Late-19th-Century Literature

Literary critics have increasingly employed archaeological methods, discovering or rediscovering buried artifacts that shed light on past cultural practices but also on current issues. This focus on lesser-known works and neglected authors reveals a shifting literary canon, highlighting current social and cultural concerns. Although aesthetic, rhetorical, and structural analysis continues to serve as a methodology, art for art’s sake has taken a back seat to art as cultural artifact, whether the artifact is 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 the reasons they have been neglected.