Confronting the Modern Literary Marketplace: William Dean Howells Between 1900-1920

Abstract

Although William Dean Howells is a canonical American novelist and one of the foremost theorists of American literary realism, his later phase receives little scholarly attention. In this period, Howells experiences the negative effects of the rapidly changing literary marketplace on both the artist and the literary critic, realizes the defining force of the advertiser on literary taste, and revises his own artistic status, which he now calls “prosperous slavery to a salary.” Ironically, the epithet ‘Dean of American Letters’ is bestowed upon him in this final period, rendering Howells’s private literary self more at odds with his public literary persona which has assumed iconic properties. In this analysis, Howells’s selected later fiction and non-fiction will be considered. Many of his later critical essays will help define his literary program in the twentieth century as he confronts the modern literary marketplace. This confrontation, in the manner of an intellectual, moral, and artistic crisis, must frame any investigation of what constitutes the belatedness of later Howells.

Keywords

• William Dean Howells
• Twentieth-Century American Literature
• The Commodification of Literature
• Literary Taste
• Literary Criticism
• American Democracy
• Realism

Modern Edebiyat Dünyası ile Yüzleşmek: 1900-1920 arası William Dean Howells

Öz

Kanonik bir Amerikan roman yazarı ve Amerikan gerçekçi edebiyatının en önemli kuramcılarından biri olmasına rağmen, William Dean Howells’la ilgili çalışmalarda yazarın son dönemi yeterince incelenmemiştir. Howells, 1900 yılında Harper’s dergisinde her ay yazmaya başlamış ve yazılarına 1920’deki ölümüne dek devam etmiştir. Howells bu yirmi yılık dönemde, edebiyat dünyasındaki değişimlerin hem sanatçı hem de edebiyat eleştirmeni üzerindeki olumsuz etkilerine maruz kalmış; reklam sektörünün edebî beğeni üzerindeki nihaî etkisini fark edip kendi sanatçı konumunu gözden geçirmiş ve durumunu “maaşa bağlanmış kazançlı kölelik” olarak betimlemiştir. İronik olan, bu dönemde, Howells’ın edebiyatçı kimliğinde oluşan bölünmenin, yazara “Amerikan Edebiyatının Dekan”ı denmeye başlanması ile daha da derinleşmesidir. Bu çalışmada Howells’ın kariyerinin son döneminde yazdığı romanları ve edebiyat eleştirileri üzerinde durulup özellikle edebiyat eleştirileri üzerinden Howells’ın yirminci yüzyılın sonunda edebiyat dünyasında meydana gelen değişimleri nasıl karşıladığı, kendi edebiyat anlayışını ve pratiğini nasıl şekillendirdiği incelenecektir. Howells’ın modern edebiyat dünyasıyla karşılaşması, hem entelektüel ve ahlâkî hem de sanatçı olmakla ilgili bir kriz, bir dönüm noktası olarak görülmeli ve yazarın son dönemini inceleyen-gecikmiş de olsa-her tartışmanın çerçevesini oluşturmalıdır.

Anahtar Kelimeler

• William Dean Howells
• William Dean Howells
• Yirminci Yüzyıl Amerikan Edebiyatı
• Edebiyatın Ticarîleşmesi
• Edebî Beğeni
• Edebiyat Eleştirisi
• Amerikan Demokrasisi
• Gerçekçilik

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