Award Date

12-1-2020

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

First Committee Member

John Hay

Second Committee Member

Anne Stevens

Third Committee Member

Vincent Perez

Fourth Committee Member

Elizabeth Nelson

Fifth Committee Member

Kathryn H. Korgan

Number of Pages

59

Abstract

Since Charles Brockden Brown published his first novels in the late eighteenth century, he has subsequently shifted back and forth, in importance, from the center to the periphery of the American literary canon. In recent years however, a dramatic increase in scholarship on Brown shows his significance is once again trending back toward the center of importance in this field. Scholarship has tended to coalesce around four topics which can be categorized as postcolonial expansion, the wild city, the distinction between the city and wildness, and identity. Looking closely at identity, although the discourse has done a thorough job of analyzing the conflict between Native Americans and European settlers, a gap has emerged specifically regarding the identify formation of the United States American citizen. Filling in this gap, an argument demonstrating how reading Edgar Huntly, within the broader context of all four of Brown’s Gothic romances, illustrates what Brown identifies as the requisite step to taking on a uniquely American identity, that of a United Sates Citizen. A deeper understanding of identity formation, in this context, serves to close this gap by adding new insight to this topic in Brown studies.

Keywords

American; Brown; Conflict; Gothic; Identity; Romance

Disciplines

American Literature | Arts and Humanities | Other Languages, Societies, and Cultures

File Format

pdf

File Size

3100 KB

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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