Both the novel and the American society correspond to the beginning of a modern era. America is a direct consequence of the Age of Reason (18th century).
Indeed, the first settlers intended to escape the tyrannical power of absolute monarchs.
The novel is also the result of a revolution :
- social revolution: when the middle class asserted its cultural autonomy
- ideological change that puts the single individual at the centre of the world
Yet, there are profound contradictions:
- America did not offer favourable conditions for the birth of the novel. The notions of class, love, and marriage are central to the novel.
- the 18th-century and 19th-century novels are about chasing a husband.
- the European novel favours a plot with a domestic story and marriage E.g.: Pride and Prejudice, Madame Bovary.
- the American novel avoids treating passionate relationships, focuses on male characters, and turns away from Society to Nature. E.g. Moby Dick, The Last of the Mohicans.
American novels dream of the innocence of the first settlers but Puritanism and the notion of guilt proved to be fundamental in American literature. This feeling of guilt included the rape of nature and the exploitation of the Natives.
The Lost Prairie
The early 19th century can be described as an American Epic. James Fenimore Cooper’s The Leatherstocking Tales gave America legend and myth.
The two main themes are:
- the settlement: how pioneers got used to a new life in the American wilderness;
- the frontier, which can be described as an ideal boundary between two cultures: the « civilized and cultivated » society, and « wild and lawless » tribes. The frontier is also a limit pushed further westward.
