LITR 5535: American Romanticism

Student Presentation on Reading Selections 2005

Monday 14 February: James Fenimore Cooper, N 460-469. Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans, through ch. 11 (through p. 110 Penguin edition); Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), N 1432-1440 (“Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences”); handout: D. H. Lawrence on Cooper's Leatherstocking novels.

selection reader / discussion leader: Phil Thrash

From: Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), N 1432-1440, (“Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offences”).

Objectives: 1. To show Twain’s dedication to the “American Realism” period of American Literature, the first period of “post Romantic” American literature.

                   2. To show Twain’s high disregard for his “romantic” predecessors, and Professors Lounsbury, Matthews, and Mr. Collins who regarded Cooper’s writings as works of art.

N pp.1432-1433.  Twain in his 1895 essay creates 19 rules (of his own making?)  governing “romantic fiction,” which were written 40 years after the “Romantic Period.”  Twain’s “rules” are humorous sarcastic critiques of Cooper’s style, and the romantic style of writing.  The Pathfinder and Deerslayer were written in 1840, 1841 when Mark Twain was 6 years old and James Fenimore Cooper was 52 years old.

N p. 1436. 2nd para. last sentence “The scow episode is really a sublime burst of invention; but it does not thrill, because the inaccuracy of the details throws sort of a fictitiousness and general improbability over it.”   Twain’s criticism seems to miss the romantic facet of “escape from reality,” and dwell on need for literature to comply with physical certainties and realistic details.

N p. 1438. 5th para. 5th sentence.  “Cooper is not a close observer, but he is interesting.”  Twain refers with sarcasm to Leatherstocking’s prowess with weapons.  Twain dismisses the romantic notions of the shooter’s skills, with the impossibility of the thing happening.

     Mark Twain was 60 years old in 1895, and Cooper had been dead for 44 years.   Mark Twain wrote primarily during the period of American Realism, from 1860s to the early 1900s.  He was aligned with William Dean Howells, who was the chief architect of the “War for American Realism.”  He and Howells had a symbiotic relationship, as Mark Twain submitted nearly all of his works to Howells for his extremely influential reviews.  In a letter dated 1885 from Mark Twain to Howells, Twain, wrote, “You are my only author; I would not give a damn for the rest…….I cannot stand Eliot, Hawthorne and those people; I see what they are at a 100 years before they get to it; and they just tire me to death.”

Conclusion:  Mark Twain’s essay reflects his penchant for “realism” and/or strict interpretation of realities, physical and natural, regarding person’s capabilities, and nature’s laws and their incorporation into literature.  He makes personal criticisms towards Cooper’s advocates, and Cooper himself to the point of what might be taken as personal insults to the living and disrespect for the long deceased Cooper.   Twain’s humor is showcased in his essay, but, at the expense of maybe taking the low path.

Questions:

     1.  What were some of Twain’s major criticisms of Cooper?

     2.   How did these criticisms reflect the differences between romanticism and realism?

     3.   Why did Twain pick Cooper for his essay?

     4.   What did Twain have to gain through this essay?