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LITR 4326
Early American Literature Research Posts 2016 (research post assignment) Research Post 1 |
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Austin Green
3/1/2016
Charles Brockden Brown
Long before enrolling in this class, I’ve had an interest in horror. Be
it film or literature, classic or modern. Looking over the description of the
course, I did not think we would touch upon any author who would fit into the
horror genre, so I was very much surprised when reading the syllabus to see an
image of the Blair Witch Project. Across from that image was one of Charles
Brockden Brown. Late last year I saw a film called Crimson Peak that piqued my
interest in the Romantic Era, which I’ve been reading in my spare time since.
Here we had an author listed under Early Romantic Era, and he wrote American
gothic. It instantly became, and still is, the portion of the class I’m most
looking forward to. I wondered where he was from and what his upbringing was
like. What was the reception to his work during his lifetime? Was he well known
and famous, or was his work forgotten about and only considered important after
his death?
The first source I located was pretty easy to find. It was Charles
Brockden Brown’s own author page on our course website (1). It gave good
information on his lifetime, including answering some of my main questions
almost immediately. While the information presented was all worthwhile, it was
done in very bullet point, basic fact style. Comprehensive in scale of his
lifetime, but not many details beyond the surface level. Onward I looked. My
next source was a research post previously done on Brown by a former student in
this class (2). I was hoping to find if they had any of the same goals in mind
with their post as I had with mine. This cemented some information provided in
the previous source, along with giving me more information on his success during
his lifetime.
My next source was an article from Humanities magazine (3) that detailed
what some of Brown’s contemporaries thought of him. It mentions famous British
authors of the time reading and responding to his work. I’m currently in a
British Literature class and having just studied John Keats and William
Wordsworth and many of the other authors mentioned, it was a nice surprise and
gave a good point of view of how his work was being received by these
contemporaries of his. It also provided more details of his life. This was
exactly what I had been looking for, and would really recommend reading it. My
last source was a biography of Brown I was able to locate online (4). While it
did not contain very much new information, it did finally provide me some of the
authors who influenced Brown.
Throughout my research for this post, I answered most of the questions I had
before starting it. I also found some information that helped me better place
him in time. Born in Philadelphia in 1771, he was only 4 or 5 when America was
formed. He grew up as the country did. While true he attempted to become
America’s first professional novelist, his novels originally gained success (in
limited terms) in Europe before America. And while Brown was known in some
circles during his lifetime, sales of his novels did not support a career as a
novelist. He moved from novels to journalism, and then out of literature
completely—a sad end to such an interesting writer. Time, however, has proven to
be on his side. People are still reading his works today. While he may have
stopped being a writer before his death, his work still continues to live on. I
look forward to delving deeper into Wieland, and its reception and
influence on future writers for my next post.
Bibliography:
1.
http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/xauthors/BrownCB.htm
2.
http://coursesite.uhcl.edu/HSH/Whitec/LITR/4231/models/rp/rp2014/rp1/rp1Trcezinski.htm
3.
http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2010/januaryfebruary/feature/our-founding-novelist
4.
http://www.anb.org/articles/16/16-00196.html
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