The Romance of the Holy Land in American Travel Writing, 1790-1876Brian Yothers puts American travel writing about the Holy Land by major writers like Twain and Melville in dialogue with missionary accounts, captivity narratives, chronicles of religious pilgrimages, and travel writing in the genteel tradition. The profound intertextuality American travel writing shares with Hebrew and Christian scriptures and with British and continental travel narratives is striking, as is the critique of nascent imperial discourse Yothers examines in Melville's Clarel. This book is the first to engage with the full range of American travel writing about nineteenth-century Ottoman Palestine, and the first to acknowledge the influence of the late-eighteenth-century Barbary captivity narrative on nineteenth-century travel writing about the Middle East. Brian Yothers argues that American travel writing about the Holy Land forms a coherent, if greatly varied, tradition, which can only be fully understood when works by major writers such as Twain and Melville are studied alongside missionary accounts, captivity narratives, chronicles of religious pilgrimages, and travel writing in the genteel tradition. Yothers also examines works by lesser-known authors such as Bayard Taylor, John Lloyd Stephens, and Clorinda Minor, demonstrating that American travel writing is marked by a profound intertextuality with the Hebrew and Christian scriptures and with British and continental travel narratives about the Holy Land. His concluding chapter on Melville's Clarel shows how Melville's poem provides an incisive critique of the nascent imperial discourse discernible in the American texts with which it is in dialogue. Contents: The emergence of the Levant in American literature: Barbary captivity narratives, oriental romances, and the Holy Land as Protestant trope; 'The all-perfect text': the skeptical piety of Protestant pilgrims to the Holy L Alternative orthodoxies: Clorinda Minor, Orson Hyde, Warder Cresson, and William Henry Odenheimer; 'Such poetic illusions': the skeptical oriental romance of John Lloyd Stephens, Bayard Taylor, George William Curtis, and William Cullen Bryant; Quotidian pilgrimages: Mark Twain, J. Ross Browne, John William DeForest, and David Dorr in Palesti 'As seen through one's tears': the 'double mystery' of place in Herman Melville's Clarel; Bibliography; Index. About the Author: Professor Brian Yothers is from the Department of English at The University of Texas, El Paso, USA. |
Contents
The Skeptical Piety of Protestant | 19 |
Clorinda Minor Orson Hyde | 43 |
The Skeptical Oriental Romance | 59 |
Copyright | |
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The Romance of the Holy Land in American Travel Writing, 1790–1876 Brian Yothers Limited preview - 2016 |
The Romance of the Holy Land in American Travel Writing, 1790–1876 Brian Yothers Limited preview - 2016 |
Common terms and phrases
Algiers allow American travelers appears argues associated Barclay becomes begins belief Bible biblical Browne captivity Catholic century chapter characters Christ Christian Church claim Clarel contemporary convert Cresson criticism critique culture Curtis DeForest describes devotes discussion distinction Dorr East experience expresses fact faith feel follows Holy Land Holy Land travel Holy Sepulcher idea identified important includes inhabitants Innocents Abroad interest interpretation Jerusalem Jewish John journey landscape less literary means Melville Melville's Minor narrative narrator nature nineteenth nineteenth-century American notes observes Odenheimer Oriental Orthodox Palestine particularly passage physical pilgrimage pilgrims pious poem points position present Prime Protestant provides readers reading reality refers reflection regarding relates religion religious represents response result Robinson sacred sites seeks seen significant skepticism slave specific spiritual Stephens Stephens's suggests Taylor Thomson throughout tradition travel writing turn Twain United Unlike various visited women writing