedicated to furthering liberty, equality, and humanity within his nation. It soon spawned offshoots such as Young Poland, Young Ireland, Young Turks, and Young America. These movements promoted socio-political visions that might be termed "international nationalism": both radically inclusive and (as their names suggest) innately modern and patriotic. As Herman Melville later wrote, "There seems no reason why patriotism and narrowness should go together."
The cultural front of the Young America movement advocated a literary exceptionalism rooted in American subjects, scenes, and sensibilities, in contradistinction to the (allegedly) aristocratic traditionalism of Europe. The 1855 Preface to Leaves of Grass is illustrative. Whitman declared that great poems must incarnate America's "geography and natural life" and "cheer up slaves and horrify despots." Similar ideas were expressed by writers such as John Neal, William Cullen Bryant, and Ralph Waldo Emerson, animating what F. O. Matthiessen later identified as the "American Renaissance."
But perhaps "the most famous literary manifesto of the American nineteenth century" is Melville's "Hawthorne and His Mosses" (1850). The essay is putatively a review of Hawthorne's short stories (although it's hardly that and more besides) authored by "a Virginian Spending July in Vermont" (although Melville was a New Yorker spending August in Massachusetts). Echoing the language of the American Revolution, Melville calls for independence from Old World (especially British) dictates of taste, urging American authors to establish an original literary tradition, and for American readers to proudly embrace them.
Evert Duyckinck and Cornelius Mathews provided leading publishing platforms for Young America--including Yankee Doodle, The Literary World, The Democratic Review, and Arcturus--where Melville's works were often showcased. But Melville's attitude toward Young America is complicated by his apparent satirization of Duyckinck in Pierre (1852), and the possibility that the "Arcturion" (a ship described as "exceedingly dull" in Mardi), derived its namesake from Arcturus.
For this meetup, we will read "Hawthorne and His Mosses" and Books 17-18 from Pierre ("Young America In Literature" and "Pierre, As a Juvenile Author, Reconsidered").
Note: This meetup will be recorded for private use.
Hawthorne and His Mosses:
Pierre, or The Ambiguities (Books 17-18 only):
Supplemental:
- Young Italy Oath of allegiance
- The Young American by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- The American Scholar by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Preface to Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman
This meetup is part of the series The Risorgimento.