Late-19th-Century Literature

Abstract

Literary critics have increasingly employed archaeological methods, discovering or rediscovering buried artifacts that shed light on past cultural practices and on current social issues. This focus on lesser-known works and neglected authors reveals a shifting literary canon that highlights current concerns. Although aesthetic, rhetorical, and structural analyses continue to serve as a methodology, art for art’s sake has taken a backseat to art as cultural artifact, whether the artifact be an unfamiliar poem or a once popular novel. Nowhere is this trend more obvious than in the field of African American literature, but even in the examination of realists and naturalists, we find a focus on neglected authors and forgotten works. In this recovery of overlooked texts, there is an emphasis not only on lesser-known compositions but also on why the compositions have been neglected. As the subject of more scholar studies than any other author of the period, Charlotte Perkins Gilman is the late-19th-century author of the year, a fact that further exemplifies the shifting canon.